Washing Continues

In between collapsing fences and exploding sinks, I've been making slow but somewhat steady progress on the walls of the Accordion Room -- it helps that the weather has been miserable and anything I might have planned to do outside is not going to happen in this rain.

Before Christmas, I got most of the removed wallpaper into a trash bag using the trusty garden spade, which made moving around the room less dangerous. In the middle of the room is the pile of cut-up pieces of nasty paneling, currently acting as a small table for tools and so forth. We're undecided on whether to get ourselves a belated Christmas dumpster, but it might happen if other things fall into place, so the trash is sort of lingering in anticipation. If not, we have a couple of trash indulgences -- extra bag tags -- saved for situations like this.

And here we are, most of the way through washing:

You can sort of see the major limitation I have right now: height. On the little ladder I can get up to about a foot below the ceiling, but that's as far as I can reach without standing on the very top of the ladder (THIS IS NOT A STEP) and possibly falling to my death. So Noel is going to help me haul the bigger ladder upstairs, which might mean I can finish washing the walls in one more day of work.

As for how the washing goes, well, it's kind of boring. After scraping the majority of the paste off (it's the grey stuff here), there's still a thin layer and bits in cracks that need to be scrubbed off (upper left side is scraped, upper right side is unscraped, yellow part is scrubbed). So it's up on the ladder with warm water and a scrubbing sponge, washing away. And then when I get all the paste washed off I'll still have to go over the entire room with TSP substitute (after repairing all that plaster, of course).

The worst part of the process is the corners. Both the corners of the room and the corners between the wall and the molding, where the paste just sort of collects. They have to be scrubbed out, but it's no fun at all. I'm thinking of getting a toothbrush to reach in there; I think that will be a little more helpful than trying to squish the sponge in.

Tomorrow: more scraping and scrubbing.

Technorati Tags: plaster, renovations, wallpaper

posted by ayse on 01/08/08