Wallpaper Rehash

Back in August and September, I wrote on 4 occasions about the trials and tribulations related to the wallpaper for the kitchen of our new home.  You would think I had said everything there was to say about wallpaper.  Oh, how I wish!


The home we recently vacated is almost emptied out and cleaned up.  The real estate agent plans an Open House for this coming weekend, and I decided that two of the rooms in the house really could use some fresh paint and paper in order for the house to look its best.  I certainly was not going to go through all the hassles of ordering paper as described in the earlier posts, so I went to a different store that has loads of wall-coverings in stock.


Last week I hired someone to strip off old paper.  Then I caulked and spackled and sanded and scrubbed and primed.  I painted the ceilings and woodwork.  This week on Monday, I papered the room that had been my den.  Today I arrived at the house by 9 AM to paper the master bathroom.


When I purchased the paper, the owner of the store told me that it was a really nice paper...it went on the walls easily and was great to work with.  But, I hadn't noticed that it was not prepasted paper.  So this morning when I opened a roll in order to see the directions, I realized I needed paste.  The directions said to ask the wallpaper supplier for the correct paste.  I drove back to the store and asked the clerk.  She gave me the appropriate paste, or so she thought.


The directions said to roll the paste on the wall with a paint roller.  This did not intimidate me, because about 15 years ago, I learned this technique from a professional.  It had worked so well, that I was looking forward to speedy progress.  I got myself all set up and began the task.  Forty-five minutes later, I was putting the first length of paper on the wall for the fourth time.  I just could not get the paper to lay smoothly and stick tightly around the edges.


Although not satisfied, I thought I would see if I did any better on the second piece.  The repeat on the pattern was supposed to be at 27.3 cm.  I could easily identify some small triangles in the pattern that were this distance apart, but I absolutely could not figure out what they were supposed to match on the edge of the next sheet of paper.  I slid the two edges past each other over and over again.  The match just never looked right.


I ripped the first sheet off the wall, stuffed it in a trash bag, picked up the unopened rolls and headed back to the store.  I told the clerk and the manager that this paper was the absolute worst I had ever worked with, and I wanted to return it.  They didn't argue with me, but said I should have put the paste on the paper instead of on the wall.  Of course, the directions very specifically said to put the paste on the wall  AND there was the little matter of matching the pattern.


I picked out a different paper and headed back to the house.  By this time, I had wasted two hours and was beginning to despair of completing the project today.


Joy and delight!  The paper I picked as my second choice was wonderful...as close to infinitely better as anything in this world could be.  It went on the walls smoothly, the pattern was easy to match and it even cut easily and cleanly with the razor blade...no ragged ripping....just nice clean zipping.


The master bathroom is a very spacious room with lots of tricky cutting in, so I didn't finish until well after 5 PM.  I came home exhausted and my back is killing me....I've spent the evening with the heating pad.


I am oh-so-happy, and I am NOT planning to wallpaper again for a very long time....maybe not ever.

The End of the Wallpaper Saga...I hope

The replacement wallpaper finally arrived late yesterday.  I asked for 5 rolls, although I only needed two, because after all that has happened, I figured the odds were good of something being wrong with one or more of the replacements.  They only sent two....claimed that's all they had to send.


The red, blue, gold and background beige in the paper matched just fine.  The green?  Oh, my.  The green does not match the green in the original rolls which are already on the walls.  I pondered this sad fact overnight.  Finally, I decided to go ahead and use the paper even though the match isn't great.  


The original paper had gone around the entire dining area of the kitchen.  On one side the seam where the change occurs will be along the side of the frig and hidden from view.  On the other side, I'm hoping that between an air conditioner, intercom box and adjacent curtains, there will be enough to look at in that area, that guests won't notice the lack of color match.  Also, there is no area where the green on one sheet butts up against the green on another.  Plus, the border kind of unifies the whole thing.


So I spent the day up and down the ladder over and over finishing the job, including the border.  It really does look lovely.  A few minor mistakes will probably be noticed only by me. I know where I cut corners and cheated a bit.  The border covers some of my mistakes.


It's not perfect, but it is done.  I do like perfection, but I have come to recognize how rarely it is achieved in this world.

The Wallpaper Saga-Part 3

I refer you to the previous posts regarding my wallpaper woes.

When I posted Part 2, I anticipated the paper being sent by the fastest possible means.  Monday I called and was told by the local store that it should arrive Monday or possibly Tuesday, i.e. today.  But, today I was informed that they do have a tracking number, and it will arrive.....Friday.
Oh, joy and delight....Friday is the day we are scheduled to move.
I guess we will move everything but the kitchen and the bedroom.  We will eat and sleep in our present house until I can get the paper on the walls of the new kitchen.  Then we will finish the move.  Good thing we are only moving about 2 miles away.
I guess I am supposed to be thrilled that they are planning to give me a $34 credit as compensation for all my trouble over this paper.
I wish they had spent that $34 on the cost of overnight shipment!
No, wait, that would have actually made sense.
What was I thinking!

The Wallpaper Saga-Part 2

I am not by nature a patient and gracious individual.  Today I have been stretched to the absolute limits of my endurance.  I can't begin to explain how badly I wanted to scream and throw things.

A quick review of the previous "Wallpaper Saga:"

*paper was ordered in June

*all but 6 rolls came in 7-10 days

*6 rolls were back-ordered...unfortunately, this is the kitchen wallpaper...the kitchen being the one room in a house that you really don't want to have in an unfinished state when you move in.

*oh, gee....the paper is not actually printed yet

*the wallpaper is printed but the company re-sends the border instead of the paper

*paper to be shipped on a Monday, still not shipped on Thursday

*paper is in Florida...why?????

*paper shipped, but arrives after I leave for Chicago

I came back from Chicago on Monday, but the young lady who is working with me wasn't available to help until today (Thursday).  This morning I dressed in my "grubbies" and went to the new house expecting to jump right into the papering.  It turns out that the person who was supposed to clean all the old yellow paste off the walls had not done so, and the person who was to have filled nail holes, etc. had done a lousy job.  By the time these issues were taken care of it was afternoon.  Still in good spirits, I began the task.  Things were humming along nicely.  I had two double rolls of paper up and looking great.  Then I opened the third double roll.

Oh, NO!  The colors on the third roll were decidedly different than the colors on the first two rolls.  I opened all six rolls.  Although all had the same run number, two of the rolls were different than the other four.  The difference was way too obvious to ignore.  All of the color tones were lighter on two of the rolls and some of the leaves were yellow instead of green.

I took the two "off" rolls and one of the others for comparison back to the store from which they were ordered.  When the clerk saw me and the look on my face, he said, "Oh, NO!"  My sentiments exactly.

So I have pleaded for delivery by the most rapid means possible....I think they owe me that.

I did not swear.

I did not yell.

I did not belittle anyone.

I did not threaten anything.

I did not cry.

I think I will now go upstairs and throw pillows at the wall.

The Wallpaper Saga

Although I do like wallpaper, it is much easier to repaint a room than to repaper.  So, in redecorating our new house, I chose to only paper walls which already had paper on them.


When I hired the handy man to do the work, I asked if he painted and papered.  He said that he did, but over the next couple of weeks, I began to realize that I knew more about papering than he did.  He was planning to have his daughter help him, but eventually I figured out that she too had very little experience.


Meantime, I ordered the wallpaper necessary for the rooms that had paper on them....22 double rolls, over $1000 worth.  Most of the paper arrived in less than 10 days.  However, while the border for the kitchen was delivered, the paper for the kitchen walls wasn't.  A call to the store from which I had purchased it revealed that it was "back ordered," and would be shipped in a couple of weeks.  The couple of weeks passed and a further call indicated that the paper was not even printed, but was scheduled for printing this past week and was to be shipped on Friday.


By this time, most of the ceilings and woodwork had been painted, so it was time to begin papering.  I told the young lady who was working with her dad at the house, that I would do the first room with her and see how she did.  Although she caught on quickly to the actual application of the paper, I did not have confidence that she would be able to measure accurately and match the patterns.  I resigned myself to working with her.
First, we did a bathroom.  We were one piece short...my fault.  I knew when I ordered 2 double rolls that I was cutting it close, and that if things didn't match up conveniently I was probably in trouble.  Worst case scenario prevailed, and I had to order an additional roll.


I placed the order while home for lunch, then went back over to the new house and papered all afternoon.  When I got home there was a message to call the store.  The person I needed to talk to was gone, so I called again the next day.  They wanted me to come in and put a deposit down on the paper.  I was NOT pleased.  I have shopped at this store for 35 years and have an account there.  I had just ordered 22 rolls which were entirely paid for, although 6 were back ordered and not yet in my possession, but they wanted a deposit on one stinking roll!  If I wanted to be treated that way I could shop at certain other big chain stores.


The papering endeavor continued.  As of Thursday, we had done all of the rooms we had paper for...two bathrooms, a dining room, the entry and a long hallway with lots of doors requiring lots of cutting in.  On Friday, I came home from doing some school-shopping with my granddaughter and found a message from the store..."Your border is in."


I called the store.  The manager cheerfully greeted me and asked, "How are you today?"
I said, "I will be better when you tell me that you misspoke, and that it isn't the border you have, but the paper for the walls."
After a very long time on hold, he came back on the line and informed me that sadly the company had reshipped the border and it was now too late in the day to send out the paper.  It will be shipped on Monday.


Good grief!


I did tell him to hang on to the border, in the event, which I am beginning to believe is quite likely, that the color on the border I already have is not a good color match with the just printed paper. Sometimes dyes vary enough that one needs to be concerned about such.  That would be the crowning blow if the paper arrived and didn't really match the border.


It will be a long time before I want to paper again.