Are you still workin’ on that?

This is almost embarrassing. But it's the reality. We still haven't finished our remodeling work.

Oh, the whole upstairs is done, except for the light fixture over the "new" staircase. The walls are all painted, the floor and stairs are all varnished. It's all furnished, and we are living up here. It's where my computer is, and where I am right now. We still haven't hung things on the walls yet, but we'll get that done before summer.

This week I stripped the old wall paper
off these walls and part of the ceiling.

The part that isn't done is the stairwell, landing, and hallway downstairs. It's that old wallpaper. After Walt injured his neck last fall while he was painting the upstairs ceiling — he had to wear a special collar to immobilize his head and neck for about a month — and then I badly sprained my ankle a few weeks later, the work ground to a halt.

I'm just getting back to it this week. It's not fun, but fortunately there's not a lot left to do. It's the wallpaper on the ceiling that is the biggest problem. The walls are easy — I spritz soapy water onto the ugly old wallpaper, wait a couple of minutes, and then scrape the paper off with a wide putty knife.

The old wallpaper you can see in this photo
is all that's left now.

The paper fairly falls off the wall at that point. A lot of it comes off in big wide strips. I did a whole section of wall a couple of days ago. It only took me a couple of hours.

The ceiling is a different story. First, it's hard to spray it, because spray bottles like to be held upright. Otherwise, they don't work the way you want them to work. And then the liquid you spray on the ceiling drips down on your head and clothes, and into your eyes if you're not careful. And remember, you're balanced precariously on a stepladder.

Stripping wallpaper off the ceiling is not a lot of fun.

Well, it's nearly done. I might even finish the job this morning. You can see from the pictures that I don't have a lot left to do. It's only taken us about eight years to get rid of all that tired old paper. Painting the walls will be easy, once they are prepped.