Our wallpaper strategies are evolving. This is a two-person job, really, especially if we want it done soon, before we move. We are learning more each day about how to do this, and I think we have it down now. We tried vinegar and store-bought enyzyme glue dissolving solvents. The thing that has worked the best for us is fabric softener mixed with warm water in a large pump spray bottle. One third softener, two thirds water.  One person scores the wallpaper lightly with a scorer – that is me.The fabric softeners smells a lot better than vinegar or solvent.

Another (Maria) waits five minutes or so until the paper softens and the glue begins to dissolve,  and then gently slips a scraper under the wallpaper and slides it off.  The scraper must be used gently, as if the wall were glass. Otherwise there are holes in the plaster. A drop cloth or tarp is important, as the wallpaper has glue and other residue on it and can damage the wood floors. We pick a section at a time, and then the sprayer (me) continuously sprays the wallpaper and scores it again with the roller when it gets soft, all the better to spread the solvent into the glue. We have three layers of wallpaper in the living room.

Once we got rolling, it went more quickly. We did a third of the room tonight, and hope to finish scoring and scraping by the end of the week. Then Ben will sand and spackle and Maria and I will put on two coats of off-white, beige paint. This is a physical task and it actually requires much more ease and patience than one might think. You have to to easy, let the solvents work, and the key is spraying, spraying, spraying. It helps to have an obsessive wife also. She loves this stuff. And so, to our surprise, do I. Might go back at it tomorrow evening.