"He looks like a pink nightmare!"

If you can name the movie the title comes from, you get 10 points!
So apparently, in 1910, pink was all the rage. In every room that we have been able to get down to the original plaster walls, they have been found to be pink with an off-white section above the picture rail.
As if the blue walls with the "summer sailboat" wallpaper was not bad enough, then the "hippy flower" was found underneath that, which gave way to "stripes and plaids forever" underwhich we found "beige pattern dreams" and futher insult was added to injury when "iredescent stripes for the silver lover" was discovered under that. I found the first wallpaper (approx. 1920's), "beige with floral laurels" to be the least offensive of all of the wallpaper discovered in the master bedroom. The nightmare (the ceilings are 12 ft.) is over, as far as scraping wallpaper in the master is concerned.
Now we have to deal with what looks to be target practice inflicted on the walls, water stains originating from the early 1900's, a ceiling which begs to be taken down and put to rest and dealing with the wall that used to have two windows in it at some point.



Oh, and I forgot to tell you about the cloth STAPLED to the wall. Not just a staple here and there, a staple or 100 everywhere!!! I have never seen so many staples together in my life, but I digress.

So, what have I learned from this experience?

1. Crocks are not good to wear while standing on a ladder.
2. A good scraper is one of the most valuable tools known to man.
3. Wallpaper is evil. No exceptions.
4. NEVER staple cloth to a wall unless you are trying to create a dust mite farm.
5. When your roof has a leak, fix it. Now.
6. "A job worth doing is worth doing right." ~ Grumpus Lyons (I say that only because I am witnessing far too many "patch" jobs in this house. )
7. When renovating a house, double each estimated cost and triple all estimated "times of completion."
8. Don't nail anything into a plaster wall. Use the picture rail. That's why its called PICTURE rail.
9. Don't ever expect that filling a little hole in the wall will take only one try. It takes three to five. The hole doesn't care if you have been patching for over 2 hours.
10. Remodling, renovating, restoring and rejuvenating all have very separate and distinct meanings.

And the bonus tip:

Ebay is addictive and you don't need every light fixture listed, lest you might send your husband into convultions by telling him what you just bought and how much it costs. 'nuff said.