The Fabric Softener Fix for Stripping Wallpaper!

Posted on January 28, 2016August 6, 2019

On August 28, 2015, we finally closed on our home in Fruitport, Michigan. Being a short sale, Patrick and I had been waiting since late February of that same year to sign the documents, solidifying the closure. I knew it would be months before we could move in, even after the closure, but that was the least of my worries. We were inching closer to our ultimate goal of remodeling a home. Standing two stories tall, half brick-half vinyl siding, attached garage, on just shy of an acre, seven bedrooms, and three and one-half baths, we were eager to start our adventure in reconstructing and cosmetically reconditioning a three thousand square foot, 1970’s retro home.

A twenty foot dumpster had barely enough space for all the garbage and debris we removed from the home. White ceramic tile and soiled carpet had been pried and stripped from the floors; drywall torn down in the master closet, living room, basement, and upstairs spare bathroom; three layers of shingles had been removed from the roof surrounding the fireplace. Yet, despite all this, the most agonizing and time consuming demolition project was still ahead: the removal of the wallpaper!

Throughout the whole process, my most valuable resource was Patrick’s mom, Phyllis, and her sister, Aunt Diane. Thanks to their much-appreciated help, we were able to remove the majority of wallpaper from six walls, including the kitchen, two bedrooms, a master walk-in closet, and two bathrooms in two days time.

However, even though we got the job finished in the end, it wasn’t without some complications. In fact, after many “oops” and a bunch of experimentation as to what solutions and tools to use, it occurred to me that stripping wallpaper was going to take a lot more time and patience than I had anticipated. Who knew that dogs of all shapes and sizes holding balloons could be so intimidating? (see the photos!) It only took us three walls of peeling quarter-sized paper pieces, one-by-one before I was found myself ready to defeat.

It was around that time, at the moment of near despair, that we decided to shift gears and try something different.

After reading somewhere that fabric softener actually helped in the process of removing wallpaper, we decided to give it a try. After all, what was there to lose?

So, in a yellow garden Sprayer, we combined 1/2 gallon of SUPER hot water (though not quite boiling) with 1/2 gallon of fabric softener (we used the least expensive!) along with 1 cup of DIF Concentrate Wallpaper Remover.

Using a PaperTiger by Zinsser, I scored the wallpaper in circular motions. And here, I’d like to urge a little caution: I cannot stress how important it is not to press too hard when scoring. Using too much pressure with the PaperTiger can easily result in damaged drywall. Light to medium pressure works just fine.

To prevent damage to our sub floors, we used Blue Painter’s Tape to stick plastic sheeting to the top lip of all base boards to catch excess solution that dripped from the walls.

(On a side note: If you find yourself removing wallpaper in a room or setting where you’re concerned about using a garden sprayer, you can get the same effect by using a spray bottle filled with solution!)

Anyway, once we had all the prep work done, we sprayed our new solution onto the walls and let it sit for 20-30 minutes, then scraped it off using a variety of different wallpaper scrapers and putty knives.

The paper came off with remarkable ease and we realized we were finally closing in on finishing the project. A second application of solution was applied to clean what residual glue was left after the wallpaper had been peeled away. After a final wipe down using a sponge and hot water, the walls were left to dry.

Removing wallpaper isn’t typically an easy or fun project, but with the right tools, a little elbow grease, and the right team of determined women (in our case!) you can get it done in a short amount of time.

For us, when all was said and done, we celebrated our accomplishment with a well-deserved Mr. Scribbs pizza and I found myself considering the next step in this renovation!

Supplies Used:

Extremely hot tap water
Fabric softener (Any kind works: We used the least expensive)
DIF Concentrate wallpaper remover
Hand held 2 gallon garden sprayer
5-in-1 Hyde hand tool
Bucket of hot water
Large yellow sponge and bucket of hot water
Painter’s tape
Painter’s plastic
Ladder
Gloves
Lots of patience!!

3 Reasons Why Simply White Simply Works

Posted on January 12, 2016August 6, 2019

Photo by Bessler_2014

It’s old news, I know, but the color of 2016 is white. Yeah. White. Oh, technically it’s #OC-117 Simply White from Benjamin Moore, but, for all practical purposes, it’s white.

And that seems so profoundly . . . boring. White? The Benjamin Moore color system is home to over 3,500 bright, soft, wild, calming, deep, muted colors and the best they could come up with for 2016 was white?

A few months ago when the news came out, I thought it was crazy. The bold joke of some group of color professionals at Benjamin Moore who just didn’t care anymore. A group of people who, while sitting around sipping designer drinks, decided collectively: “let’s go into that meeting tomorrow and tell them white and see what happens! It’ll be hilarious!”

Yet, instead of being laughed out of whatever official color meeting took place, nobody got the joke and white was officially enshrined as the color of the year.

White?

That’s what I thought, anyway.

And then I saw some of the photos Benjamin Moore was using in their promotions. I read some of the explanations, the stories, the Narrative (with a capital “N”). And it started to make sense. Here are 3 reasons why I’ve changed my mind on Simply White.

Simplification

White simplifies. It declutters. It breathes a sense of calm, of peace, of cleanliness into a room. In this day and age of overwhelming visual stimulation, what’s needed most is often a simplification. A harbor. A space where visual overload isn’t allowed. A space where we can sit with a cup of coffee and the only distractions are the swirling snow outside the window and the gentle creaking of the hardwood when the furnace runs. White conveys that sense of calm, that sense of peace that is lacking in so much of our lives.

The Perfect Backdrop

White provides the perfect backdrop for all the other colors we use in our homes. As Ellen O’Neill, Benjamin Moore’s Creative Director, states in an interview with Architectural Digest: “When we were redesigning the showroom in the D&D Building, I said, ‘Just paint it all white because the story here is about all of our colors. And the best way to see those colors is in a white space.'”

What she’s getting at is this: white doesn’t compete for primacy. White’s content to take the backseat, to highlight another color, to direct all attention that way. In a space with white walls, any other color will gain strength, will stand out, can become the accent tone that gives a room it’s personality. And the beauty of it is that that color doesn’t need to be a vibrant orange, a deep blue, a dark red in order to do this. In a white room, that accent color can be as simple as a honey-hued stain on a couple of wood stools in a kitchen. Or the wooden beams on a ceiling. Or a slate gray countertop. Or a denim blue wall. Or a mossy green dresser. A white backdrop infuses each of these simple tones with a strength and a power in our decorating that they don’t have when surrounded by other colors.

Accommodating

Finally, white is imminently easy to work with. Working in a paint store and knowing the struggles many folks have when they try to find colors for their home, this is a very important point for me. Sure, design and style are important, but so is practicality. And Simply White is imminently practical. Why? Because it works in any decor. It adapts easily, fluidly, to whatever style you prefer. It can look rustic and it can look modern. It can work in a home where the desire is to create a lived-in, comfortable setting and it can work in a space where the goal is to create a pristine, almost clinical cleanliness. Few other colors are this accommodating. Few will look this good in so many settings with so little effort.

Making Home Feel Like Home

Benjamin Moore’s decision to make Simply White the color of the year was a bit of a surprise. And while at first it seemed like a choice devoid of serious thought, I’ve changed my mind. And on this particularly blustery winter day, I find myself drawn into the rooms in the photos. The simplicity, the clean lines, the natural tones…they make every one of those rooms feel, in a strange sense, like home. And that’s the point and power of paint, isn’t it? To take a space that’s wrapped in something as impersonal and cold as drywall and plaster and turn it into something that feels like home.

Q-Tip Touchups!

Posted on November 7, 2014August 6, 2019

Here’s a shortcut you can try next time you’ve got to touch up a few nail holes or wall dings in your home. Rather than get out a brush or a small roller and a tray, pick up a Q-Tip. Yes. I really mean one of these things:

Here’s the scoop: a Q-Tip is perfect for small touch up areas. You wouldn’t certainly want to do any large areas with it–that’s what rollers and brushes are for–but if you’d love a quick, painless method to touch up small nail holes, this is it. You just use it and toss it. No clean up, no mess. The small size of the touch up spot means it will easily blend in to the existing wall and, even if you’ve got a slightly larger area to cover, you can turn the Q-Tip on its side and use it as a micro-mini-roller. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but once you do, you’ll find out how easy this is for those quick touch ups!

My Shortcut to the Movie Theater

Posted on November 4, 2014August 6, 2019

“Century Theaters” by taviamcgrath is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Hey, we all love shortcuts, don’t we? At any rate, I love shortcuts. I love the idea that there’s a path, a way–a quicker way–to get from point A to point B than the path that everybody else is taking. Yeah . . . shortcuts are cool. At least, they’re cool when they work. When they don’t . . . we’ll that’s another story.

Years ago, I was attending a seminary in Kentucky and for the first time in my entire life (at least since I graduated from elementary school)–for the first time in my entire life since elementary school, I was cool and people actually wanted to be around me–even girls. Of course, it was all because I was one of the few people there who had a car and therefore that meant I could drive them places and drop them off at malls and restaurants and come back and get them later so they wouldn’t have to ride the bus or just stay home . . . but hey, like I said, girls wanted to ride in my car with me and whatever their reason, I wasn’t arguing.

Well, one particular day–a day I’ll never forget–ever–a group of us were driving to a movie theater. My friend Rick from New York was in the passenger seat and our friends Kate, from Australia, and Mallory from somewhere in the deep south were in the back seat. I, of course, was driving. And I was on top of the world. I was driving up and down through the hilly, horse-country of Kentucky. They skies were clear blue–cloudless–and I hung my arm out the window and felt especially suave as the wind whipped through my medium-length brown hair: I was a man with women in my car. And they were going to let me go to the movie theater with them. And actually sit by them when we watched the movie. It was a whole new world. And I was clipping along on the very top of it.

That is, until we crested the top of a hill and looked down on the main road that would lead us to the theater and we saw that there was a huge traffic back-up. We were already pushing the limits for time and with this back up, there was absolutely no chance we’d make the movie. Everybody groaned–of course, we were all seminary students, so nobody said anything bad–though, just to shatter your image of seminary students, nobody said “Praise the Lord” either. The girls were sad, Rick was sad and I was depressed. But then I remembered something. There was a short cut I had taken a few weeks ago when I was by myself and this same thing had happened. I had cut through a Piggly Wiggly parking lot, caught a back road and had discovered, on accident, the back entrance to the theater.

Those memories flashed through my mind in an instant and I quickly looked around as we were approaching the traffic jam–ahhh, there it was, the entrance to the parking lot I had cut through–I still had time to make it–If I acted fast.

I put both hands on the wheel, set my jaw, checked my rearview mirror and jerked the car to the right. One of the girls screamed in a high pitched squeel–“What are you doing?” I turned to answer her when I realized it was Rick screaming. The girls were just white-knuckling it in the back seat. I donned my most action-hero-like voice and grumbled “We’re taking a shortcut.” And then I looked in the rearview mirror and made eye-contact with Kate–the girl I was rather interested in–and I said (yes, this all happened)–I said, “I’ll get you to that movie, Kate–don’t you worry.” Oh yeah . . . I lived in some sort of bizarre imaginary world back then and you can see why having girls in my car was a new experience for me.

Anyway, like some kind of renegade cowboy, I nosed my little blue cavalier into that parking lot and I hit the gas. In moments, we were rocketing (at what seemed like 40 miles per hour or so) through that empty parking lot. We were driving past that traffic on the main road like it was standing still. When my passengers saw the driveway exit I was heading for and when they saw the movie theater sign, they got over their initial fear and actually cheered. The girls patted me on the back and said things like “good thinking!” Rick quit squealing and started rubbing his hands together as he estimated that we still had time to get in, get tickets, get popcorn and find good seats before the flick started.

We were riding high. It was moment I’ll never forget–I was the hero–I had navigated our vehicle around the gridlock and had brought us–against all odds–successfully and on-time to our destination. The girls were impressed. I was the captain of that vessel and, for that brief second, I was the captain of our destinies.

But then something happened–as usually is the case for me. You see, I made the mistake of looking into the rearview mirror as we were rocketing toward that driveway that would lead us to the theater. For just a second, I locked eyes with Kate and I winked. (Yeah, just call me John Wayne).

I winked to let her know I had done it–that I had known all along that we’d be fine–that I had made good on my promise to get her to that movie. All that in a little wink that lasted just a split second.

However, unfortunately, at the exact moment, I was winking into the rearview mirror, I should have been looking ahead. If I had, I would have seen the parking lot abutment that was approaching my car at a tremendous speed. You know what these things are right? I know you do, I just don’t know what to call them–they’re the short concrete bumps at the end of each parking space in some parking lots–nothing tall, but definitely something solid.

Anyway, My little blue car hit one of those going . . . I don’t know 20 mph . . . 30 mph . . . 10 mph . . . I have no idea . . . all I remember is that one second, I was winking and the next second my head was smashing into the roof of the car as it went airborne–Dukes of Hazzard style–over the abutment.

That moment was chaos in the car–the girls were tossed all over the place in the back seat, Rick started screaming again–squeeling in a high-pitched, annoying scream–and I . . . Dan Hansen, Seminary student . . . child of God . . . hollered out only one thing. It was a short word, but I said it loudly and really stretched it out (almost as if I were saying it in slow motion) and then, just to be sure I had adequately covered the situation, I said it 5 more times in a row.

Well, somehow, when the car came down, I managed to get it under control and bring it to a stop. Rick was crying, I was shaking and wondering if I had really said what I thought I said out loud. The girls were shaken up and Kate asked me what the heck I was thinking . . . though, again, to taint your image of seminary students, she didn’t use the word “heck.” (But she’s from Australia, so that’s ok. Honestly, I think they even use it in place of “Amen” when they say the Lord’s Prayer).

I tried to regain my composure, but it was impossible. I started edging my car slowly toward the parking lot entrance we had been driving toward before the abutment event, but now the car was making weird thumping and banging sounds. These were not coming from the radio. I checked.

They were coming from somewhere underneath the car. There were problems–big problems–with my car and I was all alone in Kentucky and I didn’t know where to bring it and my car was the only thing making me cool. I said to Rick that we should probably drop by a shop and see if they can find out what’s wrong with the car. The girls asked if we could drop them off at the theater while we did that. And I did. And that was the end of my brief stint as a cool guy on campus. Even after my car was fixed, I never regained cool status–I had been labelled as a moron on the road.

Seminary students can be so cruel.

Anyway, some shortcuts are great. Some really help you get through projects quickly or get to a given location faster than everybody else. Other ones make you look like an idiot, blow your chances with Kate from Australia and cost you about $700 in damage to your car.

Those are the shortcuts I take most often. Next time we’ll discuss how this relates to paint.

Cleaning a Deck is EASY with Benjamin Moore’s RESTORE and BRIGHTEN!

Posted on August 6, 2014August 6, 2019

Every now and then I stumble into a project that is easy and remarkably rewarding. This was one of them! We found an old deck that was slated for demolition and we decided to try out some of Benjamin Moore’s wood cleaning and brightening products. I expected the products to work, but the results were amazing!

The Inevitable Forgetting of Important Things

Posted on July 23, 2014August 6, 2019

My family and I just wrapped up another Little League season and among all the wonderful things that baseball season brings into our lives, there’s one thing that I could do without: the Inevitable Forgetting of Important Things.

There are a number of Capital Letters in that phrase, so let me explain: Whenever there was a baseball game on a week night, our evening would devolve into chaos quite quickly. I’d arrive home from work five minutes after the time we should have left. To get back on schedule, I’d typically eat dinner without chewing it while I changed my clothes and brushed my teeth. This was a multi-tasking miracle in regards to the number of tasks accomplished at once. However, because of the diverse nature of the tasks, it was also messy and somewhat disgusting. Still, it’s what was necessary to get to the game on time. So I did it.

Once that strange combination of eating/teeth brushing/clothes changing was done, I’d run out to the van, hop into the driver’s seat, turn the key and then, for the first time in the entire evening, I’d pause. Turning around, I’d stare each of the kids in the eye, hold their attention for a second or two, let the import of the moment sink into their little heads, and then I’d ask: “Do you have everything?”

It was a simple question. A question meant to jog their little memories. A question meant to make them ask the question in their own heads: “Do I really, truly have everything I might need for tonight’s athletic event?”

Instead, every time I asked the question, they’d respond immediately, with absolutely zero thought (and with some exasperation): “yes, dad”.

Well, I’ve got five children and the oldest two are 13, so this isn’t my first rodeo, so to speak. And so I would never let them off that easily: “You have everything? Really? How about your glove? Your hat? Your bat bag? Your bat? Your cleats?” I’d rattle off every single piece of baseball gear I could think of as they answered with an immediate “yes” to each item.

Finally, after what felt like a 30 minute deposition, I’d turn around in my seat, ease the van out of the driveway, and begin the journey to the baseball field. And every single time, after I was far enough away from home to make going back frustrating, I’d hear it start: the scuffling of their little fingers as they clawed through their bat bags looking for something.

I’d hope against hope every time I heard this that they were looking for a Mento. But no. After about 30 seconds of frantic scuffling, someone would nervously clear his throat as happened several nights ago:

“Uh, Dad?”

“Yes…” (through gritted teeth).

“Ummm. Funny thing . . . you know when you asked if we had everything and then listed off all the things?”

“Yes.”

“Well, you know what you forgot to list off?”

“No. What did I forget to list off?” (through gritted teeth again).

“Well . . . and this really is hilarious . . . you never asked me if I was wearing my cup.” At this point the kid usually breaks into nervous laughter and falls silent. No one else typically laughs at this point because they know trouble when they see it.

I try to keep my cool and clinging to a very unreasonable hope, I ask: “Are you wearing your cup?”

“Ummm. Not technically. I actually forgot it. We’ll have to go back and get it. But don’t worry. I’m pretty sure I know where it might be…”

Every time. Every game. Oh, sometimes they’d forget gloves. Sometimes, it was their bat. Maybe their hat, their sunglasses, their Gatorade . . . it doesn’t matter. Whatever it was they forgot, it was always something we’d have to go flying back to the house to retrieve.

And it drove me nuts, stressed me out, and got almost every single game night off to a rocky and uncomfortable start. All because we weren’t organized. All because we were starting something without having all the right equipment.

Well, the same thing often happens when we’re working on paint projects. We start the work and after we dip our expensive brush into a new gallon of oil-based paint, we realize we forgot to pick up paint thinner. Or we pour our paint into a tray and realize that the roller cover we had isn’t the right one for the project. Or–and this just happened to me a week or so ago–we run downstairs to grab that paint brush we’ve got in the basement only to find that we didn’t clean it out well enough the last time. Now it’s unusable and we’re standing there with our paint can open and no brush to apply it with.

When we forget to amass the right tools for our paint projects, we find the stress level rises quickly. Our schedules are thrown into chaos, and all too often (if you’re like me) we try to make things work using the tools we have, not necessarily the right ones. And usually, the results are frustrating and disappointing.

The good news about all of this is there’s a fix. At least for the paint project part of it (I don’t know how to fix the baseball stuff!). Anyway, the way to make sure you’ve got all the right tools for your next paint job is as simple as using a basic “Project Checklist”.

We’ve got one that you can download by clicking this link. It’s a simple tool that will help you mentally go through your project ahead of time. The list will recommend certain items and most of the time, you’ll discover one or two things you would never have thought to gather ahead of time.

Tackling a paint project can be a very rewarding and fulfilling experience. It can even be somewhat of a stress reliever–almost therapeutic in a way. Just make sure you’ve got all the items necessary before you start and you’ll discover how smoothly a project can go!