rip it up

In a moment of Wednesday-evening insanity I decide to begin stripping my bedroom wallpaper. The second plasterer who came said he couldn't give me a proper quote until the wallpaper was off and the wardrobes removed, and I've had a fierce-looking wallpaper stripper standing by my bed for a week or so now, since the first plasterer came around. It was only a matter of time.

I slip the blade into the hideous purple textured wallpaper, and give it a little push. A spectacularly small piece of wallpaper comes away. I push a little more vigorously and a sucession of little bits come off. Most of the lower layers of wallpaper stay stubbornly attatched to the wall.

I push the blade under the lower layers of paper, determined to do a proper job. I doubt that plasterers will skim papery walls. A long strip of wallpaper peels away easily, and as it does so a little shower of something hits my head. Plaster. I have just pulled a six-inch wide strip of plaster off my wall, still attatched to the wallpaper. It seems that the wallpaper glue is stronger than the plaster underneath it. It is at this point I remember that wallpaper stripping is not amongst my favourite activities.

I take a deep breath, count to ten, and resign myself to stripping the plaster from my walls. I also decide that if I finish the bedroom this weekend, I'll start on the bathroom.

Then I might begin training as a plasterer.