Over the course of the last couple of days I've been working on stripping the rest of the interior of the house.
I began with the lower entryway that contains the stairwell. This one was quite a challenge given the confined space (thankfully I have long, thin fingers!). Still, it's obvious whoever built this house wallpapered prior to nailing everything together because there is actually paper at the BACK of the stairwell. I've done my best to reach all of it but frankly, I don't think I will ever manage to remove it all.
I've left the electrical panel hanging as I'll move on to deconstructing that after I manage to remove all of the papers. Here's the room during and after clean-up:
From that point, I moved to the remaining lower room with the red paint. I can only guess it was a child who tried to paint it as they got it on the baseboards. On the plus side, they did me the favor of removing the wallpaper prior to painting! Here, two shots, one as it came to me, and the next with the baseboards removed (it was already missing a couple baseboards on the left):
As you can see, there was a greenish hued paper under the baseboards, which might have been what the original wallpaper looked like. Hard to know for certain.
Anywho, a couple shots after clean-up (this is the room that required great care due to the worry of possible lead paint):
At this stage, I tried to move on to the upper right room but, after removing the baseboards, encountered some excruciatingly difficult paper. There's so much going on with this room I don't know where to begin. Checkered print under the baseboards, strawberry paper, some of it painted over (quite poorly) in green, and then also some ivory sections of paper. Too much to take a guess at what was going on here. Again, thinking it was a child's attempt at redecorating:
I decided I'd finish up the two rooms on this side of the house at the very end since they're similarly terrible and instead moved over the to upper interior hallway. So, another confining space:
Turning to the opposing side of the dollhouse. The lower right room:
Then on to the only interior hallway on this side:
The minty green paper under the baseboards once more!
The left lower room:
I next moved to the upper left room. There's no interior hallway on the upper section of this side so the two rooms are a little larger:
On to the final right upper room:
This room has a blue papered interior under the baseboards. Also, whatever that ring is on the flooring paper sadly remained stained into the wood once removed:
Returning to the original side of the dollhouse, two rooms left. My goodness, they were just as I imagined they'd be. The worst!
I started with the upper right room I'd begun earlier but abandoned due to its obvious challenges. I knew I would need to be prepared with renewed energy before I took these final two on:
And finally, the upper left room:
That light blue paper under the baseboards again!
Now, this is just a first "cleaning." I can already see some areas where I missed some paper or that continue to be sticky here and there. For now though, I'm letting everything dry and settle and will then go back in for a second, closer look.
Without further ado, a side by side comparison of the original interior vs. the cleaned up versions:
The five room side:
The six room side:
And just a close-up picture of each of the two sides after clean-up:
Next up, remove the electrical, additional interior clean-up, and onto the exterior paper and trim removal!
I began with the lower entryway that contains the stairwell. This one was quite a challenge given the confined space (thankfully I have long, thin fingers!). Still, it's obvious whoever built this house wallpapered prior to nailing everything together because there is actually paper at the BACK of the stairwell. I've done my best to reach all of it but frankly, I don't think I will ever manage to remove it all.
There were no baseboards to remove in this tiny room, but when I removed the electrical panel, I got my first real view of the original wallpaper! Pink and white and flowery! It's possible these might have been the wallpapers released by Hobbies at the time it was constructed. I had a look over on the Dollhousespastandpresent website where I initially learned of the lineage and it seems possible, at the very least. I could be totally wrong though.
But you be the judge:
I've left the electrical panel hanging as I'll move on to deconstructing that after I manage to remove all of the papers. Here's the room during and after clean-up:
From that point, I moved to the remaining lower room with the red paint. I can only guess it was a child who tried to paint it as they got it on the baseboards. On the plus side, they did me the favor of removing the wallpaper prior to painting! Here, two shots, one as it came to me, and the next with the baseboards removed (it was already missing a couple baseboards on the left):
Anywho, a couple shots after clean-up (this is the room that required great care due to the worry of possible lead paint):
At this stage, I tried to move on to the upper right room but, after removing the baseboards, encountered some excruciatingly difficult paper. There's so much going on with this room I don't know where to begin. Checkered print under the baseboards, strawberry paper, some of it painted over (quite poorly) in green, and then also some ivory sections of paper. Too much to take a guess at what was going on here. Again, thinking it was a child's attempt at redecorating:
I decided I'd finish up the two rooms on this side of the house at the very end since they're similarly terrible and instead moved over the to upper interior hallway. So, another confining space:
Turning to the opposing side of the dollhouse. The lower right room:
Under the baseboards, that pink and white flowery print once again!
Then on to the only interior hallway on this side:
The minty green paper under the baseboards once more!
The left lower room:
I next moved to the upper left room. There's no interior hallway on the upper section of this side so the two rooms are a little larger:
On to the final right upper room:
This room has a blue papered interior under the baseboards. Also, whatever that ring is on the flooring paper sadly remained stained into the wood once removed:
Returning to the original side of the dollhouse, two rooms left. My goodness, they were just as I imagined they'd be. The worst!
I started with the upper right room I'd begun earlier but abandoned due to its obvious challenges. I knew I would need to be prepared with renewed energy before I took these final two on:
And finally, the upper left room:
That light blue paper under the baseboards again!
Now, this is just a first "cleaning." I can already see some areas where I missed some paper or that continue to be sticky here and there. For now though, I'm letting everything dry and settle and will then go back in for a second, closer look.
Without further ado, a side by side comparison of the original interior vs. the cleaned up versions:
The five room side:
The six room side:
And just a close-up picture of each of the two sides after clean-up:
Next up, remove the electrical, additional interior clean-up, and onto the exterior paper and trim removal!
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