Getting ready for the weekend

[concertinette]

We’re having some unknown number of people over to help us out with wallpaper on Saturday. I’m happy to have the help, but I’m suddenly freaking out over how to manage it all. Are we totally dumb for wanting to get (at least most of) the paper down - even off off walls we’re probably going to end up drywalling over? We want to know the real condition of the wall, see where the patches are, figure out if we can flatten out bulges in the old plaster, etc.... I can come up with all sorts of things to vaguely justify the extra work, but part of it is just a niggling perfectionism that says “you don’t wall up crap just because you don’t feel like dealing with it”. Though some would advocate just slapping up drywall over the lovely corded-texture pink wallpaper, I’m not sure about dealing with the knowledge that it’s lurking pinkly back there, waiting to spring out at the next unsuspecting electrician. Later owners of the house would ridicule us for halfassedness. Does taking the wallpaper out make it somehow “better”? Not noticeably, though it will make it genuinely easier around the woodwork. Also the faint possibility of cutting enough wall out to install insulation while we're in there.

Anyway, the weekend - not sure yet how I’ll manage the four papered rooms with one steamer and one good sprayer, among N people, either. People might bring us spares, and we’ve got non-wallpaper tasks on the list, too, so that’ll help with tool allocation. I'm currently making lists, and I suspect I’ll spend a large portion of the day itself running around, answering questions, and feeding people. Reminds me of getting married.