Doing is Much Easier than Undoing

Last week I came to the conclusion that there are many things in life which are much easier to do than to undo. One such thing is wallpaper. I spent the week helping my best friend remove wallpaper from her kitchen and bathroom. When she put it up (17 years ago) it went on quite easily especially since she paid someone to do it and it hid the nail heads that were beginning to pop on the wallboard seams.

My Grandpa Clarence used to put up wallpaper as a young man. I remember him doing the paper in the music room at our home on Circle Way as a not-so-young man. It was fascinating to watch. It didn’t look too hard, maybe a little awkward maneuvering the long pieces and making sure they were straight but not particularly difficult.

Removing wallpaper is another thing altogether. While I do not share my sister’s view that wallpaper should be against the law or that people who put it up should be shot, I do agree that anyone who is considering putting up wallpaper should be required to spend a day removing it before they are allowed to put it up. It is a nightmare to remove.

We started in the bathroom. It was a vinyl coated paper and once started, the top layer came off quite neatly in complete sheets. The paper layer beneath it was fairly easy to remove with a diluted solution of DIF and a putty knife. For one thing, the paper layer was cream colored and the wall beneath was white so it was easy to see where the paper had not been removed. Once we finished the bathroom we were feeling pretty good about the prospects of completing most of the rest of the task. Then we moved to the kitchen…

The wallpaper in the kitchen was not vinyl coated and the paper layer under the top layer was white (the same color as the wall) and impossible to see. The top layer did not come off in nice sheets but was removed in pieces resembling carrots—some large carrots but a lot of baby carrots. There was great celebration when a piece the size of notebook paper came off but that was rare. It required a lot of scoring, steaming, soaking, and scraping much to the detriment of the wallboard beneath. She would probably have been better off just to put up new wallboard over the wallpaper since what is left will require so much repair work that is it hardly worth it. If you didn’t know better you would think that someone had committed a random act of vandalism in the kitchen. In fact, spray paint could only improve the look.

Fortunately she does not plan to do the repainting herself but will hire someone to repair our vandalism, paint it and make it look beautiful once again.

Here are a few other things that are much easier to do than to undo: marriages, childhood, bad habits (or any kind of habit for that matter), a dirty house, a cold or flu, and sewing. I guess the most obvious thing that belongs on the list is sin. That’s one that requires you to “hire” someone to repair it and make it look beautiful again.