And so it begins

It is no big secret that the pansy printed wallpaper in our kitchen is not my style. Unfortunately, the previous owners loved it so much that they couldn't contain their wallpapering excitement to just the kitchen, nope, they kept right on going around the breakfast nook and all the way up the stairs.

We have dreams of someday renovating the entire kitchen- new floors, new appliances, possibly a whole new layout... but no matter when or what we end up doing to the kitchen, at some point the wallpaper will need to come down, and this weekend seemed as good a time as any to start. Even if a complete remodel is years down the road, a fresh coat of paint will give it a nice facelift for now.

Standing at the stove yesterday morning I gave a corner a tug, and peeled off a small section (white splotch where I started this project seen below). I decided to make my weekend goal to peel everything underneath the cabinets.

It took about five hours on Saturday to get from the stove around the corner and behind the refrigerator.

Be glad that I did not take a picture of the disgusting mess we found underneath the fridge when we pulled it out for me to squeeze behind. It was gross. If you can't remember the last time you mopped underneath your fridge, may I advise you that it's probably time and to expect a colony of dust creatures to greet you. Also, wallpaper behind a refrigerator!? I don't think that's necessary!

Today I spent about 3 hours doing the other side of the kitchen under the cabinets and around the door frame. Ta-da!

Of course it doesn't look much better than before with the discolored drywall showing, but it needs to get ugly before it can get better.

Before you congratulate me... I should point out that the other side of the room still looks like this:

I definitely did the easy part first and the much larger, more difficult section is left for another weekend, but I'm ok with that. We might even go ahead and paint under the cabinets before we tackle the rest of the wallpaper since we plan to paint a different color in the nook and up the stairs. Even knowing how much work is ahead, I'm still really excited to have taken the first step!