Hi All,
Have you done it yourself? Was it hard? Did it ruin the wall behind it? How about the counters, did they get damaged in the process?
I am contemplating taking this on during spring break. I would love to remove the hideous wallpaper and paint and re-do the backsplash with a more modern design...I am thinking about those cool flexible glass tiles you can buy and cut with an Exacto-Knife or a pair of scissors? I am sure you guys have seen those...
I am not afraid of doing the work...I am afraid of ruining something and having to dig into the bank account! We do not have a ton of $ to spend on this project but would love to do it this spring! *My wonderful in-laws are replacing our deck and our old glass slider off the kitchen/dining room at this time and seeing how some demolition will be taking place and we will have to do the wallpaper anyway, it seems logical to do it all at once.
My kitchen is huge and it is one of the 3 best features of my house...any and all upgrades will be an excellent investment!
Any and All input appreciated!
~One more question...my MIL has said that new window treatments are included in the gift...would it be rude/greedy of me to suggest/ask for the more expensive sliders with the built in blinds as opposed to separate window treatments? Hubby and I have looked and it seems like the doors with the 'built in' blinds are about $300 more expensive and I am unsure of the price for good thick curtains (I think this is what she is thinking) or blinds?
Thanks Guys!
The backsplash tile appears to be REALLY stuck on there and I do not know what is behind it?
My ENTIRE house is wall papered...seriously! No joke, top to bottom...every room...wall papered!
Ugh!
Even if you have to pony up the money for the blinds in the slider--do it. The vertical blinds are a real PIA (as you may know) and I've tried curtains, a valance, you name it. I think it's worth it but it may be a little presumptuous to ask for that upgrade.....only you guys know them.
I'm a visual learner. So, I've found a lot of helpful demonstrations on youtube. Everything from computer repair to drywalling. Not sure if it would help, but here's a link to a search I put in: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=removing+back...
Also, you can guess what might be back there by the age of your house and the time period of any remodels that occurred after the original construction. Most of the walls in our house are paneling. Yuk. At some point, someone had added bathrooms. Plastic tile stuck with a serious, nasty glue directly onto plywood. Not awesome. We scraped off the tile and any glue we could and then used joint compound over the glue (to make the wall flat again), put on an oil primer and then put a glass tile backsplash onto that. Had it been paneling or drywall, we would have just riped it out and replaced it with fresh stuff (too much damage from the tile removal). The plywood was in good enough shape to allow our renovations without going deeper into the walls. We were also able to lay green bored directly onto the plywood, and then properly procure and tile over that for areas that were going to have more moisture.
your kitchen tile is stuck to your wall with concrete ( mortar and grout) and probably chicken wire it will not come off easily you will have to break it or chip it off with a hammer and chisel then probably replace the drywall behind it since it will come off in big chunks and probably ruin the wall itself. Then you will have to put new tile the little squares still have to have mortar behind them and grout between them this is not an easy task. My husband is a builder so we have remodeled many houses check out the DIY network sometimes they are helpful.
Here is a website that gives good tips for removing wallpaper.
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/getting-to-know-wal...
As far as the window treatments - why not ask for the built in blinds. If you have kids it's much safer. Also, good window treatments for sliders can run well over $200.
Good luck with your project.
Have never done it, but have been tempted to...I think that you could suggest that you like the upgraded window treatments, see if they offer, and if not, offer to pay the difference, if you are in a position to do so.
Do you have tile or paneling or is it just wallpaper? Also, what kind of wall is it-drywall or plaster? We have some really old paneling in my kitchen. I removed parts of it because it was so worn. Well on one wall the plaster cracked and we will have to have someone in to fix it this, putting in drywall in that spot, later this year since patching just is not working (walls in the kitchen are all plaster). The other wall is a little rough but okay. When we moved in there was just paper and it came off no problem and no damage except for normal cracks that could be skimmed with drywall goop and sanded. We have an ugly ceramic tile backsplash that was a do-it-yourself job by some previous owner and I do know that removing it will require us to repair the walls.
