All of my ideas about how I was going to do a really simple kitchen renovation and do things a bit at a time are flying out the window.  That’s thanks to my enthusiastic children asking, “Can we do this?  What about this?” 

 One of the things that they asked about doing was removing the wallpaper borders in the kitchen.  Eventually I wanted to do it, but for now they will still look fine with the new cabinets, so I didn’t see the point of doing it and having unsightly peeling paint that I would then need to repaint right away.

But then they pointed out that it would be easier to do it now, before the cabinets are up, and when we realized that the cabinets would cover the bottom inch of the borders, I agreed to let them go wild ripping it off.  Turned out it wasn’t as easy and fun as they expected, since it came off in tiny pieces. When I noticed what was going on, I suggested a way to make it easier that I remembered reading about sometime.  I gave them a spray bottle with water and told them to spray the wallpaper and let it sit for a few minutes.  I love when some isolated bits of info that I have floating around in my brain come in handy!)  They tried it, and were able to easily peel off the wallpaper, which was lots more effective and fun for them.  And the bonus for me is that hardly any paint peeled off and I don’t have to tackle the painting right away!