Summer project #1

Madison didn't want to unload until she'd made room in her bedroom and desk for the four years of stuff she'd brought back from North Carolina. This did not get unpacked until Tom finally had enough and did the deed, putting everything into the garage until we could get to it. I only offered to assist with her project to move things along.

I was not much help when it came to hurrying because after Madison left that first year, I rearranged the crap I'd inherited from my mother, and a ton of stuff was shoved into Madison's closet. That meant we had to pull out all of that stuff first. Madison's closet is the biggest one in the house, so just that part alone took up most of one day. Going through those boxes led me to my own closet and more containers, and by the end of the first day, we had four bags of donations and several bags of trash.

Madison's room is still the same motif from when I re-decorated it when she was five. We went from Winnie-the-Pooh to Little Mermaid, and she has been adamant about not changing it. Until now. Seeing as how agreeable she was, I decided during a lull, to start removing the wallpaper border around her room. I'm a wallpaper removal expert. I've removed all the wallpaper in my own house. I removed the wallpaper in my friend's large house after she bought it. I recently removed the wallpaper in SueG's kitchen. A border would be nothing!

Except that is was.

I'm not sure what I used to stick that stuff, but it isn't coming off. NOT. AT. ALL. The backing has adhered to those walls like super glue. I've tried Internet suggestions, including Downy and hot water. I purchased a scorer and spray. I've used razor blades that only succeeded in removing parts of the wall. Nothing is working.

Madison: "This isn't what we're supposed to be doing anyhow, so let's leave that for now."

Only it taunted me. Every time I felt the need to sit and take a break from donating and tossing, I peeled wallpaper. Or tried to. I'd get the top layer off, but the bottom layer was determined not to budge. I became a woman obsessed until Tom's nightly check of our progress irritated me enough to relegate it higher on my list of projects down the road.

Now it taunts me from the list. Summer project #2.