John Beckett's Real Estate Blog

Many times, wallpaper is applied over old wallpaper, so stripping down to the bare wall takes patience. The key is in dissolving the glue with moisture. You can rent steamers for this, but I’ve found this technique works just as well.

Step 1: Prepping the wall

Spread out the drop cloth to protect the floor. Run the scoring tool in a circular motion over the wall to create small holes in the wallpaper.

Step 2: Applying the stripper

Put on your safety glasses and rubber gloves. Pour some of the stripper into the plastic paint tray and use the roller to “paint” the stripper onto the wall; really saturate it. The stripper will seep through the holes and dissolve the glue. Leave it alone for the amount of time indicated on the stripper label.

Step 3: Removing the wallpaper

Use the wallpaper scraper or drywall knife to peel away the paper and throw it away. Be careful not to damage the drywall as you scrape. If there’s more than one layer of wallpaper, you might have to remove them one at a time.

Step 4: Cleaning up

Use a wet sponge to completely clean off any remaining glue.

What you’ll need

• Drop cloth
• Serrated scoring tool, such as the Paper Tiger
• Safety glasses
• Rubber gloves
• Wallpaper stripper
• Plastic paint tray and foam paint roller
• 4-inch wallpaper scraper or drywall knife
• Garbage bags
• Large sponge
• Bucket of water

Time and talent
For a small room, set aside a full day to complete the job. If the wallpaper comes off easily, you’ll barely break a sweat. If not, you’ll be cursing the previous homeowners by lunchtime.

Read at: http://realestate.msn.com/listarticle.aspx?cp-documentid=24219368

You’ve probably seen good gardens and great gardens, and maybe you are a little mystified by the difference. Gardeners often are surprised to find that, after they’ve installed a stunning — and expensive — collection of plants, their garden is just blah. That’s because, oddly, a garden with only plants is boring. Too many plants, when they aren’t separated and organized by hardscaping, can be just too much for the eye to take in. When you add a big rock, a bench or a curving path to a profusion of plants, suddenly the garden has a story to tell; it draws people in. The most memorable gardens are those with internal structure .Hardscape elements include paths, lighting, fences, stone walls, gates, benches, pergolas, arbors, trellises, rockeries, terraces, patios, decks, fountains and other water features, large landscaping rocks and boulders, sculpture and ornaments, containers, raised beds, planters and even edging around flower beds. Thoughtfully installed, garden bones enhance your property’s value by giving it an attractive, finished look. Hardscaping can let you enlarge your home by extending the livable space into the outdoors. It also can be used it to play down your property’s flaws and highlight its strengths. If you’ve got things growing over a trellis or a fence, you aren’t going to notice the thing you don’t like — you’re going to notice the plants and the structure.

A few examples:

• Frame your view of a neighbor’s lovely pear tree with strategically placed trellises and vines or by building a path pointing to the view.
• Install a lattice fence to block your view of the neighbor’s house.
• Install a sculpture or an ornament that leads the eye away from the busy street or a neighbor’s garbage cans.

Read entire story at: http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=24197306

This weeks quotes are from the great comedian Jim Carrey:

• Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.

• Either you’re the one erasing or you’re the one being erased.

• I don’t care if people think I am an overactor, as long as they enjoy what I do. People who think that would call Van Gogh an overpainter.

• I just want to be myself.

• I refuse to feel guilty. I feel guilty about too much in my life but not about money. I went through periods when I had nothing, so somebody in my family has to get stinkin’ wealthy.

Lloyd Flatt was a man who lived life large and had a passion for large bottles of wine. One of those bottles — a six-liter Methuselah of Romanee Conti 1976 sold for $42,350 at Sotheby’s New York more than double its presale estimate.

Flatt, an eye-patch sporting American who began collecting wine long before there were wine critics and magazines such as the Wine Spectator, died in January 2008 after amassing a collection that became almost as famous as he was.

The total sale of his some 1,500 bottles netted more than $1.18 million, handily beating the $573,000-$824,000 pre-sale estimate range at the auction Saturday. Sotheby’s said the winner of the Methuselah was “an Asian buyer.”

“I know that Lloyd, wherever he may be, is smiling at the fun we had in celebrating his wine,” his widow, Laure Flatt said in a statement adding, “We are all happy that Lloyd will be thought of when the corks are pulled on today’s purchases.”

Flatt’s collection (his second, the first was lost in a divorce) was part of a larger wine auction at Sotheby’s which netted $3.4 million.