Mason,

Help! I have planned to remove wallpaper in a small bathroom today while my husband takes our three children to a football game. I have done this before and generally know how to do it, but it isn't going well. I have scored the paper and am using the DIF wallpaper remover. I have covered it with plastic bags to allow the remover to soak into the paper prior to scraping. It isn't coming off and I fear that there is a coating on the paper. Do you have any suggestions?

Sara in Richmond

We live in an age of information overload – supported by expanding traditional and electronic / online media.  Direction and data on all things is available at our fingertips, or otherwise unavoidably thrown at us from all angles, typically in flashy “bites”.  Everyone that has cable or a computer with an internet account has the opportunity to become an “instant expert”.

I work in a traditional field – one that, since ancient times, has its product delivered by the toil of artisans and craftsmen.  Compositions of “sticks and bricks”, ultimately creating one of man’s most basic needs –

I recall when I was a kid, picking-up a booklet on bicycle repair at a local bike shop in my hometown of Fredericksburg.  I inquired of the shop owner, the apparent conflict of interest that may lead to less repair business for him.  “We have plenty of repair business… if you want to do the repairs yourself, I’d like to help you”, he said.

I am sure that I was back to his shop later, buying parts with my grass-mowing dollars and seeking his expert and readily-available advice. 

Funny what memories one can dredge up from 30 years ago, when I sometimes cannot immediately recall my home