Last night I took off the baseboards from the East Wall.
It took a little bit of effort but I managed to wrangle them off.
When it came to the corner, I was a little worried, but the wood was so brittle that it just cracked into pieces and I was able to wiggle it out behind the paneling! Woo Hoo!
My next step was to figure out how to seal the gap between the wall and the paneling (in one corner) and the paneling to paneling (in another corner). I wanted to get some caulk or something to try and squeeze it in there but Jim just said to use the spackling.
I first tried the piping technique using that favorite kitchen technique to ice cupcakes and sweet rolls. I filled up a plastic bag with spackling, trimmed the edge of the corner, and started to ‘pipe in’ the stuff.
POP!
There was a slight bag explosion and spackling came out everywhere! I guess my bag was either too thin of plastic or my hole in the corner was too small. Probably a combination of both. Oops.
Fingers.
The best tools on earth. Take two.
With all this spackling coming out all over the place I just worked it in with my fingers and smoothed it out. I figure when it dries I’ll sand it down. It worked.
Now I can finally start to wallpaper this puppy!
Sewing.for.Life! 
I’ve done paneling several times now. Once–the absolute worst was real wood with zillions of small and minutely small holes that required spackling fill. Since I painted, I didn’t fill the long lines between. I would have gone with the caulk rather than spackle where the wall/paneling and paneling/paneling meet, though. Spackle is fine if there is no possibility of movement as in the solid paneling areas. But in areas that may be affected by settling or climate extremes, the caulk has more give. My new best friend is Big Stretch caulk. It’s not that I need the incredible amount of stretch this stuff is supposed to have–I just don’t want to have to do this again! My husband went on a crown molding kick a couple of years ago. I have recently had to clean out a few areas of cracked spackling and replace it with caulk.
I’m off to paint the molding in my newly painted hallways which included a two-story open space in the stairwell. It’s nice to know I’m not the only woman out there tackling these kinds of “housework”!
Oh, and I must agree, the fingers end up being the best tools especially with spackle and caulk. Now that I really deserve that manicure, I don’t have any nails left. D*#*%m!
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Thank you Barbara! I loved your comment and I’m going to pick up some Big Stretch when I pick up my paint. It will be good to have that on hand.
Cathy
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