"Spic 'n Span" is TSP, or at least it used to be. The thing is that a lot of localities (states?) have outlawed phosphate detergents, since they are very polluting in the water. I know that in New York I can't get real TSP because of that, and hunting around for it (unless I'm willing to drive to other states) isn't going to help. Googling around I find this from the University of Colorado: "In the end, local needs for immediate action to curtail eutrophication coupled with scientific, judicial, and popular support resulted in the patchwork of legislation the Industry had feared. By 1985, jurisdictions which had enacted phosphate bans included New York, Michigan, Indiana, Vermont, Minnesota, Dade County, Florida, Akron, Ohio, and Chicago Illinois (footnote 257 in Fleming et al. 1986). Typical are state statutes which limit phosphate content for certain types of detergents and in certain areas. For example in Pennsylvania, the Water and Sewage Phosphate Detergent Act of 1989 and amended in 1992 (PA ST 35 P.S. §§ 722.1 - 722.3) affects "all counties partially or wholly within the Susquehanna River Watershed or in the Lake Erie Watershed." This Act prohibits the manufacture, sale or distribution of any cleaning agents containing any phosphate, except contained incidentally during manufacture. But excluded from this ban are cleaning agents used in dairy, beverage and food processing equipment, in hospitals and health care facilities, in agricultural production, by industries for metal cleaning, in biological and chemical research facilities, and those used in the household for cleaning windows, sinks, counters, stoves, tubs and other food preparation surfaces and plumbing fixtures. Dishwashing detergents are allowed to be up to 8.7% phosphorus by weight." I guess you can still find phosphates if you look, if you're not in the states mentioned. Look at dishwashing detergents. But if you use detergents for automatic dishwashers, wear gloves! That stuff is extremely alkaline and will burn you in high enough concentrations.

Hi Katie, my apologies for the delay in responding to your comment. I've been traveling over the holidays and rare access to a computer. I did end up caulking the gap between the baseboard and the wall. For cleaning gunk out of cracks, I'm starting to like using the bamboo skewers used for grilling that you can get at the supermarket. I had a batch of them in my cupboard and gave one a try and it worked so well, that I'm using them first in situations where I need something pointy. The bamboo is soft enough that it doesn't scratch anything, and I can dampen it and it'll pick up extraneous paper that's stuck in the crack. For some pieces of gunk in the crack, I also used a pair of needle-nose pliers, to extract the pieces. And, while I don't know if it's a bad thing to do, sometimes a piece of gunk would just fall more into the gap between the baseboard and wall, and I left it there. :-) I figured it would just get sealed under the line of caulk afterwards. Wear eye protection! Even if you don't think you need it, wear safety goggles, or at least your eyeglasses if you wear glasses. One day, I was caulking the baseboards in one of our bedrooms for the insulating value, and as I dragged my finger along, a chip of paint flew up off the baseboard toward my face. Since then, I always wear my goggles. About tips for caulking: - Do a search on YouTube for caulking. It really helped me to see videos of people actually doing it. - Get a good caulking gun. I got one from Lowes or Home Depot (I forget which one--I've been in and out of each so much these past weeks!) that was in the $10 range. I love its trigger mechanism. - Hold the gun at a 45 degree angle to both the wall and to the baseboard gap. I mean, this is in three dimensions: as you put the tube tip to the baseboard gap, make sure that it is a 45 degree angle between it and the vertical wall and a 45 degree angle between it and the horizontal-running gap line. (Hope that makes sense--it's hard to explain in words vs a picture. That's why the YouTube videos are so helpful.) - Do not make the hole in the tube too large when you cut it. The hole should not be larger than the gap you're trying to fill. And there was a post on one of these forums about tapering the hole that I thought was useful. While I can't find the posting this moment, I'll add the link when I locate it. Hope this helps! Lee

Last night I finished removing all the wallpaper. I scored it, sprayed with water and a little dish detergent, scraped, and pulled. I don't think that this stuff would ever have disintegrated. If I sprayed and came back 5 minutes later, it was dry. I could not see any way to saturate it, but I kept spraying as I worked on it. Most of it came off OK, but there are a lot of places where the top layer of drywall came with it. The drywall guy is coming tomorrow and I'm hopeful that he can fix it. I am glad that I removed it, especially since I found a small spot of mold. I also took a ceiling sample for asbestos testing even though the guys working on my house didn't think it was necessary. I hope they are right, but $95.00 is a small price for peace of mind. I'll give another update after the next step. Thanks for all the suggestions!

Sanding latex paint is a futile attempt at smoothing. Better to skim coat a little drywall compound over the area and then sand with a sanding block. After sanding , run a well dampened block sponge along the area where the patching meets the old wall area. This will get rid of an minor ridge of compound. You will want to prime this new patch, but use an old, worn roller in order to impart a slight texture, as your new patch will probably be noticeably smoother than the old roller texture on the wall. Further, I would give the new patch a quick, light coat of the finish coat paint, followed by a general painting of the room. Should a "flashing" of the patch still be visible, you may be forced to apply a second general finish coat.