Working to fix up what has been two of my sons’ room upstairs, I first tore out the 1940’s, stained carpet and then the 1970’s paneling to reveal four layers of flowered wallpaper, with a spray of blood, paint, wax, who knew what the ancient brown-purple stains were, but clearly there was a reason Sven Lund, the previous owner had decided to fix up and remedy with the paneled walls. Also, there was one section rotted out by the window in which old gypsum board was now in the spot where they’d cut out pieces of the shipping wood that makes up the original walls.
I thought at first I might paint the wallpaper, but when I’d started cleaning it found the top layer was stripping away and so I started the labor intensive job of scrapping it all off via wetting it with a sponge and chipping away with a putty knife. Let me tell you dear reader, it took days! But, good riddance to the stains and it really does look better than painted wallpaper would have.
I hired a contractor to cover the asbestos ceiling tiles, put in some trim and build a bookcase next to the window where the wood had been sawed away. All looks pretty nice, though I am not yet done with painting the trim.
While recently perusing Fred Meyer, I saw that all rugs were 40% off and looked through to see what they had to complete my room. Yes, I’d dreamed of going into Portland to get a beautiful, wool one from the Iranian rug store, but know these are most likely out of my price range.
There was one wool one at Fred’s, but too small at 5X7 for such a large space. I wound up buying a synthetic one, final cost $119, so it wasn’t breaking the bank and I know I won’t lose my mind if someone ends up kicking their tea over on it either.
