After 42 years, my husband should know better than to leave me home alone for a week. After all, there was that time he and one of our daughters returned from an OSU football game to find a pile of carpet in the front yard...and the time he returned home from 8 hours at work while I was home caring for a child recovering after a week in the hospital. Somehow while talking to a friend on the phone, I'd discovered the kitchen wallpaper came off in huge strips, surprising both me and the kid on the couch.
Here's how these things happen. He leaves. I need to keep myself busy to avoid moping. I see some long-ignored project and boom. Things happen.
So, this time, it was the ancient wallpaper we'd long ago painted over in the stairway to the second floor. Let's just say that we've never been very good at listening to the dos and don'ts of home decor (you CAN successfully paint paneling.) Someone said strip all the wallpaper first. We'd done that in our first home, spending weeks with a steamer, spray bottles of vinegar water, etc.) Sure, that might be the preferred option, but when you're young, have babies, little money and even less time, who has patience for rules?
Anyway, there I was home alone with a cat who preferred hunting for bats in the attic, so I began stripping wallpaper that dated back to the 1920s. Suffice to say it preceded strippable wallpaper by decades and my level of patience has not increased with age. The project proceeded slowly through the week as I worked off and on -- more off than on -- and by the end of the week, I had removed a small amount but enough to prove I'd tried. And yet, when the happy camper returned, it took him three days to realize what I'd done. Laughter ensued...
Admittedly, the project stalled about the same time and until today. more than 500 miles from home, I was lying on the floor doing PT exercises, and staring at a stucco-textured wall. Boom! It occurred to me there I was staring at the perfect solution for the walls of the stairway, one that wouldn't require more stripping.
There's a paint texturing project in our future. Maybe.
Stay tuned...