In the quest for continual home improvement most of you know that I've recently made a new nemesis... WALLPAPER...
So how better to understand the enemy than to put some UP myself... by myself... (as I type this I think - WTH was I thinking?!)
So I took Friday off - I just needed a day. It's hard coming back from a long holiday and getting back into the swing of January - by far the crappiest month by my estimation. (No offense MLK Jr day) -- I'd add February into that if it weren't so short and included Valentine's Day -- formerly known as Singles Appreciation Day (sadly enough, 'S.A.D.') but now that I'm squarely in suburban almost-married life, I sorta like the chocolately celebration.
ANYWAY, so what better to do on a day off than procrastinate from putting away laundry?! How about putting up some wallpaper?!
It all started bc of a big sale at Target... BEFORE I opened the mail to the horror of gads of medical bills... I found and bought for $20 a pretty groovy roll of wallpaper... I thought I'd do the laundry room wall that has horrendous paper in it already over w this paper. However, when I walked into the laundry to plan it all I realized that in addition to the royal pain of having to move a fridge and dryer, that I'd have to work around the fuse box... water+electricity - never good...
I also didn't want to have to purchase any MORE than the 1 roll of paper bc of the recent bills...
So I arrived at doing the smallest wall in the guest room... and I think it turned out pretty well... this is the image on Target - though the metallic is a copper/tan not the silver they show here and the background color is a matte aqua (luckily perfectly matching 2 shams I got for supercheap post Xmas at Macy's - so decorating scheme DONE) ... it's very simple/asian inspiration - looks like those chinese brushpaintings of cherry tree branches...
http://www.target.com/Graham-Brown-Solitude-Wallpaper/dp/B000JPZFOW/sr=1-15/qid=1233607390/ref=sr_1_15/175-1675998-6418937?ie=UTF8&pricerange=&index=target&field-browse=1038616&rank=price&rh=k%3Awallpaper%2Cp%5F36%3A%2425-%2449&page=5
And here it is in the room -- not too shabby... and coordinates perfectly w the neutral (boring) taupe paint and white trim that the former owners painted it right before selling (believe me - I found DARK BLUE on the lowest parts of the baseboards)
I had some snags - not enough paper to keep up the matching -- and old Mr Azmo walked in when I was on my last super long piece and stepped through the paper - leaving little VERY VISIBLE holes in one of the metallic flowers - so there's a big fat seam where I had to cut it out and match up w the paper a foot down... figgers! Now onto the... Another
When I was doing the wallpaper on Friday, I was using my upstairs tub to soak the paper (self adhesive on back.) I noticed while doing this that there was a 'soft spot' in the tiled floor near the top of the tub. There wasn't any water underneath it - just what looked to be once saturated wood that splintered into oblivion and dried... damn... that means replacing the tiles... luckily it wasn't wet, there appear to be no leaks in the tub itself and I wonder if someone just didn't have a shower liner or something in place bc it's right by the nozzle where water can spray out if the curtain isn't drawn. Didn't feel too urgent - and at some point, we'll redo the entire bathroom... something to file to mention to Rob later...
So I did - and he came to the same conclusion I did.
Now keep in mind the story of our lives recently has been all about timing... like the Alanis 'Isn't it ironic?' lyrics...
Yesterday Rob comes downstairs to inform me that apparently HIS shower stall has a 'soft tile' patch - except under his is the equivalent of the sludge you see in a new housing development when it's rained for 2 weeks and there's just foundations dug...
So now we're scrambling to figure out if our home warranty comes into play here... and Rob's now using my shower... ugg
Here's the offending 'patch'
So if anyone knows a tile guy - or has some advice, we're seeking!!
2 comments:
Home warranties typically only cover the major appliances, and your HVAC. Yours may differ, but I haven't seen one that would include floor tile.
Home ownership is one of those things where you have to remember how proud you are to actually own a home, because caring for one pretty much blows chunks.
It's a little more of a gut wrencher when I just had $5K of unexpected med bills roll in though... to be fair...
We're looking into ours - we understand the same but want to be sure on specifics... too bad that over hte range micro didn't actually kick the bucket - we're gonna see if we might be able to get something for that...
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