Wallpaper Project Part II - beginnings. I've decided to address the smaller bathroom and get all of the wallpapering effort out of the way. The ladies who do the work are slow as molasses but they do excelent, qualitiy work. During the work in the bigger bathroom, it took 2 ladies 4 days to strip and repaper the room. This was because they took Thursday off to go bowl. In the half bath, they've stripped it a week ago and left all of their tools in a tidy pile in the bedroom - but have been incognito for a week. I haven't heard back from them in a week. I'm trying not to think this is odd. In this town, where you can walk through a furniture store for 40 minutes unapproached and give up on trying to buy something because of salesperson apathy, and where service providers often opt to simply not call or show up for appointments, maybe the fact that I have their tools and supplies stockpiled in my bedroom is a good sign. Maybe I'll learn more about that this week.  

Here is where the mirror was on the half bath. Makes you wonder what would make unfinished drywall discolor like that, underneath wallpaper. Ugh. For this room I chose a wallpaper that looks like an organic weave - not in a cheesey 70s way, but in a neat new age way. It's a horizontal pattern which should make this smaller-than-a-closet water closet a little more roomy feeling.  

Bathroom Wallpaper Completion - Part I. Here's a seam shot...you can see a wallpaper seam just to the right of the light switch. I guess that's not horrible, but my eyes go to it pretty immediately. I think it was the nature of the paper - the mosaic shaped tiles were not perfectly aligned on the paper - which was why I selected it, thinking that my not-quite-90-degree corners would be better disguised this way. Problem is the paper tiles started flush left on the side of the roll of paper, so when hanging one strip, the right edge would be differently aligned tiles. But, it makes the room look literally 3 times larger than the bat-cave, floral-vomit junk that was up there previously. 

So, here is the main bathroom, wall paper completed and reinstalled fixtures repaired (in one case). Now I've realized that my small mosaic tile wallpaper pattern makes the room look humongously empty. What kind of wall decor is next? I don't want to hammer nails into the paper...the walls are plaster so anything of any weight significance would require molly bolts and look horrible when I leave and try to sell. Tho in keeping with the whole mosaic bathroom I'm leaning toward a lot of ivy. Except the shelves around the tub are not wide enough to hold potted plants. I'm out of ideas on this one. 

My Bathroom Renovation.......in progress! It's so odd to see it with no wallpaper. But even in this state, it looks worlds better than it did with the flower/stripe vomit that was there. 

Here's a shot from the other corner. It's so much brighter (obviously) that the little light coming in from the closed window blinds, that you can't see here, illuminates the tub as though a sky light were above it. 

Here it is! My chosen wallpaper, soon to be applied. 

This was the snow we had recently. Big, fat flakes that were melted by the next day's sun. 

This one's for you, Alan!! I have not cut my hair short, and while you can't really tell from this shot, it's a little more red now, *wink wink*. Luck o' the Irish and all that! Kathmand decided to jump up just as the shutter opened. Believe it or not, those are the stairs to the upstairs to the left of the shot.  

Here's a shot of Kathman hanging out in the sunroom, in his favorite day-spot.

This weekend I got a very little bit of yardwork in. I had an appointment for a tree trimmer / landscaper to come on Saturday, and he never showed up or called. That may be incredible on its own, but this is the fourth service call that has opted not to show up for work. I just don't understand these local service providers; they have no idea what "service" really is. Anyway, here are some mystery flowers in the front yard. They are pretty but it'd be my luck for them to be weeds. There is some landscaping done in the front that had a good wood chip mulch layer at one time; I'll need to tidy that up. Under the mulch they laid the anti-weed fabric like material, which the squirrels have dug up in many places.

Last weekend I noticed some mud that looked suspiciously like a drain leak. Turns out it was. I had the plumber over while I was out of town; he was able to repair it without ripping it up and replacing it. Turns out they use ball and spigot type clay piping here, and at the joints, tree roots like to wiggle in for a drink. The plumber didn't think it had been snaked out for some time, he got feet worth of enmeshed roots. All's flowing well now, though. If I hadn't made a yard check on that side of the house I would never have known I had a leak. Kind of scary. Anyway, this is the west side of the house - the direction that storms come from - and it has no gutters. So the rain that runs off the roof just drops straight down, and splashes up along the stonework along the crawl space. I'm going to have that pressure washed when I have the gutters installed. The previous owners never cease to surprise me with some of the little things that they opted not to do (and some of the big things they did poorly).  

I picked up another orchid today; I have become a great fan of these relatively carefree yet exotic blooms. This one is in the bedroom. That lava lamp was my Grandfather's, original from the 70s.  

The front two windows on the porch were lacking screens. I learned this today when it got up to 60 and I wanted to air the place out. I started opening lots of windows but opted against the two in the front; luckily a quick trip to Lowe's solved the missing screen problem.  

My little address numbers have two side removable tiles. There are a number of them to match the seasons and holidays. I inherited this with the house, but since it's March, slotted on the shamrocks. Next is Easter Bunnies.....sheesh, this is so lame I'm embarassed to say I like it.