Friday, September 28, 2007

Camping in the Living Room

A year ago, I noticed a patch of mildew on the wallpaper in the bathroom. It was up high where I could not reach it without climbing on something, and at the time I was experiencing a bout of vertigo.

I asked my husband to wipe it away for me.

Instead, he ripped all the wallpaper off the bathroom wall. Then he got out the spackling/drywall compound and created a lot of messy white marks all over the remaining pink paint.

He purchased paint, semi-gloss enamel, which I could not use because I am allergic to it.

Then he left everything as it was, including the paint cans sitting in the garage.

I called my new decor "Cloud Pink" in order to remain lighthearted about this situation. I mentioned putting wallpaper back up (I can handle wallpaper) and he expressly said he never wanted wallpaper in the house again. Wallpaper *is* a problem on drywall, which is what we have, not plaster, so I acquiesced.

In August when he was away for a week, I took a pencil and drew all over the walls. "I love you" and little hearts with arrows became the new decor.

My hope was he would not like this enough to do something.

Finally, yesterday, he decided it was time he cleaned up his mess. He got through the "prime the walls" phase before calling it a day.

Unfortunately, the odors wafting from the paint were pretty bad, and this is the bathroom off the bedroom. I could not spend the night in the bedroom.

We don't have a spare bedroom.

So we unfolded the hide-away bed in the sofa, and slept there. It was like sleeping on a cot with springs poking you in the back, but better than waking up with your lips and eyes swollen from paint fumes.

He will finish up today with the final coat, and we will likely camp out again tonight in the living room. But hopefully by Saturday night the fumes will have dissipated enough that we can get back to life as it was.

4 comments:

  1. Ahhh, the joys of DIY! Your husband seems to have the same level of enthusiasm as I when it comes to home repair...

    Good luck with the project - and watch those pull-out sofa beds; those things are brutal!

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  2. The sofa bed was a killer, alright.

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  3. Oh my, there's another man out there like the man in my house. My guy is (finally) finishing the bottom half of tiles on the half-bath wall so that he can (finally) install the toilet so that the water can be hooked up. This after pulling off the old wallpaper 18 months ago and tearing out the walls after I told him not to because we needed to refinance the house to take advantage of lower interest rates. By the time he (finally) finishes the top half of the walls with tile, the interest rate will have gone back up. Hello?? Is anybody awake in his brain? Rhetorical question.

    Oh, and this after I'd called a contractor to get a bid on it 18 months ago and he got all mad and hurt because I didn't think he was capable. My words then were something to the effect of "you're capable but you never finish what you start." That's when he jerked the wallpaper off. Did I mention that was 18 months ago??

    Ok, thanks, for listening. I feel much better now. Oh and good luck to you. I think we're related! :)

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  4. Moanna (great name) all I can say is hang in there! Hope it happens for you soon. Maybe you should try drawing on the walls like I did...

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