Painting, or Rather, Unwallpapering

We closed on our house this week, our third time sitting around that table in three years. I remember the couples across the table each time, what the interactions were like, whether we thought we might have liked them or not given the chance to get to know them outside of buying or selling a house, which essentially precludes any other opportunity for relationship since by definition we’re moving away from each other, not to mention the awkwardness of getting to know someone whose house you now own.

Our week since then has been continuous remodeling, with the help of some generous friends. Our intention is to paint pretty much the entire place, with the exception of the closets and one small room, which in itself sounds like a task until you add to it the fact that the majority of the rooms came covered in some of the most hideous wallpaper available on the market, white paper with swirly swoopy spotted things that more than one of us looked at more than once and remarked – why?? How does someone look at this paper among all the papers on display and say That one, that’s the look I want for my kitchen. And then spend the time and money measuring it and pasting it and painstakingly making the room absolutely appalling.

So far that’s all we’ve really done – created cascades of drippy slimy paper that gather on the floor in shreds and piles. It feels like progress, but it looks only marginally better so far than with that wallpaper on. Next up: primer.

~ by Jonathan on May 23, 2008.