Wallpaper:

...the devil's foray into home decorating.

I've been plugging away this week at stripping the wallpaper out of the downstairs bedroom at my dad's house. It used to be my grandparent's bedroom; they built this house in 1973, and it was the original wallpaper. Old, inexpensive, and a pain in the patooty to get off the walls. However: success! All of the wallpaper is gone, and half the walls have been cleaned in preparation for painting.

This little renovation project is serving a dual purpose in my world. One: it prepares the room to either be an office/guestbedroom (as I'm tricking it out at the moment); or, when my dad gets around to hiring a contractor to put a shower in the downstairs bathroom that won't compromise you if you drop the soap (the one in there now is WEE!), he can move downstairs, which will save him money heating the house in the winter.

Two: in about six months, I'll be moving into my very own home--mortgage and all. Doing this kind of (tedious) work on my dad's house has helped me feel a little more prepared for owning my own place. I figure, if I can handle doing this kind of work without freaking out, I can cope with being a homeowner. Okay, the logic works in my world--perhaps not anyone else's, but whatever.

So this week will hold:
Monday: finish prepping the walls for paint, paint the ceiling
Tuesday: Tear the carpet out (mmmm. bright blue carpet--buh-BYE! Make way for hardwood flooring!).
Wednesday: Paint the walls, trot the carpet off to the Transfer Station.
Thursday: Second coat? and Ryan, Alicia, and I get a lesson on laying hardwood floors.
Friday: Floors!

On Monday, the futon arrives--just in time for me to move down from the upstairs bedroom so my brother and the boys have a place to sleep. I'm leaving it to my brother to move the computer and its accoutrement out of the living room and into the office--and also leaving him the task of organizing my father in business matters, etc.

I think it's a pretty fair division of duties!

However, my top priority at this moment: SHOWER!

I stink.