As Solid As A Brick Wall

 

It would appear as though I could now add bricklaying to my many talents.

Yellow Roses

 

What a pleasant surprise it was to find that the mural we were to hang was a bit of a dream come true for me. With the advent of non-woven wall coverings, I was wondering when murals would be printed on this amazing medium. Well, now they are. A regular sized 12' x 8' photomural now comes in 4 panels instead of 8. The adhesive can be rolled on the wall and the panels put in place without any expansion, soaking, warping, twisting or stretching.

 

This German made product was simply the best. Because there is no soaking time, and because there are only 4 panels, the hanging time on this mural was not the usual 3-4 hours, but a mere 1.5 hours, which was mostly spent plotting and pre-trimming.

 

The colour and print quality is outstanding and the finished product is beautiful, with invisible, butted seams.

 

As a side note, I papered this entire townhouse unit about 20 years ago. The couple I worked for at that time have since deceased and the man of the house is actually buried right next to my Mom and Dad at a nearby cemetery. There have been two owners since and now that all the old wallpaper is gone, the murals are going up.

Entry

 

Over the last 6 months, we have totally re-painted this house, in bits and pieces. The big project was left for last, namely, the entry, stairwell, lower hall, and dining room. There was a time when I did all the ladder work and braved all the high spots. No longer. I leave that for those younger than me, but I offer danger pay. Ladders and scaffolds are not for the feint of heart.

 

We covered the two shades of gold with two shades of gray beige. The whole area looked so much cleaner, brighter, and expansive. The customer was thrilled, especially when we came in under budget.

Surprises

 

I would not normally drive as far as Ryder Lake to do a small job, but the customer said she had 22 rolls of wallpaper and the whole room was to be done. That is worth a longer commute.

 

However, her description of the room was not accurate. "Just a standard bedroom" it was not. The only accurate description was that the ceilings were 8' tall. The house was under renovation and there was no heat. There were window treatments that had to come down, shelves mounted on the walls, a full length mirror on swivel brackets, art work, drapes and rods, and a few other goodies. We thought at first that it could not be done in one day because of all the prep and the fact that there were three closets with wrapped drywall returns, two windows with drywall returns, an alcove with a round corner header, and 4 round outside corners which can be a real problem if they are not deadly plumb.

 

The one redeeming factor was that the paper was random match....no pattern that had to be matched, and it was non-woven, the best and easiest paper to hang.

 

By noon we were half done, and by 4 pm we were out of there. I was delighted and surprised. Too bad the light and the photos do not show off the beautiful silver shimmery pattern on the paper.