All in a Day's Work

 

More wallpaper, this one in a basement guest bathroom up on Mountain Village.

 

For this one, the customer called and asked if I could come over and see what he was doing wrong. He had hung paper plenty of times but this one had him perplexed. No matter what he did he could not get the seams right. It was 27" wide non pasted vinyl and was a bear to hang. I used some tricks I had learned over the years and got it right. He was amazed and stared at the seams for a long time, as though expecting them to magically pop up. I had to admit it was a tough one and I totally understood why he only got two panels up and then quit. I almost did too.

 

And then there was the basement bar on Eagle Mountain. This was a new house and mighty large and fine. The bar was totally stocked but not a single bottle was open. The owner was of a culture that frowned on alcohol consumption. I think it was for the look as he put up the house for sale as soon as we were done. This was a 54" commercial vinyl application, and I am always amazed that I used to hang this kind of product a lot back in the 80's. It is just plain hard work.

 

 

When we were done, a horizontal ridge appeared under the paper at the 5' level on the wall. The moisture in the adhesive swelled some drywall tape that was a repair when the owner wanted the electrical outlets to be moved. There was not enough 'mud' put on the seam and the resulting ridge was ugly. The pot lights cast a downward light on the wall, accentuating the worsening flaw. I told him to wait until morning when things dried out and it might shrink back. If not, I suggested he buy a large piece of artwork and hang it just above the flaw so it would cast a shadow and hide the ridge. I never heard back from him so he must have been happy with one of the options.

 

And then there was the day my son recruited me to help him paint a spindle rail. His friend got him to repaint the entire house and Andrew did it all but this rail. It is most tedious and time consuming when you do it yourself. Two people can keep a wet edge on each spindle and it is literally more than twice as fast as doing it alone. When it was completed, I handed him the brush and headed home to resume my semi-retirement.