Long Overdue

This post is long overdue but I was referring more to my trip to Michigan. I had not been “home” in over a year and my boys and I needed to visit again. We saw a lot of faces and places and there are mounds of things that could be written. I’m just going to post one item at a time so that I don’t overwhelm you.

Let’s start with one of the main reasons I was persuaded to go. My brother, Joel has been sleeping in what used to be the girl’s bedroom at our house. This room was originally clad in pink paint a lavender and pink floral wallpaper and a deep purple rag rug carpet. You can see the remains of the original wallpaper in the first picture. Somewhere in my childhood the room was painted a lavender but the wallpaper and carpet remained until my senior year of high school. Becky and Kathy, my two older sisters eventually moved out of that room and Kristy, my younger sister moved in. During all of that time I was the consistent occupant of the room. In 1988 I began saving my tip money (I worked in a counter service restaurant so tips were small and inconsistent) in a jar in my bedroom. By 1989 I had saved over $200.00 toward new carpet and wallpaper for my room. Mom showed me where to look for these materials and she and I took a trip to Shipshewana to a carpet and wallpaper store. I chose a wallpaper that had the same lavender that was already on the walls, it was a white background with a swoosh pattern that looked almost like a feather in gray, pink and lavender. Very 80’s! My friend Shelly and I tore up the horrible old carpet with it’s black rubber backing, rolled it up and threw it out the second story window. It was awesome. We scraped the floor and were blowing black dust out of our noses for a week. I’m sure that was really healthy. I pulled off as much of the old wallpaper as I could, but it was really, really thin and seemed impossible to my 17 year old patience. So what wasn’t sticking up, bubbling, or in anyway able to come off the wall…I left. Joel hates me for this. I wet my lovely 80’s mod wallpaper strips and hung them right over that 1972 Victorian floral wallpaper and it was beautiful. The carpet was delivered and put down and I had a brand new room.

Almost 20 years later…that double layer of wallpaper was a deep thorn in my poor brother’s side. Probably thinking his stay in that room would be temporary he waited a long time before tackling the walls only to find it impossible to take down. I was anxious to help after so long a time, the room was completely outdated and needed another lift. I sent him a list of things we would need and gave him a few suggestions. When I arrived we met at a paint store and picked out a nice pale green with olive and gray undertones (to match the carpet), he rented a steamer to scrape off the paper and we were on our way. It was a lot of work. Joel did most of it. He handled the steamer and the scraping, the spackle and sanding while I painted. He even had most of the room taped off for me. I don’t think he really needed me as much as he thought but I was glad to be some support and maybe a little motivation for him.

I was a little sad we couldn’t do more. Window coverings and new bedding are still a little out of the budget for a guy trying to get out of debt by the end of the year, so we’ll wait on that. I did give him some tips on what to buy when the time comes.