(Wall)Paper Roses

Since we no longer need a home office for our business (said business now being someone else's headache), we decided to break down my office space and put it back into a bedroom. The bed that we set up for our Thanksgiving guests in the smallest room on the second floor, probably originally a nursery, will now be moved into my old office. Some temporary insanity made us decide to also redo our bedroom while we have a painter handy. When we bought the house in 1987, nearly every room in the house was covered in hideous wallpaper. Our bedroom was no exception, and it was blessed with wallpaper on the ceiling as well. Nice! We painted the ceiling and woodwork a nice cream color and put a floral wallpaper on the walls. And that is how it has remained for 23 years. Jim and I do not re-decorate much. (Understatement of the year!)

So my trusted painter came over on Monday to look at the job and, I thought, give me a cost estimate. Instead he asked me when I was getting all the stuff out of the office so he could start. Seriously? We are talking desk and chair, working table and chair, a tall bookshelf, copy machine on a stand, four file cabinets (two drawer size), a four drawer filing cabinet, two printers, a scanner, a fax machine...well, you get the idea. This move was not going to happen overnight. So I asked him to start in our bedroom instead. I figured trying to get 23 year old wall paper off the walls would entertain him for a while, and I was right. Some unhappy grumbling came out of that room for a few hours on Tuesday. I selected two shades of green for the walls, as we have a chair rail about halfway up the wall, and we went with white for the woodwork to match the rest of the house. Bye, bye cream...and good riddance!

While they painted, I spent the week de-cluttering the office. There is still a lot to do before the painters come back on Monday. We are getting rid of the white desk, table and file cabinet that we bought used from a local business 10 or more years ago. Instead we will put a glass topped desk in the smallest bedroom for Jim to have as his office. He spends a lot of time on the computer with his hobby, which is photography. I purchased the program Lightroom for him as a gift and he has really enjoyed enhancing his photographs. It will be nice to get his laptop and monitor off the kitchen counter. Anyway, a few items from my office will be moved into his, such as a couple of the file cabinets and a printer. As for the rest of my stuff? I'm at a loss, but I better figure it out before Monday.