My Life Is a Boring HGTV Show

First of all, wallpaper should be illegal because it’s terrible. It’s such a pain in the ass to take down. It’s not even that it’s hard, it’s just really tedious. But the paint under it was pretty terrible, too, so I don’t blame whoever said, “Fuck that, just put up some wallpaper.” The challenge is going to be dealing with the fact that it’s an open-concept house and we’re gonna either need to match the paint in the living room next to the kitchen or find a way to have it not look stupid. Or paint the whole room. I’m hoping the paint I bought for the other room accidentally matches, but that seems unlikely. The plan is to slap some joint compound on the thing to fill in some cracks in the drywall, then finally finish priming that and the little fireplace room, then paint them both.

In the meantime, Paul’s dad came out to rip up carpet so we could see what’s under it and get that project moving. I’d been warned that it could get shitty–with no basement, there was a chance that it was just concrete underneath and that the carpet would stick to it and not come up easily. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case. It was laid on tile, which, granted, is asbestos tile, but I’ve been told that’s okay to leave in place because it’s only a problem when you, say, sand it and inhale the fibers. In a solid tile form, you’re fine. But it all came up really easily and is pretty even, so as soon as we get new flooring picked out, we’re good to start putting it down. The plan is to get it picked out this Sunday.

It wasn’t a huge amount of work, but it’s the one thing we were kind of waiting for before we started really moving. I’ve been taking things over in small bags and boxes that we don’t absolutely need, like some wedding presents, books, and stuff like that, and putting it where it’ll be out of the way of flooring projects. But once the floor is done, then it’s gonna be on to the bigger things, and hopefully we can make good, quick progress on that and get it down to where we spend a weekend moving the bigger, bulkier furniture and everything else that’s ready to go in.

The reality of owning the house has set in, but the reality of making it what we want and actually living in it is gonna be a whole other thing. And I’m excited.