Buried Treasure

Wednesday, March 6, 2013 – Buried Treasure

Since today is officially a snow day (although there’s very little snow on the ground here in Fairfax), I’m staying home to work with Elliott on The Project.  Much to our surprise, during our recent archaeological excavation of the bathroom formerly known as “The Pink Bathroom,” we discovered a buried treasure.  Removing the large mirror/medicine cabinet revealed a magnificent wall of gold (and pink) that hadn’t been seen by human eyes in decades.  Examination confirmed that at one time, the entire wall was covered by this pattern.  However, much of it had been painted over by previous homeowners who failed to appreciate the aesthetic qualities of this fine example of pure 1960s-era classicism. 

Elliott did some research online and decided to try removing this masterpiece himself.  This morning, he started by using a new toy, I mean tool, called a Paper Tiger, which we went out and bought yesterday at Ace Hardware.  When rolled over the surface of the wall covering, it produces tiny punctures.  He then sprayed on a special non-toxic solution and finally lifted off the gold and pink paper with a scraper.  The luxurious wallpaper now resides in the archives, i.e. the trash. 

One unexpected result of the process was the shredding of the underlying wallboard.  To solve this problem, Elliott gave me the job of trimming the shaggy surface with a pair of tiny manicure scissors.  I was skeptical, but I gave it a try.  Fortunately, he soon realized that this wasn’t a very effective method and that it would be better to replace the wallboard.  So we’ve had to add another task to the bathroom remodeling project.