"Surface" Conditions
Our first home was in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago, a split-level (my wife’s preference), walking distance to the commuter train (my preference), and within our stipulated price range (“our” preference). Much as we liked the house, we were not the first owners, and there were certain things we wanted to “fix.” The first of these was the family room, where we figured to spend a lot of our time and which the previous residents had seen fit to line with pine paneling. Our plan was to take down that paneling and replace it with wallpaper, to modernize and “open up” the room. My previous experience with wallpapering was limited; in this case my job (as I understood it from my wife) was to take the lead in pulling down the paneling, and then to pretty much stand back and learn. As I pulled back that first strip of paneling, I was nearly blinded by a flash of orange…which was from what turned out to be a misbegotten shade of 1970s floral print wallpaper which lay ...