Over the weekend I managed to get a few things done and I noticed a few more things that should go on the to do list.

Yesterday was warm for February 1st and sunny.  I love the light that comes in through the stained glass panels in the stairwell but am bothered by the fire escape that is visible.  This is especially obvious inside when the sun is bright and always very obvious and unattractive from the outside.

The fire escape was apparently added when the oblates lived in the house and required because they had the chapel and bedrooms on the third floor.  It comes down onto the flat roof over the front porch.  Ideally, I would like to remove it or relocate it to the back of the house.  It could come out of one of the bedrooms onto the flat roof over the back porch.  While we are talking about this project, I would also like to remove/replace the Plexiglas over the stained glass windows.  I think it is such a shame that one of the focal points of our home isn’t visible from the outside. I know the plexi is there to protect the windows and to help insulate from the cold but there must be a better option.  It almost looks like someone tried to clean the Plexiglas with something that made it cloudy and opaque.  Or maybe whoever put it up didn’t want the windows seen from the outside.  In any case, changing this or removing the Plexiglas would also allow a lot more light into the house and is something I know we can do ourselves.

I’ve also noticed that the living room wall that backs to the music room has the same problems the music room had.  The plaster has disintegrated behind the wallpaper due to water damage.  I am not sure why it hadn’t occurred to us that this would have happened.  We replaced the wall behind this spot.  Of course both sides suffered the same fate from the water seeping in! Now we can hear the plaster falling and the bulge under the paper is getting more noticeable.  The biggest problem here is I am very fond of the living room wallpaper.  The music room paper was awful as you may remember.  In order to repair this wall the paper will have to be removed.  The small glimmer of hope here is the location of the wall damage.  The part of the wall that needs repair  is isolated between the music room entrance and a window.  If I can get the paper down in one piece, I may be able to put it back up.  Not really an impossible task.  There is at least one and maybe two other papers under this and since the plaster has come off the wall, the paper isn’t really attached.  I have no idea when this paper was put up and have no way of determining who the manufacture was so there is very little chance of finding it again.  I did find a company online that prints custom designed wallpaper.  They will take your design and create rolls of wallpaper.  My thought is I may be able to get them to print a roll of this paper if I send them a large enough sample and tell them where the repeats are in the pattern.  I am slightly concerned that they may not be willing to reprint a paper that belongs to another manufacturer.  I would guess that there may be copyright issues to consider.

If you look at the molding, you can see where the wall is not flush

you can’t see it very well in the pictures, but it is there.

I have hung very little on the walls here.  Partly due to the fact that I just wasn’t sure what to put where and partly due to the dust and construction that was going on so long. Since the Christmas stuff came down things are looking a little bare and I am ready to get some things up and make this feel more like home. Hanging the print over the fireplace changed how that room felt and made it feel like home.  It is time to do that with other spaces.

Yesterday I did manage to hang up my mirror collection in the study.  I knew pictures wouldn’t work against the busy wallpaper and I thought the mirrors might hide it and help it feel more like our home while I am looking for the right wallpaper.  I had the mirrors all hung on a wall in the dining room at the old house and I like the eclectic mix of old and new as a grouping. Sadly, I am unsure how I feel about them here.  It almost feels like the wallpaper is even busier than before.  I may resort to painting this room until I find the right wallpaper. I would really like the mirrors in this space to brighten up the dark wood paneling.  For now, this is what I have: