Having Adjusted to Unpleasant Unexpectedness

I didn't feel like blogging yesterday. I was still in the midst of trying to process through my fit of ire over some unpleasant unexpectedness, one of which was going to involve an unwelcome expenditure of money.

The kitchen sink was not draining, and I finally realized that I needed to bite the bullet and call the plumber. To make the matter embarrassing, the stopped-up kitchen sink was due to a major bit of stupidity on my part.

My brain must have taken a leave of absence on the day when I went to dispose of a buggy box of couscous. Rather than throwing it out into the trash or the compost bucket, I had the dubiously bright idea of pouring the couscous down the drain and running it through the garbage disposal.

I figured the garbage disposal would take care of things. What I did not anticipate was the couscous getting cooked by the hot water that normally backed up into the sink whenever the dishwasher was operating.

Have you ever wondered where those imbecilic directions on food packages ~ "Remove wrapper before placing in oven preheated to 450°F." ~ come from?

Well, there should be a new bit of instruction on a box of couscous ~ "Do not pour down the sink, especially when the dishwasher is running."

That is definitely not the proper way to cook couscous. And that is what happened when I poured the couscous down the sink. It got cooked, and I had a massive bolus of cooked couscous plugging up the sink.

I had no choice but to call Roger (not Joe) the plumber.

Also, I spent a good part of the day scrubbing the woodwork in the living room. Both Ariana and Carol were helping out in this task.

My plan was to first clean the woodwork and then quickly slap a cosmetic coat of paint over that vomitous green wallpaper that I lived with for over 20 years.

Now painting over wallpaper is not exactly the proper way of painting a wall, but at least it's nowhere near as boneheaded as pouring a box of couscous down the sink. And it's a way of quickly ~ without making much commitment to a major renovation project ~ improving the look of a room in order to make it more attractive to potential home buyers.

One of Barbara's friends painted over wallpapered walls just prior to selling her house, and it came out looking fairly decent.

As much as I did not want to create more work for myself by painting the living room, I had to admit that painted walls were going to look more attractive than '70s reject vomitous green wallpaper that was heavily punctuated with patches of white caused from when Ariana taped Christmas cards to the wall. (She was very young at the time.)

For that matter, that tacking putty that is used to post children's artwork on the walls is as lethal to certain wallpapers as is adhesive tape.

Anyhow, after cleaning all the woodwork, I took a damp rag to wipe down the walls and rid them of dust and cobwebs. To my horror, as I was wiping down the walls, the wallpaper was rubbing off!

If the wallpaper was coming off with just a gentle wiping with a damp rag, what was going to happen to it when I started painting over it?

Just like I had to bite the bullet and call the plumber, I had to bite a second bullet and resign myself to stripping the wallpaper off the living room walls.

I was NOT amused. In fact I swore quite a bit, especially when I could not find my putty knife and had to resort to a wet rag and scrubbie to remove the wallpaper off one section of wall.

It was very slow going, and very messy with the shower of shredded micro spit-balls that were being created with my scrubbing the wall paper.

I was absolutely disgusted with the wallpaper. It was old and very cheap wallpaper that was as thin as very poor quality gift wrapping paper. I cursed the idiot that bought and put up the paper, which I also discovered, covered up a multitude of sins, like a 1/4" gap between the wall and one of the window frames.

Could this have been one of the houses that Jack built? (Actually, the original part of the house was built a lot more soundly than the addition that included the living room.)

5 o'clock had come. It was time to feed the animals ~ a perfect time to call it quits.

After being supremely pissed off over a bolus of cooked couscous stopping up my kitchen sink and the prospect of having to strip all the wallpaper off the walls of a large living room, I was in no mood to be blogging last night.

Rather, I needed something to make me laugh. So Ariana and I watched Meet the Spartans, a spoof of 300.

Anyhow, today was another day.

Roger the plumber's son, PJ, came early this morning and blasted away the cooked couscous that plugged up both ends of the plumbing trap under the sink.

I found the putty knife. And after finding some insights on-line on how to remove wallpaper, I set out to tackle the living room walls.

Armed with a putty knife and a spray bottle containing a hot solution of water and white vinegar, the wallpaper was most cooperative.

While working on stripping the wallpaper, I had a visit from Mary Beth, my realtor. She was over to take pictures of the house and property and for me to sign the realtor contract.

And guess what? The house is going on the market tomorrow.

Tomorrow there should be a "For Sale" sign up by my house.

Now that was a bit of much appreciated news. With all the work that still needed to get done inside the house, I was afraid that the house was not yet going to be ready to be put on the market for at least another 2 of 3 weeks.

So it was a blessed relief to find out that it's going on the market tomorrow.

Barring unforeseen events, I plan to start painting the living room tomorrow. I will be glad when that is over and done with. It will be nice to be able to move the furniture back against the walls.

Right now, with everything hugging the center of the room, the only way I can get through the living room is by following narrow goat paths in the room.

Those goat paths may be wide enough for the dogs and cats, but I would sure like a bit more navigation space.