What Lies Beneath

Now that the Christmas season is behind us, my family is returning to our continuing project of renovating the Muley home. Last night, Mrs. Muley began removing the old wallpaper in our master bathroom. She was able to peel off our most recent wallpaper by hand, exposing the white backing paper underneath. To get this off, she had to use a chemical that softens the backing and allows it to be peeled off as well.

We got a kick out of what emerged once Mrs. Muley was able to strip off the first chunks of backing:


Floral fantasia! This, we quickly figured out, is the room's original wallpaper, dating from the house's construction during the groovy vibe of the late 1970s. (I remember having a very similar wallpaper pattern greet me every morning in the breakfast room of my house as I was growing up during elementary and junior high). I have no doubt that this pattern was considered tres chic back when it was first attached. Here's a closer look:



Intrigued by her archaeological discovery, Mrs. Muley went to our children's bathroom and peeled off a bit of the current wallpaper there. We we thinking there could be another remnant of the groovy 70s underneath -- maybe flocked or mirrored wallpaper, or wallpaper portraying Smurfs -- but all Mrs. Muley liberated was sheetrock.

Finding that old 70s wallpaper hiding undercover in our bathroom makes a lot of things clearer to me now, such as why whenever I take a shower I keep looking for a nonexistent soap-on-a-rope to be hanging from the shower head, and why I sometimes get this unreasonable fear that Alice the maid from the Brady Bunch is going to walk in on me by accident.