Nothing good ever comes after that question.
He can't describe what he's smelling, and I don't smell anything, so we get to play 20 questions. "Is it a plastic smell? Is it a cat gack smell?" Finally we settle on an "earthy" smell, and he's localized it to the outside corner of the room. You know, the one with all the bookshelves. I unloaded one bookcase and moved it out of the room, then gave the other one a mighty shove (Thank you, adrenal rush) so he could see the corner.
Sure enough, it wasn't good. The best way to put it is to say the wallpaper was attempting to escape from the wall. It was bubbling and peeling in a very suspicious way. After a brief conference in which we discussed how we were intending to remove the wallpaper this summer anyway (I hate wallpaper, it always looks dirty to me; we've been taking it off the walls of all the rooms of the house systematically and my office is the only room left), Quin reached down, snagged a corner, and pulled it back.
Like I said, nothing good. But the deep chest cold I couldn't shake for February and most of March makes sense now, if I've been sharing airspace with this for who knows how long:
As you can see, the evil wallpaper is now gone. Evil carpet will have to stay for a while longer. Of course this sort of major home project has to rear its head when Quin is not only doing tons of overtime, he's going out of town for two days next week. So it's all on me (in a surprising reversal from his usual "I'm the only one qualified to do this" stance, I've gotten the spousal OK to take this on). There are four bookcases in that room, so every other room in the house is taking on the extra book load for a while. I have books coming out my ears. Not to mention, the biggest case I had to unload was Quin's books from college. Architecture books, coding, private pilot books. Everything big, everything hardcover. I went to bed last night very, very tired.
Today I stripped off the paper (and took the pics). Everything has been sprayed down with mildew and mold killer. Let me tell you, my office stinks. Worst of all, I discovered as I pulled the paper that it wasn't just this corner. It runs along the floor down both of the outside walls. Check it out:
Ugh. The suck part is that I have to work in that room. It's the only one with the phone line for the Dictaphone. And the weather, which has been warm for the past few days, is getting chillier again today. But it's not like I'm going to close those windows. I don't know what's worse, mold or mold remover.
Oh yeah, I'm smelling it now. So if it's been a few days, and you haven't heard from me you might want to stop by, just to be sure I don't look like this:
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