I disappeared last summer and I wanted to share with ya'll one of the reasons I did. For some weird reason I absolutely LOVE wallpapering...although it's harder at 57 than it was at 37. I had family visiting Thanksgiving and needed to get these rooms finished. I did them back to back so by the time I finished I was really sick of wallpapering. Anyway, I wanted to share with ya'll photos of the finished products. I had to paint the doors, wood trim and painted the furniture in the twin bedroom white. One thing I learned is there's not a square wall in the place...the house is 136 years old and trying to work with wallpaper with verticle designs is a nightmare. Am I glad that job is over. (Hey Georgia...I finally figured out how to add multiple photos...YEAH!)

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A beautiful job, Dee. I, too, live in an older home and can not imagine how difficult it must have been to work with this pattern on the walls. We missed you here and now I can see why you were gone for so long.

What a sunny inviting bedroom Dee!
I know what a nightmare that is to wallpaper on uneven walls. I’ve never done it, but Hubby invented some new curse words while wallpapering our walls.

I like wallpaper too. I think it makes a room cozier. They are coming back in big fashion here. Did you have to sand down the furniture before painting? Ew…that’s a fun job, but what a neat job you did.

Oh and hip hip hooray, that you can post pictures!

Dee, beautiful!! Everything is so cozy and inviting. What a place for Molly and me to curl up in! Lovely job. I've always enjoyed wallpapering but right now I have a few painting jobs to accomplish. My Mom would wallpaper constantly...it was an addiction to her. She changed wallpaper often in an 1835 brick house. I remember her mentioning uneven walls but it never seemed to stop her. You should be so proud....how pretty!

I love your home.You are also a good photographer using the mirror to show your flowers.
The women in my family also walpapered well.We would gather at my Grandmothers home and do a room.Then of course it showed that other rooms needed doing.
I have embossed paper which have fresh emuslsion to freshed up.Mostly because being an old house I have planned it this way.I have chosen small fleur de lyss paper with light embossing and it does the trick.
But your paper maked me ...wish...We are nest builders.
MA

Anno..thanks hon. I had no idea how off things were until I got to a corner...I was using the level religiously and had to cheat a few times...I'd butt the ends together and spend a lot of time ensuring they stuck tightly together, but sometimes I'd have to overlap an end to keep the lines straight. I'm glad I'm back to BWS, too cuz I missed you all.
Hannelore...I understand your husband...I invented a few new words of my own...or at least wore out the old ones...I'd have everything on the top of the ladder, climb up and BAM...something would hit the floor and I'd have to climb down and get it...or the wallpaper would keep falling down on my head as I was trying to line it up...it was a mess...a big mess. The only place sanded on the walls was where I'd spackled over nail holes...I put a primer on the walls and that helps the paper slide easier...actually, I primed one room and not the other and what a mistake...the one I didn't prime was very difficult to work with. I was trying to save time by not having to prime the entire room but I learned my lesson...it's worth taking the time to do it.
LadyJane..Ya'll come on down to Dee's B&B!!! Thank you...the rooms are very cozy and in the mornings very bright and airy. You say you have some painting projects....what is it you have to do? I'd love to hear about them.
Mountain...I bet it's much more enjoyable with lots of folks helping. A family project sounds nice. I'm a work-alone kind of person...Larry helped when he could...but, 99% of it was just me and the Lord watching out for me. Falling from a ladder at this age would not have been pretty.
What is embossed paper and the fresh emuslsion? Not sure I know what that is? Tell tell...sounds interesting.
Yes, I guess nest building is in our blood...I'm always into something, are you?

Oh me, too, Dee...I work so much better alone and on my own. If I had Frank around everytime I had an indoor project I'd be tearing my hair out. Nice guy....but projects make him very intense and he'd be telling me how to do everything like I'm 8 years old! Then I'd dump a can of paint over his head...so....I choose to do my projects when all is quiet and I have a blast...well, mostly. My concentration now is bathroom and kitchen. I've done the ceilings and will now hit the walls. My kitchen is small so it's mostly around windows and counters. The bath will be a sagey-sorta green (got that??) I have color swatches sticking all over the place in there so I can see them in every possible light. It's always such a good feeling though, when you can stand back and admire a completed job...isn't it?

I love what you did, Dee. Its warm, soothing, and inviting. Everything in my house says, "Cottage" or some would say, "poverty!" HA! But nonetheless, I love it and LJ, I'm getting ready to paint my laundry room and kitchen a sage green. It is a Martha Stewart paint. I'll see if I can find the color and show you.

That would be nice, JJ. There's about a million different shades, it seems. And I understand the decoration in poverty....I've always preferred to call it "early attic." Such is for losing everything and starting life all over as if I were 22.

LJ, here is a photo I clipped off the Internet. This is NOT my house. Wish it were! ha! Anyway, here she used the Martha Stewart paint called Dried Fava 8112. You have to get Lowe's to mix it for you if you're interested in it. Anyway, it gives you an idea about the color, anyway.

ps--for some people, this green is too light...so don't take my word for it...!

LadyJ...I love the color of sage...it's a nice warm color and is pleasing to the eye. You and JJ ought to post your pics when you're finished. How do you like painting ceilings? Talk about a pain in the neck...sheesh. I painted my dining room and up the stairs and upstairs hallway with a Lowe's color called Grandma's Linen (really pretty)...weird name but a really beautiful green color. It goes well with the black trim on the railing and steps and the black doors. Larry thought I was nuts wanting to paint the upstairs bedroom doors black but after he saw them he thought it was a pretty good idea.
JJ...when I saw the photo of your granddaughter eating her cake and the lace on the back of the chairs I sorta got a clue you like the cottage style...I bet your home is really beautiful...I dig through junk stores and garage sales for my stuff...I'm cheap when I can get away with it...Nothing wrong with that. In fact the white furniture in the single guest bedroom was given to me...I painted it and it looks like new. The curtains were $9 a panel, the lamps were $12 bucks apiece...and I found one of the whicker side tables on the side of the road...my husband didn't want to stop for it but I will jump out of a speeding car for wicker...Larry added a fresh coat of paint and there you have it.

Dee, my home is not beautiful, but I'm working on it. I love the cottage style, always have. Lace, pillows, old quilts, overstuffed chairs...ahhh...put me in it. And of course, wicker. Although I'll be the first to admit it is NOT comfortable. The swings are, but that's about it.

I think your savvy way of buying is just that...savvy. I would stop on the side of the road for a chair in a heartbeat. I'm with you. It wouldn't do for you and I and LJ to go junkin' as I call it. Larry would kill us! LOL!

One more thing...back in the 30's doors were black. I love that look. I absolutely love it!

I love "stuff" but my husband loves it more. One summer he brought home 3 lawn mowers at separate times (found on the side of the road)...ughhhh...why? I still don't know. I love yard sales. We're still trying to get settled and weed through stuff. We got together and had 2 or 3 of everything...Dee, how did you deal with that? I like the color of the walls in the photo...thanks! I'm not sure what I'll finally do. I have so far to go.

Dee, reminds me of a bed and breakfast. Love it. How many boomer women will it hold?

Dee
embossed wallpaper..you may know it as ceiling paper.or anagylpta..its thickish with a protuding pattern maybe swirls in my case fluer de lyss.Once pasted on it can be painted with emusion paint.
MA

Dotsie...I wish we were a B&B...always wanted to have one. Larry had one in Mobile at one time...the Kate Sheppard House...beautiful. He sold it several years ago. However, our little home is always open to my boomer friends anytime you are in this area, you're welcome to come by. The iced tea and front porch swing is waitin'.
I'm enclosing some more photos to show the color green (Grandma's Linen...the color by the stairs). The bedroom color is a beautiful green but I have no idea what it is...we've always like it and will not repaint it or wallpaper over it. The other photos show some more black doors and how they look in the rooms. Also every stick of furniture you see is garage sale stuff (Larry made the wall bookshelf for my junk)(except for the tiny coffee table...a friend of the family made that when he was in High School). It's amazing what you can pick up if you're in the right place at the right time. Georgia...LadyJ...we need to get together and go shopping for sales!!!

Mountain...I don't think I've ever seen that...or if I have I didn't know what it was. I've seen ceiling tin squares but not ceiling paper. Sounds like it would be beautiful...
and hard work putting up. I can't imagine wallpapering a ceiling but I bet it's worth it.

Dee, I LOVE the black doors....and the wall color is wonderful. What a beautiful combination! Thanks for taking the time to show us. I'll have to come to Alabama to do yard sales right now. It's frozen snow and ice here and 5 below zero today....I can't say there's a lot of sales at the moment. But when May comes you can find them on every corner for months!

Dee, the rooms are both beautiful! I love the quilt and the bookcase and black doors and oh the chest with the shoes and the hat on it is so sweet. I love Victorian, myself. Hard to do in a condo, so we have Victorian wherever I can get away with it. I throw doilies around a lot. I used to wallpaper and paint all the time in my house in my other life. Now, we have only paint and have it done professionally. I painted the small bathroom once about 9 years ago. Too hard to do now. But, we are partial to a paint by Benjamin Moore called Opal. We have it in every room. It picks up the colors from the rug and whatever else is in the room, so it doesn't look like the same color from one room to the other.

I love what you did. What a lovely B&B it would make.

Lady Jane, I have a girlfriend, Nancy, who lives in Mississippi who exists for yard sales...she checks out the yard sales the day before in the paper and plots her routes...riding with her is taking your life into your own hands...she's a maniac only when driving to garage sales...I think the most accidents occur in Gulfport Mississippi at 6:30 a.m. by women trying to get to the same garage sale before anyone else. After a morning of tearing through streets and trying to beat the other women to the next sale, plowing over small children and animals for that lamp or dish towel and finally making it back to Nancy's, I threw myself onto the ground and kissed it, thanking God that he'd let me live another day. I kid you not...this is how it is so I've decided it's safer for me to visit my best friend on any day but Saturday.

Thank you Louisa...Victorian is so pretty...I was trying to go for country but I think it's more Vic than the other. Do you miss wallpapering at all? It's in my blood and I have to do it ever-so-often...3 years ago I wallpapered my MIL's kitchen.
Doilies can add such a soft feminine touch and can change the look of an area. I love them. The one on the large dresser was crocheted by my grandmother and I've had it for years...there's no telling how old it is...it has holes in it and is stained on one spot but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

The Opal colors sounds so good...I've never heard of it but the next time I'm in a place that sells that brand I want to look it up...that's pretty good having one color that picks up other colors and makes the room uniquein color. Very smart.

Louisa, girl, you are the one that had the paint I was asking about in a thread of that purpose - me wanting to know what paint and the maker... you just answered my question of a couple of months ago...
I've got it now - OPAL - answers come when least expected sometimes...
Such pretty rooms, dee.

I think it's in England where so many homes offer B&B. The guest rooms are integrated with the rest of the house. So maybe you could fullfill that dream afterall? I bet you would be a hostess with the mostess.
I love your staircase and the French doors! Just lovely Dee.

Dee, you've done such a lovely job! Congrats on the new redecorating.

Louisa, I'm going to look up Benjamin Moore's Opal....sounds heavenly! Dee, I'm not a die hard yard saler like that!!! In fact, I only go to a few here and there whatever time of day I feel like it. But I do know some who are exactly like your friend, Nancy...realllll fiends!...crazy women! And also, up this way we have loads of B & B's and I know one place who has only 1 room to offer (maybe 2)....so there's a lot of huge ones and some very small ones. Great idea...but you become married to the thing. I had friends who owned one for years and finally got out of the business so that they could do some living! I'm sure Larry has a VERY good idea of what I'm talking about!!

My husband agrees with you Ladyjane...The B&B was lots of work in addition to his fulltime work with the RR. Plus, he was married to a nut case at the time and so it was not a pleasant experience for him. I would love to have a B&B but we're not in an area condusive with having good business. And, too, I'm not sure I want to open my home to complete strangers. Now, my Boomer ladies are different. I'll fill this house to the bursting point for those wanting to come visit. Just say the word!!!

Dee I think your home is beautiful.
I had a trademan hang my paper knowing that thereafter I could keep it fresh.The orginal paper lasted about five years before I lightly emusioned it.(My son did it between jobs)
This house is old with thick walls.I know it like the back of my hand..
MA

Hannelore,
I stayed in lovely B&B's when I lived overseas...I remember fondly one in Edinburgh where the owners had a dog named "McDougal". And a dear woman in Glencoe Scotland (I went there because my grandparents lived in Glencoe, Alabama and our family comes from Scotland). Parts of Harry Potter were filmed in Glencoe Scotland (the scenes with Hagrid's hut for those of you who are a HP fan). The history of Glencoe Scotland is amazing. I think I've talked about this before. Anyway, the sweet lady at the Glencoe B&B had tea and scones by the fireplace in the evening and told us stories of the area. It was wonderful. I'll take a B&B over a hotel any day.

Dee,
You've done such a beautiful job remodeling your home. Really it could be a brochure for a B&B. WE remodeled summer of 06 from May 11th - Sept 30th...Not one room left untouched. I'm still finding things I'd of done differently. One issue to be resolved this spring or Asap. We continued the carpet from the living room side of our Great Room into the dining area. I never realize how much time my DH spent at the dining table w/ his boots on or what a messy eater he is. Since we went from dark carpet to an light cream color. His "spot" was literally transformed into 'HIS SPOTS".. SO, we're taking OUT the dining area carpet and replacing it with the same flooring as the kitchen & utility room on opposite sides of the dining area. Our Buck wood stove/fireplace is also in the dining area and a spark hit the carpet a week or so back. LOL I saw opportunity and said "That's IT, this carpet's outta here!" Much to my surprise Honey-do didn't fuss, he just sat there and says,,OK. If I'd only known I could of said "That's IT You're outa here". LOL just kiddin'. He remodeled casue he'd promised me for 15 years we would, then when I almost didn't make it during my transplant, he got on the ball to make things 'happy' for me. IE: got the loan, hired a contractor and turned me loose. It must have been so nice that your husband had ran a B&B, giving him wonderful insite to decorating. By the time our remodel was complete I almost worte a book titled.."How NOT to remodel" (a guide to doing it right).

LadyJane, you are in southern ME? Not sure what part is what, but we go to Ogunquit a lot and Kennebunkport. Some of the most beautiful B&B's and Inn's there. My favorite if the Kennebunkport Inn. I've also been to the Haraseekit in Freeport.

QB,
Good for you and your remodeling...you made me laugh talking about your husband's spots...sounds like he doesn't move much. I can't get mine to sit still...which is good...he's always into something.
When you talk about your transplant what exactly are you referring to? I must have missed hearing about that.

Ouch...sorry to hear about the burns on your carpet but it was a blessing in disguise, ey? I'm glad you are going to get the flooring you want. Keep us updated on the progress, please.

Dee, I just wanted to add my respect and admiration for you...I've read your story in Our Voices, visited your site, read your posts throughout the various forums, drooled over these pictures of your handiwork and creativity, and I just have to tell you how very much I admire you and am inspired by you. I'm thoroughly enjoying getting to know you since your return.

These rooms speak such beauty, hospitality and welcome...

Eagle...I am so humbled by your words...I don't deserve them but thank you so much. HUG HUG HUG HUG HUG HUG HUG!!!You are so precious.
All I can say is God had bigger plans than I ever dreamed of and I'm so thankful that in the moment when life could have ended for me, I was lifted up by Him and the thoughts of my two children. Between the three of them, they saved my life...literally. It took me a year to share the pivotal moment in my life with BWS (Dotsie helped me), but I'm glad now that I did. I'm where I am because it wasn't my time to leave and I'm with who I'm with because finally...finally, I made the right choice. For Eagle Heart and anyone else to say I've inspired you brings tears to my eyes...simply because for so long I hated myself and everything about me. But, maybe putting my story out there on BWS so others could see there is an alternative to giving up was part of His plan, too. I truly am living a completely different life now...I'm happy, with a man I adore and who loves and respects me, and I'm so glad that I can show you through pictures how good life can be when we let it. Please, please, please understand that when I show things I'm proud of it's not to boast...but, as Eagle Heart recognized, it's to show hope and love and a spirit in finally finding happiness and doing what I truly wanted to have my whole life but never had...a husband in every sense of the word and making a house our home. I've invited many of you to come by our home anytime and 'sit-a-spell' but, Eagle, you have a personal invitation. It would be my honor to play hostess to you here. Bless you, sweetie, for your kind and loving words. I'm so touched by them...more than you can know.

Ladyjane shared in another forum that when we acknowledge and celebrate (I'm paraphrasing) the things we do well, it inspires others - I think her words were that it gives "hope and endurance". And you would be living testament to those words, because when you share all that you've had to struggle through to get to your here-and-now, it inspires others (including myself) to keep the hope and stay the course. We never know what's around the next bend, and sometimes the words we share out of our own experience are just enough to keep someone walking toward that next bend, instead of giving up. And those few extra steps can make all the difference.

I take your personal invitation to heart...and I offer the same to you...my house is small, eclectically furnished and the guest room is painted in what many have called a hideous turquoise, but it's full of love and warm welcome...actually, the theme throughout our house is adopted from Princess Lenora's signature - Love and Light.

Maybe my summer project will be to finally paint those walls a more lovely and lighter colour!

Eagle Heart...you're a treasure...and I thank you for the heartfelt invitation to your lovely home. Don't change a thing...your home sounds wonderful!

Louisa, the Harraseeket is indeed a beautiful inn. New England is peppered with them, isn't it? Southern Maine and the coast is B&B"ville".....many, many both big and elegant and small and homey. I'm only about 20 miles west of Portland. That should give you an idea. I worked out of South Portland for eons.

Oh and I lived in Wiscasset for 13 years...another great place and area for inns and B & B's

Louisa, I did a search for Benjamin Moore's Opal and found 6 different hues with "opal" in the name....
http://www.myperfectcolor.com/SearchResu...amp;Search=opal
Do you know which one you mentioned that reflects the colors in the room?

LadyJane, it's just Bejamin Moore's Opal. Nothing else in the name. They may not make it anymore, but we used it about two years ago the last time. They might have to mix it. Sometime you would think the walls are white, then you look at the ceiling and you can see the difference. We have carpeting that is somewhere between burgandy and red. Not quite as dark as burgand. The walls pick up the warmth from it. We had deep green in the bedroom once for a while and picked up the green in there. It looks darker in my small pc room than in the dining room.

Not far from Portland? It takes us about an hour to get to Ogunquit with traffic. So we aren't that far. My son is building in Harrison, which I had never heard of until then.

Ah...okay, Louisa. That narrows it down a bit. In the link I posted, I now see that there are just two opals that are so alike that it's quite hard to see any difference at all and that must be what you used. I love colors that relect things in a room. Before I left Wiscasset, I FINALLY had my lavender bedroom! I had always wanted it. The walls were a very light lavender, carpets were plum and I stenciled wisteria all around the doors. I absolutely adored that room. What I loved most about it was depending on the weather and the different times of day, the walls changed color. They could look almost pinkish at times, darker and lighter at other times. I miss that so much....another reason my ex-husband bothers me so much! Anyway, yes, I'm quite close to Portland. I have a nephew in Harrison. It's one of those rural areas that are up and coming with new homes.

LaydJane,
My son is building a house, I think a log cabin, in Harrison. We also have friends who live right there near where he is building. He's buliding it as a second home. To go up and ski and stuff, not to live there. It sounds pretty rural to me. Kittery is about a 45 minute drive for me. My daughter and I go there every now and then. In two weeks, I'll be in North Conway again. Yeah. I love it there. We'll go to Horsefeathers when we get there, have lunch, hang around the middle of town. My husband will have another beer while I go to the Penguin and Zeb's and the 5 and 10 cent store. Then we'll go check in and on Saturday we'll hit some outlets and have a nice dinner at the hotel. I so need to get away.

Oh, Louisa, North Conway is one of my most favorite get-away places....I'm only 45 minutes from there! We did our little 4 day honeymoon there also. We stayed in a chalet with a hottub in the window overlooking the mountains. Great place!

LJ, That's where we went on our honeymoon too. We stayed in Glen at the Bernerhof. Also had a hot tub in the room. Most of the photos on their website in the room tour section were taken by me. We usually go back every year in January for our anniversary, but last year we stayed at the New England Inn in Intervale just for a change and this year we bumped it up to Feb. and we are staying at the White Mountain Hotel. No hot tub, but it's a lovely place. We have friends who live in Conway. They took us to dinner there when we were up there on our honeymoom. We were going to try Eastern Slopes Inn, but my husband said that they were not so great on the phone and that they did/said everything to make him NOT want to book it there. I can't wait to go.

It sounds heavenly, Louisa. I love North Conway and that whole area in any season at all. But there's something nice about the coziness of winter there. We did the Cog Railway on our honeymoon (October)....to the top of Mount Washington. It was awesome but once was definitely enough for me...kinda freaky to me! I love to travel up through Glen and eventually on to Whitefield. The small town beauty and the mountains just make me breathe easy. I hope you have a wonderful time!