Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Nose for News by Sarah Stultz

 

When I first heard Gov. Tim Walz’s announcement about the stay-at-home order, my mind immediately shifted to all the projects I wanted to start working on around the house. You know, those projects you have been meaning to do, but haven’t gotten around to finishing for one reason or another. Well, now there’s the time and there’s no excuses any more. Since we’re asked not to get out and about as much as we used to, it’s the perfect time to get some things done.

We moved into our house about three years ago, and right away I came up with projects I wanted to work on. The first thing I wanted to attack was the wallpaper all over the house. So far I’ve removed a strip of wallpaper in the kitchen and painted it a new color, and last year I tackled a full wall of wallpaper put on top of wood paneling in one of the bedrooms. I’ve really wanted to get rid of the wallpaper in my son’s bedroom.

Removing the wallpaper from on top of the wood paneling was no easy task, and it kind of turned me off to wallpaper removal for several months after that. In fact, it’s been practically a year since I finished that project without starting on the next room, and, unfortunately, that’s not the last of it because there’s two more rooms of it in the basement, too.

Two weeks ago, my husband and I started removing the wallpaper in our son’s room with the help of a steamer loaned to us by a friend. Though it was easier than it was when the wallpaper was on the wood paneling, I must say it is still not one of my favorite things to do. I don’t know what we would have done without that steamer.

After several hours of work over a few days, we finally finished the room, and now it’s ready to paint. My plans are to get the paint this weekend and knock that out on Saturday.

Realistically, I’ll probably take a week or two off after that room is done, and then I hope to tackle the next project.

And then of course it will be gardening season, and that will occupy a lot of my spare time. 

One of the positive things about this stay-at-home order is that it’s allowing me to get some of these things done that I’ve been putting off for way too long, and for that reason alone, I’m feeling a little bit of accomplishment.

Take advantage of the time we have to catch up on projects or, even more importantly, to catch up on relationships that may have been put on the back burner during our otherwise busy lives. Though we can’t see people face to face, much can be done through the phone and other technology.

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune. Her column appears every Wednesday.