Showing posts with label Home Restoration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home Restoration. Show all posts

Friday, November 27, 2009

If These Walls Could Talk

A couple of months ago we painted and fixed up a small bedroom. I posted then about the layers of wallpaper we had to remove. We also did some wall repair. When we removed a portion of the drywall we found this message written on the inside of the wall.

The writing seems completely "random" as the kids would say. But, it is not. In the late 60's Scope mouthwash ran a series of television ads featuring "The Green Phantom." In the ads bottles of mouthwash were mysteriously delivered to folks with bad breath. Accompanying the bottles was a note signed by The Green Phantom and urging the recipient to use the mouthwash. The ship captain, teacher, manager or whomever received the mouthwash would then interrogate their underlings trying to unmask the offending Green Phantom. The whole thing was pretty funny.

I very vaguely recalled the ads and found them assembled for viewing at this Duke University website.

Don't know who left the message, but I sure like their sense of humor. The Green Phantom, being associated with the competing Scope, would be just the sort to steal Listerine. Gave us a big laugh.

We closed the wall leaving this silly fun message intact. Just as work was done 40 years ago and as we did work this summer, I am sure that someone in the future will again work on this small room in this old house. We'll leave for them the joy of uncovering this amusing plea.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Wallpaper and Nails

One of the joys of rehabbing an old house is uncovering what was done by those who came before. In painting a small bedroom we found three different papers on the wall. Actually all of these were hidden under a fourth wall paper -- a solid rattan kind of paper. That paper had been painted over in green and then tan.

I think there should be a rule that prohibits more than three layers of wallpaper. Kind of like a roof. If you get to three layers of wallpaper, you have to tear it all off and start new.

We also found some square cut nails. Very cool stuff. These old nails didn't have the pointy ends of newer wire nails. Can't imagine hammering these blunt metal things into wood all day.