My Mother-in-Law's House

Moving into this house is very strange. For Husband, it's haunted by both parents, but for me, it's just his mother. His father died before we started dating. I had known his dad, of course, but peripherally.

Mom did some very odd decorating when they moved in here in 1980. Sometimes it's hard to decide where the original '80's decor ends, and Mom's quirkiness begins.

There's a little back hall that separates the garage from the rest of the house. It is painted the most obnoxious shade of green I have ever seen in my entire life. That's Mom. She thought the space was too dark, and needed brightening up. She's right about the dark part, but almost any other light colour would have been better. Fortunately, we have paint. It will be taken care of.

Then, there's the floor in the hall bathroom. I had never much noticed it before. She may have had sort of permanent mats down, or something. It is vinyl, and the pattern suggests head cheese, but the colours suggest some sort of jello containing chunks of pineapple, dried banana and American cheese. It's really bad. It has to go!

Older Daughter took care of the wallpaper in the kitchen, which was typical '80's. The master bath has some sort of gold and cream flocked paper. I've already started tearing that down.

It will be a while before we can do any major redecorating, as a new roof will be the first order of business, but these little things will not be difficult to fix.

It's just really odd to feel Mom looking over my shoulder.