The Continuing Saga of the Wallpaper

Unless this is the first post you're reading you've no doubt read our tales about the apartment leaks. You've probably also heard about the mildewed wallpaper in the living room and dining room.

It's been a real struggle to get the ruined wallpaper replaced. I'm pretty sure the apartment management had tried to contract with at least half a dozen outside wallpaper companies to do the work. We got close a couple of times only to have them not show up and cancel doing the work. Apparently the job was too small and if they got clients with whole rooms to paper, that's the job they took. (I'm just guessing.)

I finally agreed to let the technicians from our building replace the wallpaper. I had requested that the unused rolls be left in the apartment when the wallpaper was originally installed so I had spare wallpaper to do the repairs. Rather, I believed that all of the wallpaper I was left was actually from our apartment. Alas, the largest roll was from a different run or dye lot or something because it didn't match.

I discovered the largest roll did not match when I returned home a few hours after the project began and pointed out to the workers that the wallpaper did not match. I'm not sure why they didn't notice it. On top of that, the guys that had tried to replace the wallpaper didn't really know how to paper so it was a mess. I was not happy. The top engineering guy and the building manager came and looked and they seemed to agree with me that they would try again to get actual wallpaper people to replace the wallpaper. The only trouble  was there now wasn't enough leftover wallpaper. How a roll that didn't match got into the box with the stuff that did match remains a mystery.

Fast forward some weeks and they were trying to locate more wallpaper. Luckily I could provide them with a small sample. The wallpaper they purchased, though, didn't match. It was close but the tiny, tiny lines in the original wallpaper were bolder in the new rolls. AND, the stripes were perpendicular to the roll itself. On the original rolls the stripes ran parallel to the roll. I thought it was probably close enough.

We set the date for the work. With Ibu Tin away (helping her daughter get married in her village) I had to supervise without any Bahasa Indonesia translator. Some of the building staff speak a little English but I won't say it was easy to communicate. Part English, part Bahasa Indonesia and very simple sentences.

The plan was to run the new wallpaper from a corner to a corner to make the wallpaper difference less noticeable. And that worked out pretty well except in one place where they did have to just patch. Fortunately, a large cabinet sits in front of most of the patch. We will obtain a large, decorative floor vase of some kind to place in front of the rest of the area. The team worked from about 10 am until 4:00 pm repairing the two small areas. They did ask to take a 1 hour lunch break, but came back in about 10 minutes. It was simply raining too hard to make going out for lunch sensible.

It really takes a team to repair wallpaper: one tenant relations manager, three people from the wallpaper fixing company and myself not to mention the others who visited during the project.One of the three people from the wallpaper company was a women and she gave orders/directions and then she left. The two men stayed to do the work. Shortly after the work began we were joined Pak Agung (I think he's the apartment manager and another engineering department guy who was "in charge" of the failed attempt I mentioned earlier. So much of the time we had 2 people working and at least 3 people watching the work. It was a long day. There are 5 people in this picture- one behind the other on the right side and a guy kneeling on the floor behind the guy in the white shirt (Pak Agung). Add me to mix and you have 6 people!

All in all, it does look pretty good. There were some loose spots I later glued down and the roman shades weren't centered over the windows when replaced, but eventually I'll have them adjusted.

If you're asking yourself, "What about the leaks?" here's the scoop. I am pretty sure the leaking in the LR and DR has been addressed fully. The ceiling in the guest bedroom is all closed back up so I'm not sure whether that's fixed or not.  I'm hopeful, but I'm not confident, that it's all fixed. It may take a big, big rain to see something and possibly multiple rainy seasons. On the day of the wallpaper repair, we did have very heavy rain for an extended period. That evening I went into my office for something and there was a large wet area on the wall in the exact spot I photographed leaking in February 2015. It could almost be the same photo. So, is the leaking all fixed? Belum (not yet).

By the way, in Bahasa Indonesia the word for leak is bocor. Wall is dingding. A leak in the wall is bocor dalam dingding.