Our Embassy-leased apartment is quirky, but generally pretty nice, considering its age However, the master bedroom is definitely the ugliest room in the house. It is a weird shape, dominated by huge cupboards, and someone really blew it with this floor. The rest of the apartment has somewhat weathered, but interesting and classy hardwood floors. In the master bedroom and office someone had the brilliant idea of covering them with plastic fake wood.

This stuff is cheap, ugly, not very well installed, and slippery as heck. Unfortunately, due to being allergic to practically everything, I can’t put a carpet over it. Oh well, at least it’s just this room. And the curtains are navy blue, not rust-brown, peach, or pink like some others in the house. Yes, my teenage son has floor-length pink polyester drapes in his bedroom. Not psyched.

We also got what I now know is the older batch of Drexel furniture. Straight from the Residence Inn!

And a big old brass ceiling fan. Which, considering we have no air conditioning, is a good thing in August. But, it is certainly big….and brass…and I so love that builder-grade light fixture…

But, you know what else I have? Aside from brand-new comfy bedding which is making the hotel-quality mattress somewhat tolerable? BAROQUE DECALS!

Now, at least the room doesn’t look like a giant pantry. My mother suggested these. I got them from a place called Modern Wall Graphics. With a coupon code, they were not too expensive. They peel right off, so easy to remove when we leave (they are supposed to be re-usable, but I really doubt that.) I have a few extra, so when our air bed arrives, I’ll use them to create a headboard design on the wall behind it.

Next step, getting rid of the cheesy wallpaper border and matching brown polyester curtain in the master bathroom.

I have to say, someone was asleep at the switch when they let the previous tenant leave without taking down their Wal-Mart wallpaper borders. There is a similar one in the kitchen, with a big orange shelf under it. Yes, I said orange. With a brown wallpaper border. In a white Ikea kitchen.

We’ve been here three weeks, and GSO says they need to get a “quote” to remove the borders and paint the shelf. I’ve giving them a few more days, and then tackling the work myself. I’ve found a hardware store I can get to on the bus and am now empowered.

There’s quite a bit of deferred maintenance going on in this place: missing window screens, missing and broken blinds (which are pretty important in a rooftop apartment with no a/c and strong sun coming in during the day), broken bathroom vent fans, and so on. The GSO guys who have come over have acted kind of surprised that the previous tenants let this stuff go for so long, and have been perfectly willing to replace and repair items-though it looks like it may take a while, this being August in Europe.

So, here’s an idea, FS folks: if stuff needs fixing in your housing, request repairs. Maybe you don’t care about window screens or blinds, but the next person probably will. No one likes to move in to a place and have to start bugging GSO right away. Pay it forward, and maybe your next house will be in better shape as a result.

And for God’s sake, take down your tacky taste-specific wallpaper borders, paint over anything you painted a strong color, and if you have the opportunity to order GSO curtains, don’t order pink!