the bedroom was mine and i had put a great deal of effort into making it so ; i had painted over the flowered wallpaper with white emulsion ; sanded the furniture of its chipped gloss to leave the lighter cleaner wood beneath , ripped up the cracked linoleum and stained the floorboards ; i had even taken a saw to the legs of the bed , which had been too much like a vaulting horse in its original state , a monument to victorian values .