Well, I did use blue roses on stick on tiles back when we needed to clean up a bathroom in the Quarter. We couldn't use conventional linoleum (my preference) because the terazzo floor was really horribly un-flat. They suggest starting at the center because floors are imperfect (even those not done 60 years ago badly) and the eye goes to the center first, and it reduces the wiggle-room cuts you may have to make to keep the pattern. About patterns...perfect squares with a perfect pattern are not your friend. A random (appearing) pattern will be more forgiving. Change the utility knife blade often, and get a good steel edge to cut against. Cut patterns and then cut the tiles to be fit elsewhere. The old adage "Measure twice, cut once" applies here and for patterns, double time. Expect 10% waste and buy more tiles than your think you need and make sure you can return excess. If you buy more than one box of tiles, make sure both boxes were made the same time...there should be a number that id's each batch...the box batches should match. Make sure you like the tiles with the lighting you have in your bathroom. Some fluorescent lights make some colors difficult to appreciate. Blue roses made a good looking floor (and I expect nobody knew that blue roses are a fantasy.)

Your not suppose to go straight over the vinyl. Plasticizer migration of the existing plastic top layer of sheet vinyl, with mess with the adhesive. Your suppose to emboss the surface of the vinyl, with a product made just for that, Like Ardex SD-F Feather finish. All self stick tiles require a primer, that is part of the system. As soon as you start listening and believeing the help at the big box stores like Lowe's and Home Depot, your on your way to failure.

I have a laundry tub full of LP's (with a few 45's and 78's thrown in for good measure), but our record player died long ago, so I haven't listened to them in years. There's a good assortment of rock, blues, jazz, soul, showtunes, and classical. I don't know whether to bring them to a record dealer or put them out as giveaways at a yard sale, but I can't use them now, and I can't vouch for their condition (some were stored in the attic or basement for years and may be warped; most of the album covers are not in great condition), so I have no idea of their worth. And I don't want to buy a new turntable, as the scratches would probably be too painful to listen to. But looking through them brings back such memories! I can even remember how the final chord at the end of one cut was followed by a particular note at the start of the next, or where I was when I first listened to some of the songs; I guess it's an auditory memory that never leaves us. Lowspark, my DS also discovered the Beatles and then moved on to Pink Floyd, Queen, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and many more. When he still lived at home and played his CDs, I had the pleasure of listening to them again. Good music lasts forever, even if the medium changes. Sue

The longer rectangular box that is mostly painted over is a super-old Winegard TV distribution amplifier (as someone suggested above). Here is almost the exact same one, I'm pretty sure: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Winegard-DA-8150-82-Channel-Distribution-Amplifier/193941261031?hash=item2d27cccae7:g:SZEAAOSwxjZgRUNJ The other box that is completely painted, with the two connections at the top and power coming out of the bottom, I think is one of these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/303839191777?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338722076&toolid=10001 a pre-amp TV signal booster, effectively similar to the longer box. But, those boxes utilize coax cable-TV-style cable, and the intercom amplifier uses thinner, twisted pair wires that are orange red and black. The cable going into the antenna device in the closet appears to have a larger, heavier gauge wire with green, black, and red conductors....I would try to trace that specific cable as far as you can and see where it goes first. Were there any other kind of junction boxes underneath the house? The intercom amp appears to have a line coming into the DOOR input, one line going to the regular input and one line going to the output terminals, which would suggest that they likely just had one door speaker, and one inside speaker to communicate with the front door. If you had multiple intercom speakers throughout the house, typically you would have multiple wires going to those terminals, but I do believe those particular nutone systems could be "daisy-chained" as well, with one room station wired to the next, in a line, etc...so it is possible there could have been more. I am absolutely fascinated by what this thing in your closet could be! If it is, in fact, somehow wired into one or both of those two TV distribution amps, maybe it was some kind of project idea from Popular Electronics that utilized making your own antenna and using those amps to power it somehow, but I just can't imagine why you'd have it in a closet, it is so intriguing. The key-switch on the wall looks very common to many old alarm systems of the time, but typically you'd have other security system components around, like sensors on your doors/windows, and a siren mounted somewhere outside your house...It is also entirely possible that the TV distribution amp boxes underneath the house were not related to that antenna thing, but it seems like it would be too much of a coincidence, especially since someone wrote "closet" down there on the joist. This three-year-old mystery is so damn interesting! haha