that's me in the spotlight

I have worked at my current place of employment for seven years, in fact I am half way though the eighth. In that time I have worked in the same group of offices but I have moved three times. I started out in a small office with a window. I was then promoted and moved to a big office with a window. I then got a new boss who wanted my office and so I was moved to a small office with no window. That boss moved on and so I moved back into "MY" office with a window.
In all that time there has been a water problem in the big office with a window. FINALLY about two, maybe three years ago the water leak was fixed but the HIDEOUS mess it left of broken drywall and nastiness remained and was never fixed. It has remained there in it's ugliness in plain sight of any student, parent, vendor, member of the community or staff member I meet.
In that time there has also never been any upgrades to the entire office space. No new carpet, no patches to holes in walls, nothing. The carpet is NASTY. In fact, it is so nasty that once we take off the area rug I might even update this story with a photo of it's nastiness.
I work in a VERY high traffic area and a very public area and the place looks gross. We have tried small things like putting down carpet runners, putting down area rugs and so forth to "make up" the space, but it is really like putting a band aid on an amputation. It looks awkward and does little to help the space.
So I took it upon myself this week  to do something about it.
Yesterday the wall in my office was fixed and primed with paint especially used for water damaged areas. Today my office has been painted - or rather - today my office has been STARTED to be painted.
Here's the thing. I work in an educational institution where there are some people who are very concerned with who does what and how and why and when. I think there are certainly times to be so concerned, but these people are concerned ALL the time. They are never, ever, "NOT" concerned.
Today as my office was being painted somehow word got out and it has been quite the hotbed of activity over here for the afternoon. People who have never walked into our office have had reason today to come in - and not just to the front counter, but past the counter and into the door marked 'STAFF ONLY" and all the way back to my door and INTO my office - which I will admit is a bit of a nightmare right now. It makes me laugh a little (in my head) -  I'm not laughing out loud yet because I think that the "rest" of my plans might be kaiboshed before I get further along in them. I have a feeling that word has reached people who take it upon themselves to be concerned and these people might be stopping in to see what is happening.
I don't think it is that big of a deal. The walls in my office were absolutely HIDEOUS for a VERY long time. What I have done is make an improvement, just not in the colours the walls were originally.
How does word travel so fast? How did my teeny office which no-one has cared about for so long all of a sudden get put into the spotlight?