We all know that I am currently ill, and abed atop a hot water bottle.
However, I don’t want to talk about that today. Today, I resist torpor and complaining. Today I only want to talk about beautiful things.
I have to thank my dear friend, Madame K, for asking about my projects, and how things are going. It reminded me that I am not made of illness. I am made of creativity. She always knows just the right thing to say.
You see, my trade is creating beautiful things; whether that’s a cottage kitchen, live music, a flower garden, students excited about the possibilities of music, or a musical based on a 1728 play. And, I am privileged to have been able to spend my life as a creator.
So, with illness and frustration aside, I walked around the house today and took photos of things I’m working on that I find beautiful.
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The front yard flower garden. I’m definitely an English cottage garden type person. (No surprises there.)
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A (mostly) finished corner of the kitchen, with our now-exposed huge beams. I had to fill in the space at the top of the wall, of course. I stained new rough-hewn wood to match the old beams.
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Another kitchen wall. Still needs some paint work, but I left the little cellar door rough on purpose. I like to see the history.
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A staircase wall in progress. Because I decided to go with stucco in between dark-stained beams, (Tudor-style), I went with artwork that reflects that.
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And that’s all I know about that! I’m off to rest and have a little bit of dinner. Yep, at 4:00. =)
I had to cancel the purchase, ergo the whole renovation. The bathtub had been delayed three times already, and today’s fourth delay would put it here after my contractor/plumber was scheduled.
Nevermind the fact that this was all arranged so it would be done while I was out of town; because there wouldn’t be a bathtub or shower here for three or four days.
Honestly, I’m glad to be rid of thinking about it. The sheer hours of work, websites, phone calls about screwed-up delivery has been exhausting.
I’ll spare you my further thoughts about large corporations destroying the service economy through greed.
ETA – And now, the giant awful infection at the surgical site is back. And my surgeon is on vacation. And I’m supposed to be on a plane a week from today,
If you’ll pardon me, I have to get this off my chest. I’ll feel better.
I’d planned the new bathroom for months. I carefully chose the shower curtain, the floor planks, the mirror, the towels, the rug, the sconces, the art, the 36×60 deep-soak tub, the old-timey shower/tap … and the tile.
Not my best drawing (and it makes the bathroom look a little bigger than it is) but this is what was planned.
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The old-timey shower kit arrived quickly and easily from Amazon. The special deep-soak plumbing stuff I needed arrived quickly via UPS. The tub arrives later today. Know what else arrivedtoday? Eight very heavy cases of the wrong tile.
I ordered the brown/blue/green you see above. I got eight cases of white marble with grey veins.
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No problem, I think. I’ll call them, and surely they’ll swap it. Nope.
Home Depot (of course) does not do their own large deliveries (from the local store). It’s farmed out to a logistics company.
Long story short, I’m told by three different reps (none of whom work for Home Depot) that all they can do is process a return, give me my money back, and come pick it up. Three/four days+. Then I have to place a new order for the correct tile. Again. Which will take a week-ish for delivery.
But, I don’t want my money back. I want the correct tile. Because otherwise, I’m going to have a contractor in here with nothing to install.
Anyhow. Yes, it got to the point where I was yelling. Most of you know me well — It’s very, very difficult to get me to angrily holler at you.
So. I’ve decided I’m going with the mistake marble-looking tile. I don’t hate it, it’s not ugly, it doesn’t clash, and it’ll reflect light in a dim bathroom. Plenty of people would happily choose it on purpose. It’ll look something like this, color-wise. It’ll be okay with the blue & green room. It’s fine.
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As my psychiatrist tells me — manage your aggravation and pick your battles according to what’s worth it and what’s not. It’s nice tile, it’s just not what I chose.
This wouldn’t smart quite so much if this weren’t the third time we’d ordered from Home Depot (actually, their logistics company) over about a year and had the wrong thing delivered.
So, Home Depot — never again.
Now, the mental part.
I realize that if this were five years ago, I would have put the eight cases of tile in the back of the SUV, driven them to the store, pitched a stinky fit, and drove home with the correct tile. I’m no longer capable of doing that. I couldn’t even lift a single box. So that’s about coming to terms with what you can no longer do. Plus, this sort of thing pushes my buttons, and I spout things like, “I wish I had a job or ran a company where I could constantly screw up and then tell people, ‘So, what?'”
But, pick your battles. Be the overly-reasonable bigger person when it’s beneficial to you. Be grateful that I’m in a position to pay for a bathroom redo. I’m learnin’.
I hope there are some helpful thoughts in here along with my frustration. And yes, I’m tagging the hell out of Home Depot and the logistics company. Right @homedepot? Ha!
Since I recently updated my ancient Facebook account (I only look at it once or twice a year — Marketplace.) At any rate, probably best not to post anything to me there. I’m on Instagram as well if you’d like.
Since we’ve already had a lot of folks joining us here that I haven’t spoken to in quite a while, I thought I’d do a little bit of a catch up. (Yeah, this is going to be a very long post. I’ll intersperse some photos.)
J and I now live in Westchester, in a charming downtown, short walking distance from the train station and less than an hour from midtown Manhattan. A few blocks from the Hudson River. We bought this 1100 ft.² 3/1 project-house cottage just about six years ago.
The original part of the house was built in the 1840s, it was extended in the 1880s, and I’ve been renovating since we moved in.
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(A fun photo in the cellar!)
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It is truly my avocation. When we bought it, the first thing I did was tear the front room of the house off and rebuild the original covered porch. Every board, rail, and post — hand cut, all wood, all me, no pre-fab whatsoever.
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The day we closed, and a few months later.
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There was a big initial construction push; but then … two bouts of cancer, several operations, and finally a quadruple 10-hour operation with four Columbia specialists last July. This sidelined reno for about three years. I have my challenges, but I am absolutely fine now. I am nearing a year in complete remission. I’m officially disabled with the tag, parking spot in front of the house, etc. But, you probably wouldn’t know it just to look at me. It’s a neuropathy and chronic fatigue situation, besides the fact that they removed a lot of my insides. (Seriously.)
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Renovations resumed just recently in full! While we were on vacation, we had our close friend, nextdoor neighbor, and contractor tear down the 1 inch thick plaster-and-lathe ceiling in the large kitchen to expose the huge 180-year-old beams. (This was something I was never going to do on my own. Too big, awful, and unpleasant.) I’m now in the process of doing all the finishing work and putting the kitchen back together the way we want it. Very cottage-core, or course. The work is challenging, very creative, very satisfying, and I’ve learned to pace myself. Updates will come on that soon. It’s looking gorgeous.
I am, as always, a Director of Music and Organist at a local church, which I love. I’ve been there six years as well. My friends there were an enormous help during my very serious health challenges. I also teach piano and other instruments privately, but I’m very selective about who I teach, and only have seven students over three days, 30 minutes each.
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I suppose if I haven’t spoken to you in quite a while, I’ve also developed quite a travel bug. I was in London a few months ago, we were in the Catskills a week ago, I’m in Orlando in a week and a half, and in July I’m visiting my mom for a week in Tampa.
While I’m in Tampa, our contractor is tearing out the fiberglass tub/shower situation and putting in a huge, deep, wide tub. Also tiled walls, and vintage shower fixtures. (The tub will be a big help for me. One of the things that helps me most is doing my PT exercises while in hot/warm water.)
That was a helluva two weeks, preceding Easter and the week after. (A helluva few months, if I’m honest.) I finally got back up to snuff early last week, and we just got back from the Catskills.
I’m at Walt Disney World (as usual) next month, and visiting my family in Tampa for a week in July. Let the vacations begin!
The cottage we rented in the Catskills was wonderful. Certainly, there was no skiing or climbing mountains; but there was plenty of antique shopping! Terrific prices at a few antique malls we found, and I didn’t go too too crazy … and my wonky leg warned me when it was time to stop!
The only really guilty pleasure purchase was a 3×5′ early-Victorian (actual) Persian rug. Most everything else was knickknacks — but more on that later, in another post.
While we were gone, our neighbor and general contractor took down our plaster-and-lathe kitchen ceiling, exposing the gorgeous gigantic beams. They’re about 4″ x 10″ and around 180 years old.
This was a job I was never going to do myself. It’s technically easy work, but 1″ thick plaster is very heavy, and it has to be carried outside, put in a truck, and taken to the dump. Plus, almost 200 years of dirt, literal soot, and plaster dust. Nope. And I can’t imagine what the 1″ plaster ceiling of a 20′ x 10’+ kitchen would weigh. I mean, it’s essentially limestone. More on all that a bit later as well. I have a little work to do to clean the beams up. Here’s a preview though —
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(I love to think that the last guy that saw this huge beam was pre-Civil War, looking at it in about 1846.)
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It was a great week, indulging in pastimes and just relaxing otherwise. Here’s the pics!
Our CottageThe GazeboRoadside Attractions!Attn: TrekkiesThe Oleana EstateThe Catskills from across the river, in Hudson.Doin’ the Shoppin’Atmospheric Cemetery
Sit Still Phill 