The stairwell to the basement had an area just above the door, on the stairs side, that we hadn’t been able to reach: a grip-footed extension ladder and me to steady it let Jane get that.
Her job of mudding the bathroom wall where the backsplash was is impeccable: if we’d hired it done, it probably would have had a few flaws. Hers is so good we have to look at the unaffected board and wonder if it’s too smooth, but it looks good when painted: as we have indeed painted it. So we’re ready for the sofit, the lights, the cabinets, which we can put up.
We have the tile ordered, and it may be here today. (It comes from Seattle.) Ironically, what may put us off a week is a pencil thin rim of dark tile that will border our little mural: it’s coming from California, and will be here next week if Seattle doesn’t happen to have enough. But at least by next week, we will have all the pieces, and tile will happen, and we will have one more very important fully-finished room!
And the book is finally moving!
Let me add—I’ve always maintained there’s no such thing as writer’s block, because the fault isn’t that much in the writer…
What happens is that a writer fails to maintain enough personal space. We’re difficult sorts to live with—we go standoffish at times, and that’s that ‘personal space’ business; we don’t answer mail, we don’t open letters; we let papers stack up;’ we forget invitations, anniversaries, and holidays—and it’s all that personal space and clear schedule thing. When Jane was sick, all that personal space protection went to blazes; when she got well, I was still rattled, and construction began; and it continued through ‘birthday season,’ mine, hers, Lynn’s—and into the holidays; and more construction—and all my what-iffing faculty was engaged with tile choices and cabinets and painting and such, because hers was, and then mine was, and we both got ourselves involved. No wonder the writing got confused. So we’re now carefully redefining that personal space we each need, the time we need to spend solving puzzles of a writing kind, that don’t have to do with computers, programming, wiring, painting, tile choice, learning-how, and all the other kind of puzzles that can fill your mind. When a writer’s writing, the puzzles all need to be writing-puzzles, if that makes sense. So now that we’ve officially put off the flooring problem, and are closing in on the bathroom problem, we are determined to do our puzzle-solving in terms of story. And that, for a writer, means a happy writer.
It’s quite all right. The past several months have been a trial for you folks, because RL intruded in an annoying way on the place you needed to use for writing. It’s hard to go into your corner and write if the dishwasher is piddling all over the kitchen, the bathroom has a gaping hole over the tub, the door may be allowing the kittehs to escape without authorization… One hopes you have gotten all the various projects into some semblance of equilibrium now, and you can return to writing after having finished at least one project satisfactorily. And a few pleasant surprises as well!
You got it! The bathroom has been one of those sights we’ve been embarrassed to offer to guests that really know our situation with that room, let alone ‘new’ people—I mean, literally, a hog-sized hole for a tub wall? Now it’ll be an inducement to make the rest of the house as pretty as possible.
Well, from what I remember from back in June 2010, it wasn’t such a bad place, but you know, I don’t live there, so can’t comment from that POV. I’m looking to move myself, and one of the selling points of any house is the bathroom. If it’s too small, or the fixtures aren’t right, then the deal’s off. One house I looked at has avocado green fixtures, and another has the same green, with a shelf that goes across the entire wall from one side to the window. It also happens to be on the wall that holds the faucets for the bathtub – no shower there! The house I’m looking at now has a half bath as well, so whenever I have guests, they can use that one. If they’re staying more than one day, then they can use the full bathroom, too. Aren’t I sweet?
Well, our tub is green, but celadon instead of fullblown avocado, which is a jump better for our decorating scheme (if it had been avocado, we couldn’t have used the colors we did: we’d have gone more for browns). We found a tile that actually goes with the celadon: Surface Art San Marcos Cotto Lemon..which sounds yellow, but it’s actually more like old red adobe if you knocked the camera setting over to ‘overexposed’ in the sunlight. You’ll see. A combo of 1950’s aqua, this tile, the celadon tub, and dark green accents. It takes ‘nerve’ to do this combo, but I swear to you, it’s a fun little room in which improbable things are beautiful with each other.
Heh. I know about that ’50s aqua; it’s the prevalent color in our bathroom (aside from white fixtures), in architectural-rendering tree like blobs all over the linoleum countertop and tub enclosure. The floor is more linoleum, in streaky brown, green, and aqua tile. Really, if I felt enthusiastic, the whole bathroom could be redone, but that would leave us sans bathroom and really irritate DH. The secondary bathroom is functional, but only just; it’s more of an emergency bath in unfinished cement, as an adjunct off the laundry room, and is presently being used as overflow business storage.
That San Marcos tile also goes beautifully with that aqua, and is rated for flooring as well as walls. 😉
It is the koi vessel sink that I can’t wait to see, finally installed and resplendent in all its glory!
Oh, now I’m very curious in case we get to see pictures. That color scheme sounds like it will work and sounds very pretty.
Both tubs in my house are white-white, the stsho would approve. I like the tile and flooring in both bathrooms, but will have to lose that in the master bathroom, sigh.
I can’t stand having wallpaper, though, but I’ve put up with it. Anyone I’ve talked to says that removing wallpaper is always prone to damaging the sheetrock below, and most have recommended just painting over it. That doesn’t sound right to me, though. Recommendations appreciated.
I’ve removed a lot of wallpaper, and the big secret is—no one product will handle every wallpaper. If what you’re using doesn’t work, change tactics. I have used: 1. just pull—vinyl kitchen 2. steam iron and a sharp little kitchen spatula—bedroom, applied on sheetrock, no priming 3. a pro steamer—faster than a steam iron, but not that much better. 4. tiger paw wallpaper scorer plus steam, with spatula, again, not too bad—foil-backed deteriorating grasscloth over an irregular plaster job. 5. same plus Windex: yep—used a lot of Windex, but it dissolved that wallpaper paste when steam wouldn’t. Most paste is simple wheat gluten/water type; then there’s the plastic paste compound for foil and flocked and mylar wallpaper. And then there’s prepasted wallpaper–sticks quite nastily: easy on, hard to remove. A steamer and a lot of patience is your best bet. Easiest wallpaper to remove? Vinyl. If you get a piece started, frequently a judicious tug from both corners of the bottom will start the whole piece peeling upward.
“Her job of mudding the bathroom wall where the backsplash was is impeccable: if we’d hired it done, it probably would have had a few flaws.”
Pros are paid to get as much done in the time available to them as possible. Good enough is OK. We DIY people can (and do) tear things out and start over if it does not suit us. Also, the time frame is different. My wife and I will be building a house in a few years and we will do as much of the finish work as we have time for because of that.
Paintin over wallpaper is fine. Not my preferred method, but having spent days trying to steam wallpaper off of walls that weren’t primed first, I have an appreciation for not taking down the paper first.
We have a couple walls that had already been painted over paper. We found out when we painted again, and the wall appeared to “droop” as the paint wet the wallpaper.
This is the only negative symptom I’ve had or heard of. This goes away when the paint and paper dry, so those walls now show no signs at all of ever having been papered.
Your comments about writers block make a lot of sense. When I’m able to shut everything else out and focus on the writing, it gets a lot better. When I’m worrying, or working too much, or dealing with other issues, the writing doesn’t go so well. Glad you’re getting back to a place where you can focus on it.
I don’t even make a start on pots until the way is clear, and then, like today, I have to relinquish a day for mundane stuff. I am lucky that I don’t have to do my own taxes, and if there is something that the house needs, I call in a professional, except for decorating. but I took 3 weeks off this summer to redecorate kitchen and bathroom.
your bathroom sounds as if it will be a lovely watery relaxing experience ….
now I have an interesting question on the subjunctive for all you writers. reading a book for a friend in the initial stages of interesting publishers, and written in a very snappy kind of style I came across this.
“She made it very clear that if she was to be employed to look after kids, she would do it her way” subjunctive alert!!!
“She made it very clear that if she were to be employed to look after kids, she would do it her way”
were seems to dilute the meaning slightly. this person is a slightly dangerous and very strong character. should the writer have used when instead of if? then do you need to take out the to be? stylistically these little things make a lot of difference, and it is the second paragraph of the book
She made it very clear that when she was (to be) employed to look after kids, she would do it her way.
english is funny, these stub ends of grammar. in the plural it makes no difference
they made it very clear that if they were to be employed to look after kids ….
How about:
“If I’m hired to look after kids, I do it my way — period.”
(I’m no fiction writer, but — judging from life as well as fiction! — “too many subjunctives” usually means that the character needs to just jump out and say whatever-it-is themselves. 🙂
This is a tolerably good rendition of the conditional sentence. The subjunctive involves gradations of reality or probability, and can be used to shade meanings to a very fine and precise degree of reality or probability. [The Romans were a nation of lawyers—literally.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditional_sentence
Of future subjunctives, a very tricky bird in English, you have the future more vivid, future most vivid, and even a future less vivid. In the first sentence, you could argue for ‘was’ under that instance, as the person is of strong intent, and the use of ‘was’ nearly implies the ‘if’ to equal ‘when.’ [I swear to you advanced grammar and unified field theory have something in common.] Since English subjunctives are often identical in spelling to the indicative, and since most students of English are never shown an English verb fully parsed in all its glory of 18 tenses, two voices, two numbers, three persons, and three moods…most never twig to the fact that ‘if’ frequently uses the subjunctive; and most are never taught the rule of sequence of tenses [if the dominant verb of your sentence is past tense, the dependent verb cannot exceed it in tense, no matter if the condition it describes is still true.]
hooray! thank you so much CJ, exactly! no need to change it … great! I thought the if and when thing made a difference … the writer studied french to a high level at school, but I am not sure how much the subjunctive would consciously impinge on his use of english, but it is amazing how the english language can be written by feel, rather than set rules, isn’t it …
well, it’s reported from the child’s POV, first person, past tense, and in a tight introductory paragraph, so that wouldn’t work without re-writing the para …… she speaks later but in context .. but, good point …
Congrats on getting the home improvements moving – you’re both impressive from where I’m sitting!
Re: Writer’s Block: I really would like to see the term used for those stress/anxiety-related situations that stop people from writing. Yes, it’s true that a lot of writers who feel blocked are merely stuck (and can shake loose if they apply themselves enough or in the right manner) – but I see it like horses that run away versus horses that bolt: most horses are mere runaways, but when you’ve met the real thing, you know that it IS real, no matter how much people will deny its existence.
If you know what keeps you and how to fix it, then it’s just a question of grinding your teeth until the situation has resolved – and it sounds as if you’re making great progress on that front!