Bathtubs

I know this sounds a little silly, and maybe petty...but I NEED a bathtub.

When we moved to this house six months ago, the master bedroom had 2 bathrooms within the suite. Seriously, two. One was not much more than a closet which held a potty, sink, and a teensy shower which would make anyone claustrophobic...much less fit my six foot five husband. The other, had a long vanity top area, then a separate "closed door" area with along skinny shower, a potty and a bidet. Yes...this bedroom had a bidet...but NOT A BATHTUB. Who lives like that!!!???

My husband loved this house from the first moment he walked into it...what I saw, lots and lots of updating work. Anyone want to guess who's doing the updating work??? That's what I thought. So I told him from the get go...we can only buy this house if you let me close off the small bathroom and build a walk in closet. No if's and's or but's about it. And, yes, my closet was completed in January.

Now...the dilemma is to finish out the vanity/bidet bathroom to be a true Master Bathroom. All it takes is Money...so if you don't have $50,000 to throw at a project, and I don't , I have to design and plan then execute on a new bathroom.

My biggest lesson so far--I had no idea how expensive bathtubs are! Also, all those really snazzy shower elements ain't cheap. So for now, I have my pieces and parts picked out, the cabinets ordered, and I'm waiting to hear from my contractor what the labor quote will be. Based on his numbers, I can decide what plumbing parts I can and maybe cannot buy...also, if I can get the incredible limestone tile I've picked out or not...and I really hope I don't have to trade that out! But, oh well. The one thing I'm not giving up on...my bathtub. I can't wait to soak in that baby. I don't take a bath every night. But, when you want to soak in a tub, nothing else can fill that need.

Soooon. Soooon. Soooon I will be soaking in that bad boy in the photo...sooooooon.

Spring has finally sprung!

Here in Maryland, it's sunny, blue skies, and green grass. Granted, the high temprature is 65 degrees today...and I am ready for 75 degrees, but there is nothing here to complain about.

Spring is a time of renewal. Out with the old, in with the new. It's a time when nature "re-invents" itself. This year, I'm planning to take a page out of natures' best play book. I want to find myself renewed. Faith--home--family--getting back to basics and putting all of the months of SNOW and cold behind me.

Refreshing and remembering what is most important to me. Friends, new and old. Family, near and far. Faith, tried and true.

Welcome back Spring...and welcome back me.

Finish What you Start

This weekend was fairly hard core for me. By Friday night, I was really tired from the week. I had filled almost every hour with somewhere to be or something to do, and I was beat. However, two weeks before, I started a tiling project which needed to be finished.

With that in mind, I got up Saturday morning and started trying to wrap my brain around the task at hand. Armed with coffee, a tape measure and chalk line--I set about making a plan. Tiling can be an easy or a difficult task, mostly due to the amount of time you're willing to spend in the planning stage. I chose slate as my medium--which, yes, is more difficult to work with than ceramic...I know that--and did the research.

I wonder how many things we attempt in life would be easier if we could do the research before hand. Would we all chose the same person to marry if we knew what was coming down the road? Could we succeed at any number of things we try if only we had all the information before we start?

Life, unlike tiling, doesn't come with instructions.

There are no Youtube videos to help us find our way through parenting decisions, dealing with the loss of a loved one, or why we should choose one job over another. To lay a tile floor, you need specific products and tools: a wet saw, thin set, notched trowel, tile, grout and grout float. In life, you need different tools and different products at different times.

At the birth of a child, a person takes stock in the immediate safety of that baby. Do they have their needs and wants provided for? During the teenage years, parents wonder why they ever thought they could BE parents. The rules change daily--with the mood swings--and its difficult to know what to do next. As we age, again we need different tools. Am I healthy? Will my body fall into cancer or another illness? Will my children care for me if I cannot care for myself?

My tile floor is down. It took most of Saturday to do it, but it's almost finished. Today I need to grout the seams, then seal the floor with a slate specific sealer. After that, it's quarter round and I'm done.

Like it or not, Life doesn't work in straight lines with clear cut directions. We're going to have to wake up again tomorrow and see what's new, what's changed, and what might still be the same. I love it! The challenges each stage in life brings. But then again, I don't mind laying a slate tile floor...It Always Pays to Finish What you Started...

Mobile blog

Checking to see if I've set this up correctl
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Texas, our Texas...

If I say..."you may all go to Hell, as for me, I will go to Texas" who would know who said it?

I don't know if I want everyone to go to Hell...but I had a GREAT time visiting my home state. Janice was a divine host as always--and meeting a few of her friends was a good time as well.

I ate steak, pizza (I know, that was weird for me too), CHILI, Nordie's cafe, and Tex Mex. Never did get any BBQ...which is a heart breaker, but we were on the go!

Saw my precious Matt...and met some of his friends at UTD. Of course, he didn't warn them that I'm much younger than their moms, so they were completely freaked out at first, but they got over it. Oh well...I hope I never look my own age, much less older than I am right now!

Going back to Texas always brings up old memories. Some great, some embarrassing, and some which will not be named-ever (and to my friends who know where we burried the bodies, better keep that to yourselves!). Letting myself wander around in the past isn't always a good idea--and wondering where things could go from here isn't helping.

What is it about our personal histories? Is it the happiness that we remember most? Is it the heartaches? Do we hold on to what we need to remember to keep from making the same mistakes again? Or is it that we try really hard to forget the past because some of it hurts too much? Should the past always be just that--past. I know that my history is what defines me. It's why I'm not a push over, why I never settle for 2nd best, and why I never let a man believe he's completely in charge. No regrets for what I've done...just some questions about things I might have done differently. I know how the saying goes, "hind sight is 20/20". But for me, rarely has any decision truly felt a clear 20/20. I guess that's because I really like to have my cake and eat it too. The past makes me remember being a girl...but I know she's not the woman I am today. And I like her, the wild woman in heels, a whole lot better.

So for me, is it finally time to buy my piece of the promised land? Should I look for where I plan to settle and start the commitment? City or Country? Hill Country or right back to the Brazos River Bottom I called home? I've always said CJ-7 and 25 acres sounded like just the ticket...but who knows. What I see in my dream is a dirt road, horses, limestone house, and quiet. Thank God you can still find that in TEXAS.

I have lived in Georgia...and Maryland...but today...



Today I have Texas on my mind...


(And by the way, Davy Crockett said the above quote--just in case y'all didn't know!)

Renovations are hard work...

I don't know about you, but when I set about to work on a project--I have a hard time stopping until I see at least a little bit of it come together. For instance, this weekend, the DH and I decided to demo the tile in our front foyer--ok, I decided and DH knew he had to help. We (I) thought the demo would take about half a day, we'd prep the floor, and be cutting tiles to lay Sunday morning. I'm guessing you know what I'm about to say next...

As soon as we started trying to get the tile up we knew something was wrong. I mean, this stuff wasn't budging. We rented a professional, air power driven tile chiseler, and all it did was pulverize the stuff. In the end, we ended up getting further smacking the tile with a hammer. What we came to realize was that the tiles had been laid with some sort of "super glue" which wasn't about to budge!

The next piece of the project was to pull up the tile's foundation bed--which was plywood over the sub-floor. Plywood is not the correct material anymore--now we all use backer board, but this house is over 30 years old, and there's no way to know how long that tile's been down. So plywood, here we come. Except that, did I mention, the plywood was nailed to the sub floor EVERY TWO TO THREE INCHES APART. I have done some demo in my time, but this was the worst. Every nail had to be pried up...and did I mention the super glue that was still ON the plywood COVERING most of the nails??? Yikes!

We did demo ALL day Saturday, and until 3 pm on Sunday. By 8:30 Sunday night I had all of the backer board cut, fit, and on the floor--but Steve nor I had any energy left to screw through the concrete board into the sub floor.

So here we are, 2 days after we thought we'd at least have the tiles down...maybe not grouted, but down...with nothing but backer board on the floor. I'm starting to wonder when I'll ever have the guts to finish this!

Did I mention it's only 210 square feet?

Maryland...it's starting to feel like Planet Hoth

Ok, so I've been a bad girl and not kept up with the blog. I will do better...but since I last wrote 3/09, we have sold our home in Alpharetta (yes, we sold in a bad market...yea me.) we put Lone Star Cabin into a rental program (www.escapetoblueridge.com), and moved our wagon full of kids off to Glen Arm, Maryland.

And so far...I have really loved the people I've met here.

HOWEVER...
The weather has been horrendous. In under 3 months of living here it has snowed over 80 inches!!! All of my new friends and neighbors here keep telling me, "you know, this is just not normal for Maryland". Really? Really? Far as I can tell, normal is what each person experiences for themselves...and if this is my "normal" winter for Maryland...boys and girls, I can promise you I won't be experiencing too many more of them!

First, Second, and Last I am a Texan. My heart flutters a little every time I see the Lone Star state flag. I believe chili is good ANY time of the year. Shiner Bock Beer is truly proof that "God loves us and wants us to be happy" (stolen from Ben Franklin).