never had any other desire so strong...as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a small house and a large Garden.

-A. Cowley, The Garden, 1666

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

what lurks below the bath mat....a prologue.

Sometimes owning an 80 year old house is a voyage of discovery...it can get to feel like every time you really take a couple of minutes to walk around the place you notice at least 10 things that are going amiss.

Sometimes, its a really bad time to notice something...like the week before your entire immediate family is coming to the small house for Christmas.

Plan of action? Throw a rug over it and ignore.

This plan of "action" has never really worked, like when I used it the day after a college party to hide the unreturned keg on the balcony from my visiting parents (voila, it looks like a side table, right? wrong.).

It started innocently enough, just a bit of a bump appearing in the stick down tile in the bathroom. Then the bump grew, got company in other bumps, which all gradually lengthened and then rose up into techtonic ridges. At this point you didn't even need to remove the bath mat to notice something awry. Then the ridges split and were moist leaving moldy lines on the poor bath mat's underside and smelling vaguely funky. At this point the dear husband noticed.

Eventually in life you have to deal with what's under the bath mat.

Next blog: the great Toilet Tribulation and Triumph of 2011.

2 comments:

  1. Oh eeeeeuukkkk!!!!
    Having owned an old house with a funky potty -- our last house -- I have a feeling I know what's coming.
    Only our bump grew next to the tub, and ended up with a complete gutting of the bathroom.
    Hmmm. . .
    Fun times, fun times.
    Love, Aunt Cassy
    PS We'll be in Williamsburg this weekend! Any chance of seeing you guys?

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  2. "Eventually in life you have to deal with what's under the bath mat." Love that line, so true!

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