What Do You Do on Vacation?

Read books, walk on the beach, lounge at the pool? Sounds fabulous doesn't it. Unless we get in the car, on a train or plane, that's not what vacation looks like at our house. For us, it's a chance to tackle that every growing list of things to do that never seem to get done. Sometimes, they're optional things, you know, like that hole in the bathroom ceiling that's been adorning the bathroom for a year or so. And then there are those not so optional things like the flood that happened a few days after we decide to install the new dishwasher. We added "fix the water damaged studio ceiling" to the list of things to do. I was lucky, the water avoided my stash and sewing machine....the house god was smiling on me, for a minute or two. I wouldn't even have known about the flood if I wouldn't have gone down to the studio to grab some painter's tape. Thank goodness, as I walked into the studio, a waterfall was pouring through one of the can lights on the ceiling. I knew choosing to install the dishwasher ourselves was a bad move. Such is the life in a DIY household.

Do those kinds of things happen at your house, or are you one of those people who call those angels, the home maintenance and repair guys? Maybe I could be that kind of person? Wishful thinking!

A year or so ago I saw some stains on the ceiling in the bathroom. I grabbed my my trusty drywall saw and cut a hole to see what was up. Turns out the shower above was leaking. The neat thing is, when I cut the hole the shower leaked into the tub in the bathroom below. That's my kind of solution. The hole remained for over a year since there was no urgency to actually fix the leak. We finally did figure it out and fix it, but we had gotten sort of fond of the hole and again, no urgency to make that repair. It was time to fix the ceiling. I had to rip a bit more out to make it fixable.
I patched the hole and now I'm in the dusty, mud, sand, mud some more and try to make the ceiling look like one piece. Maybe in a week or so I'll be able to show you a finished room. It could happen.
We got out the chainsaw and cut up and hauled away the giant tree that fell in the storm a few months ago, replaced all the screens in the front windows, powerwashed most of the deck, and tackled a few other miscellaneous things that have been on the list for way too long. We even put in the new shower door that has been sitting in a box in our bedroom for a month or two.

I even took some time to put quilts back where they belong. I've been traveling and hauling quilts all over the place they've been in boxes and in stacks in the studio.

I put this one on the dining room table just for fun.
There's always a quilt or two on a chair for when someone gets chilly.
The guest room always has a quilt on the bed.
This one hangs in my room.
This one is hanging in a closet...yes, in a closet, but I can see it from my desk in my office.
Some quilts hang on racks waiting for their turn on a bed.
It's been a nice break, a busy, but productive time. Remember that house god who smiled on me during the flood? Must not be too happy today...I went to change the wash and the dryer isn't heating. I'll add it to the list.

Glad to be back. Time to get back to the real work.