House Made

beloved hammock in the spring

This is our hammock. It’s my hammock, really, as I lay in it probably 80% of the available yard-lounging time. I love it. A hammock just says “Hey, quit that working. Bring a book and an adult beverage over to my canvas lap and enjoy the breeze.” Well, after the last wind storm (which I did NOT know was coming) grabbed the hammock and whipped and twisted it around like a big stripey America’s Cup spinnaker, the post on the left got decidedly loose and leany. It had already been a little off 90 degrees due to some initial Quickcrete meets sodden-clay setting issues back when we first installed it but it was nothing we couldn’t live with –  nothing that wouldn’t keep my swinging butt safely suspended.  After the wind storm, though, a suspended butt was no longer in the offing.

Enter Beth! (I should totally write her a little piece of introductory super-hero music for moments like this.) Saturday she came up the back yard steps with bags of concrete, a shovel, and rebar. REBAR–friend of the hammock or swingset lover! She dug out the old post and reset it with re-enforcements. It now stands plumb and EXTRA sturdy (though currently without hammock as it is raining), just waiting for the first warm sunny hour without chores. Beth should really hate the hammock for the way it lures me from her MSWord project lists. Clearly she spoils me.

This post is dedicated to Beth’s sister Mindee for whom discussion of project fixes relieves boredom.

Okay, so remember when Beth accidentally stripped the finish off the tub?

Well it’s been driving her mad ever since. The idea that she had to intentionally make a fat, warbly, crappy caulk line around the edge of the tub in order to hide the old brown color peeping through was too much. It aggravated her every single day. While this minor tragedy has put the idea of replacing the tub back on the table (Yay! New tub that will actually cover more than 1/8″ of your body when filled. Boo! Tearing out of tub and tile.) that project is a little way off and I really wasn’t sure if Beth could find peace with her shower time without some kind of interim remedy.

So, I got some of that annoying caulk tape stuff that you stick on to avoid the messy hassle of properly caulking your shower area. So after a good 6 hours of prep including COMPLETELY removing the old caulk and thoroughly prepping the surface for good adhesion, I stuck on the caulk tape. Once applied, it made the tub look like a tub in a mobile home, or a motel, or maybe an old vacation cabin. It is not ideal. It is not pretty. It IS prettier than the old brown enamel and it IS prettier than the caulk line that, to be clear, did not bother me but made Beth want to, as she said, bang her head against the wall repeatedly. And it’s something we can totally live with as a temporary solution. Would I ever recommend this as a way to finish off your new tub or sink installation? No way. Is it better than hearing your partner sob in the shower? Absolutely.