Better Living Through Literature
Words + Projects + Stuff I Like
Eleven years (tomorrow!) into owning a house, we’ve accumulated enough tools and plumbing stuff and drywall repair stuff that I decided it was time to get it all ORGANIZED. Harbor Freight came through with something under $300 and in orange:
You’ll notice it’s in the still-unfinished basement, which is gradually getting filled with castoff furniture and rugs and making me think, “Wow, this really could be a functional room.” Now that I have a tool chest, is it only a matter of time?
I really want a new dining set but I just bought a couch and need to buy some wallpaper (and a single-level house without an HOA in the mid-future). So saving money with DIY skills was in order. First up, replacing the split cane and worn out foam on the old chairs:
I went back and forth a lot on vinyl types to replace the cane with but finally settled on a bright green (from Fabric.com–I only needed a yard for four seats). Once I figured out I could just pull the vinyl around the seat corners and didn’t need to make folds, it went quickly.
The hardest part was getting the staples out of the old cane–honestly, it was easier to pull staples out of the bathroom subfloor than these chair seats. 
These still aren’t the most comfortable chairs but the new foam (from JoAnn, in store) helps a lot–and they’ll work for now.
Next up, I’m making skirted tablecloth made to cover the (thrifted IKEA, dinged up and dirty) dining table completely:
(Will Toby ever get off a fabric-covered table? Will we be creating a tablecloth Fort Kickass for him to play in constantly? Stay tuned.)
In the middle of the bathroom remodel, Lyz Lenz sent out a newsletter about learning how to do house maintenance on her own, after a conservative Christian upbringing that kept her pretty helpless:
My helplessness is not an accident. It’s who I was raised to be. A woman who could cook and clean, but not swing a hammer. That kind of bat your eyes, “Aw honey, can you fix this thing?” kind of woman. The Joanna to the Chip Gaines. The wife who does the design and the painting. The man who wields the power tools.
I’m not saying my dad ever kept knowledge from me–the opposite, in fact. Growing up, he’d take me to Home Depot and the fancy hardwood store. I’d hang out in his shop while he worked. We’d watch New Yankee Workshop and The Woodwright’s Shop and This Old House together on Saturdays. But I saw my mom making the plans for projects and letting him execute them, and it was easy to follow that model. Instead of wanting to learn how to do it, I’d come to my dad with an idea and say, “Do this for me”–and then I’d just enjoy a finished product.
I don’t know what exactly changed in the last few years to make me want to learn to do things for myself, except that life-changing trifecta of Meds/Therapy/Gym. Honestly, I think that last one was what really pushed me into learning home stuff–I can finally carry boxes of tile up the stairs, and muscle grout into joints, and actually hold things up and not make my dad do all the (literal) heavy lifting. Embracing all my beginner lifts also showed me there’s no shame in being bad at something or admitting “I’m not good at this.”
It was also important to me to learn from my dad–“while I still can” sounds kind of morbid, but after losing my mom, things just feel a little more immediate. My mom taught me so much about sewing and cooking, but there are still a few things I wish I’d asked her. I didn’t want that to happen with my dad, who has a lifetime of craftsmanship to share.
In her newsletter, Lyz ends up learning from YouTube videos:
Am I really doing it alone if I have these YouTube dads genially explaining to me what a clamp is? It’s a vision of a masculinity I’ve never experienced before. No one is screaming. No one is disappointed in me. Wanting more of me. Telling me I can’t do it. It’s just gentle instruction and the pleasure of fixing something.
Again, my experience growing up wasn’t like hers–I’m lucky enough to have a dad who believes in me. So I want to publicly thank him for going along with my plan to learn from him, for never saying I couldn’t do anything, for being the “gentle instruction” of the YouTube dads but also being my very own dad.
Please enjoy this Deco-green delight that I get to wash my face in now:
Some detail shots of tile (and proof I can paint a straight line):
Just a reminder, this is where we were after last year–a new shower door and tile to the ceiling, but decade-old builder’s-grade everything else
Honestly, if I’d realized how much work this was going to be I might have thought twice (and now I understand my dad’s hesitancy and jokes of, “I’ll loan you my tools!” when I was planning it). But it’s SO NICE now. The new vanity (from Costco! holds so much, I love the lines of the toilet, and I feel so damn accomplished, even if Dad was the mastermind behind all of it.
I have more to say about the concept of “remodeling as a woman” but I’ll save it for tomorrow–time to go shower in my NEW BATHROOM!
We got tile on the wall over the weekend (and I think I just about killed my dad with trips up and down the stairs to the tile saw, good lord is tile labor-intensive). Tonight I grout and Wednesday we get the plumbing put back and THEN, with the exception of a light fixture, I have a new bathroom!
Of course, now that I see the end of the project, I think I might want to paint one wall? I was at Home Depot getting touch up paint to match the white walls last night and just happened to grab some paint swatches. I think I’ll enjoy having a new bathroom for a bit and then see what I think–maybe a green wall would be too much, since this is the bathroom right next to the tiger wallpaper. Or maybe it would be just right and I would feel like Phryne Fisher in her malachite bathroom?
We’re roughly one-thirds done with the main bathroom redo, which involves tearing everything out, putting in a new waterproof underlayment, tiling a new floor, putting in a new vanity and toilet, and adding a tile half wall and backsplash–plus installing waterproof vinyl baseboard and lights and medicine cabinet.
I wouldn’t even have been able to do the demo without my dad’s help (and tools) and he was invaluable for tile. I was so impressed with his tile skills I put a sample on my Instagram stories:
And got this reply from an Instagram friend who’s a commercial interior designer!
We’re taking a couple days off and will make more progress over the weekend. I’ll have a big reveal when it’s all done, never fear.
We’re doing the second half of the bathroom remodel soon and I’m also looking at a new couch and wallpaper for the living room, and maybe making a skirted tablecloth out of the old curtain I sewed (someone would really like a skirted tablecloth).
I think it all comes down to this–I think I’m going to be remote for another winter (if not forever) and I want the space to feel different (and work better) than it did last year. Some upgrades to hell, as it were.
It’s that time again… time to do spring yard work and put the winter bedding away. This weekend was full of staining, weeding, edging, screen porch research, singing “Up On The Roof,” and laundry. Plus, look how PLEASED someone is by the tribute of a new quilt: 
I had my dad show me how to set tile because I was fed UP with a shower curtain in the master bath. And if you give a mouse a glass shower door, then she’ll want to tile from the top of the tub enclosure to the ceiling to look a little more custom (and then she’ll probably want to put in a tile floor and add tile to the wall behind the toilet, too).
But phase one–the shower tile!–is done and it looks great. And it looks even MORE great because I did about half of it with my own two hands (under Dad’s expert instruction, of course).
I had a feeling I would like tiling and I do: it’s kind of like piecing a quilt top, just with cement instead of sewing. Thanks for showing me how, Dad!
This time of year, the high elevations are still winter and the mid elevations are sloppy. So we stayed low and got some yard work done for the weekend (and saw some astonishing packaging in passing at Home Depot–bonus!).
