It’s hard to write about a trip to Key West without some deja vu, after all we’ve been there (and I’ve written about it) several times. Like here, and here. But Key West is the one place where we both can completely unplug.
Shook thing up a little this time and stayed at The Southernmost Beach Resort. Highly recommend.
So without a lot of boring details, here’s a taste of our week on that weird little island…
Enjoy,
Now doesn’t that look relaxing?
It was……
Now it is, anyway.
Ya know that single bar with a single shelf above it? I guess it was enough for a complete wardrobe during the depression. But now…Well, let’s just say that I’ve been buying/feverishly collecting clothes for about 35 years. (And I still have almost every piece. Let that sink in a bit) So naturally, I need to use every available inch of my closet.
Here’s where we started…
I call this shot…..”4 different flooring options”
This is what the master bedroom looked like before we moved in. That’s my current closet on the right. And there’s that single bar with the above shelf. Also, notice the scalloping detail above the sliding doors? That was the first to go. Also, also, notice the wood floor in the closet stops about 11 1/2 inches from the back wall? W. T. Heck is that about? (Shakes fist in the air at previous Cavender home owner)
Here’s what I was working with last week…
The scallop trim is long gone, yes. But I still need to maximize space and the access to that maximized new space.
I ripped off the doors, track, that sad little bar, the moldings, the newish UN-scalloped trim AND about 20 inches of drywall and 2X4 closet header…..taking the opening almost all the way to the ceiling.
Now to fix the half-assed floors. (Pardon my sailor talk, but, Come On, Seriously?)
I’ve always intended to peel up those 6 vinyl squares and finish installing the wood floor in the back of my closet…..and the other 2 closets in the other 2 bedrooms….That’s a no brainer. Of course, every product the previous owner used to “upgrade” this house is no longer in production (shakes fist at the previous owner’s bad decisions,…. yet again. Did he run out of money? Lose interest? Move? It boggles the mind)
I did find a similar flooring. That’s not really the issue….
This is….
For some reason unknown, he installed the hardwood floor AROUND the sliding door hardware. No kidding. Who does that kind of shit? And it looks like he cut it with a knife and fork…… While high.
There was honestly a moment, brief moment mind you, where I thought I might just “fill in” this hole with wood scraps. But my OCD got the better of me (Thank God)……and I just removed all of the offensive flooring and started fresh.
Glad I did too…
Even though the new wood is a slightly different color. Slightly. I think we can all agree that it looks tons better already.
I painted the interior side walls and the ceiling a fresh, crisp white. Ceiling paint actually.
Except for the back wall, because it will be cedar.
I started with cedar shiplap from the Lowe’s. Joanna Gains would be so proud.
Wise choice to repel moths…..
But not cheap. Not cheap like the fencing cedar we used in the garage. But hey, this is my 35 year clothing investment we’re protecting here.
I started at the bottom, and whipped this out in about 200 dollars. I mean, 2 hours.
Way, more, much better already.
And it smells just heavenly.
Now, on to fixturing. Plumbing pipe was a given. After all, I wrote the book about using industrial pipes around the house. DIY Industrial Pipe Furniture & Decor available for purchase now on Amazon. Not sure if I’ve pushed it hard enough this week.
I wanted something like all the dreamy pipe closets I see on Pinterest. Like this one…
I plotted the pipe layout using masking tape on the back wall, making sure there was plenty of room for everything. In fact the top bar will be about 2 inches from the ceiling.
Easy Peasy.
Then, on grease-stained paper, I plotted all the pipe sizes.
I’m not going to sugar coat the rest, because it took me 5 trips to the Home Depot (and 1 trip to Lowe’s) to get the 3/4″ black pipes right. And I’m a pipe expert. Right?
But I think I finally got it down…..And I guarantee the pipe-cutting dude at the H. Depot will be avoiding me for the next couple of months.
The ladder looking part on the bottom will be wood shelves for jeans, sweaters and shorts. I simply used a 24″X48″, 3/4″ thick, sheet of plywood cut into three 24″ X 15″ rectangles that each rest on a cedar cleat I screwed to the back walls. (What are the odds? My neighbor Steve was tossing cedar scraps at the same time I was working on this.)
I notched the sides of my plywood shelves with a jig-saw to wrap snugly around the side pipes.
Not too thrilled with that raw plywood edge facing me, so I covered it in more scrap wood, 1 X 2’s this time.
Because I removed the doors, and don’t want them back…I hung a curtain. Imagine being able to see everything at once. No more choosing which side to dig in by sliding the doors back and forth.
These grey wool panels were a throwaway at work because there is some minor bug damage. Not entirely my style. But “FREE” certainly is…and there one for each big closet. But best of all, they have these groovy 1 1/2″ grommets across the top.
Perfect for threading…y’all guessed it…another pipe; like a 1 inch galvanized from Lowe’s.
I simply had the Lowe’s associate cut it to 58 1/2 ” allowing 1/4″ of flange on each side because my door opening is exactly 59″ wide.
Done deal,
Wanna see the results?
I know, the pic’s a little grainy…but ya’ll get the idea.
A place for everything….
…and everything in its place.
It might look a little tight…but this was all about maximizing every possible square inch.
And I’m pretty sure I did just that.
Best of all. I LOVE it!
Now on to tackle the other 3 closets in this house.
One of my absolute favorite pictures right here.
And trust me, I have a lot of absolute favorite pictures.
But there aren’t many that convey the sheer joy that this one does.
The Beatles, having just heard that they had reached number 1 on the American charts, celebrate in a Paris hotel room with a pillow fight…..and photographer Harry Benson just happened to be there to document it.
I didn’t know much more about Harry, or his unbelievable ability to be there (the right place at just the right time) with camera in hand, until I stumbled on his documentary; Shoot First.
Harry had intimate access to not only the Beatles,
But also a young Muhammad Ali,
Truman Capote’s black and white ball,
and the Bouvier Beales of East Hampton,
He was at the Ambassador Hotel the night Bobby Kennedy was shot,
And was one of the few photographers allowed to photograph Bobby Fisher,
Or Dolly Parton……becoming Dolly Parton,
At 87, Mr Benson has never slowed down. Nor does he have any plans to.
Fascinating photos,
Fascinating Man,
Fascinating documentary.
I know y’all are expecting some big master bathroom reveal. And it’s coming. I promise. We are sooo close to done; fixtures have all been installed, I hung the new door last night, and shower glass should be installed this week. (Fingers crossed)
In the meantime, here’s a little tease. After much debate about what to hang on the “toilet wall alcove” we landed on a couple reclaimed wood shelves.
We already have some of those important manly elements represented in our new master bathroom; rocks (the shower floor) and metal (the sink base). Now we need some wood. Not a lot, just some. I could easily buy something new, like these shelves from the Target.
But, come on. Y’all know me better than that. Why on earth would I pay ($34.99 EACH?!?!?) for something that I can easily fish out of a semi-dirty, hopefully vermin-free dumpster? I wouldn’t.
I drive by this one particular dumpster a couple of times a week. It’s near my work warehouse, where we keep our sets and props.
The thing about dumpster diving is that it’s kinda legal. Technically, trash is considered public domain. (I know this because private investigators are legally allowed to riffle through trash cans on TV shows. At least Jim Rockford could, anyway. Don’t like it, get a shredder. Just sayin’.) Now here’s why I think it’s kinda legal to dig through other people’s trash; If someone is paying for a dumpster, I’m pretty sure that they still own everything in it. Because I don’t want to encounter the trash owners, (any more that I already have), I do most of my dumpster diving on the weekends. Diving at night would work too, under the cover of darkness and all….but, ya know, rats. They’re always a possibility. So, weekend daytime diving is for me.
I found plenty of good, workable, free wood right here.
After pulling out a few nails, and cutting each board to 34″ long, I gave them a good scrubbing with warm soapy water and an extremely stiff, extremely cheap, brush. They are going into my house after all. (Now here’s the thing about wood, it expands when it’s wet. So I let them dry in the Texas sun for about a week)
Because our master bathroom is mostly shades of blue and grey, I brushed a little grey stain over my boards and quickly realized my mistake.
They were TOO grey now.
They look painted…..and not very reclaimed.
This kind of trial and error usually results in some pretty great ideas….and this time was no exception. I just loaded my Mouse sander with the heaviest grit sandpaper I could find (80 grit, I think) and went to town on them.
Way, more, much better…
In fact, now they look more like driftwood. Remember the “beach” vibe we wanted?
No? That’s OK, It was a long time ago…..
I was devising several complicated ways to hang my shelves and landed on simple 1X1 boards painted white and nailed to the wall abouy 8 inches apart. I was further swayed by the fact that I already had a few 1X1s in the garage. Making this project even slightly more free. Wining.
Each reclaimed board just rests on these brackets…like so,
Then we loaded them up with all our beach memory jars. If y’all have forgotten, we collect a handful of shells, sea glass, sand, and anything else we find on the beach every time we take a vacation…..then slip it all into a vintage jar.
I think we’re loving this….
And notice there are still a few empty jars…
HHHHmmmm,
Looks like someone needs a beach vacation soon.
Remember about a year ago when we choose turquoise tile for our master bathroom?
The color inspiration came from a vintage Fiesta Ware sugar bowl I found.
This one, to be exact…
Such a cheerful color.
Well, if we had just procrastinated waited a little bit longer, the bathroom remodel Gods might have shown us this gloriousness……..Fiesta Ware tile.
It seems that the brilliant folks at Homer Laughlin/Fiesta Ware have teamed up with Limelight Tile and Ceramics to produce 4 different tile combinations;
3 X 6,
Slightly bigger 4 X 8,
6 X 6 Squares,
and my personal favorite, Circles and Crosses,
Wow. Just WOW.
I know, that last one’s a lot to take in. But look just how stunning it is in this retro/modern kitchen..
If your favorite color of Fiesta Ware is ALL of them,…… like me. Don’t worry. The new tiles come in all of the currently produced Fiesta colors.
Unless your favorite color is grey, black or some other muddy combination…there’s a perfect color of tile just for you. Mix and match. Or just do all of one luscious color.
Prices start at 5 bucks, for a corner piece, up to 45 bucks a square foot of the circles and crosses.
Yeah, it’s not cheap…..
…but can you really put a price on style?
No, no you can’t.
Remember a few weeks ago I told y’all that Jamie and I had been together for 10 years? I did, scroll back a little. Well, we thought we’d do something extra special to commemorate, like a trip.
A once in a lifetime trip.
Neither of us has ever been out of our hemisphere – so we flipped a coin and landed on London. It’s not too far, not too exotic, and best of all…they speak English.
(Maybe not exactly the English we learned in the Texas school system, but some form of it)
The 8 hour flight on Virgin wasn’t really that bad. Our little veal-feeding pens included a travel pouch with some toiletries, a sleep mask and my favorite part, clean socks. Because we took an overnight flight, we were given “sleepsuits” which is a pretty silly name for what turned out to be “Jim-Jamz”. (and after all, who isn’t much more comfortable in head to toe polyester?) And, of course, our seats folded down into little, well, let’s just call them “beds”.
I’ve actually been unknowingly prepping for this trip my whole life. I’ve watched every season of Keeping Up Appearances, Fawlty Towers, Coupling, The Young Ones, Man About the House, Absolutely Fabulous, Footballer’s Wives, Are You Being Served, and a few episodes of Spaced.
I knew the words; “loo” = bathroom, “lift” = elevator, “mobile” = cell phone, “coach” = bus, “flat” = apartment, and “nappy” = diaper.
I was ready……. Luckily, we didn’t need that last word.
Here’s a small taste of our London adventures that we thought we’d share with you kind folks.
Our first order of tourism, was the Hop-on-Hop-off bus ride around the city on a red double-decker bus.
We “hopped off” at Buckingham Palace to check on the Queen…
If the Queen is in residence, and she wasn’t this time around, they fly the Royal Standard flag over the palace. If not, they fly the Union Jack. Pretty interesting, right? We never knew that.
Turns out that the Tower of London isn’t really a tower after all, it’s a castle, and it’s also where the Crown Jewels are kept.
On busy days, the line to see the Crown Jewels zig-zags endlessly in front of this building. But to speed things up, on the inside (photo taking is prohibited) there’s a moving sidewalk/conveyor belt in front of the display cases. That way, everyone gets to look at the jewels the exact same amount of time. Just Brilliant.
We waddled our way through Kensington Park to Kensington Palace on the east side.
Our hotel was only a block from Trafalgar Square…
and the National Gallery. (BTW, all the museums in London are free, they simply ask a suggested 5 pound donation….Suckers)
We were surprised by how many uniformed school children were in the National Gallery.
I was promptly scolded by one of the docents to not photograph the kids. I felt compelled to tell her, “I’m sorry, but I’m American and I’ve never seen children learning in a museum before.” I just had to document it to show the rest of my countrymen. And I just know that y’all would never believe it without this photographic proof. Like UFOs, or Sasquatch.
Jamie even discovered a new iced tea. I watched the bartender brew a cup, shake it with ice and a splash of milk, then strain it into a glass filled (*by European standards) with Sonic ice. Earl Grey is now his new favorite……it used to be Lipton.
A mere 2 hours outside the city is Stonehenge. It’s a big stone clock/calendar thingy most likely built by the Druids. Nobody really knows…..it’s all just speculation. The funny thing about Stonehenge, and trust me, there aren’t many funny things about possible Druid monuments, is that it’s so much smaller than you expect it to be. Still pretty impressive.
Until 1977, you could just walk right up to it. But for fear of some clumsy tourist knocking it over, it’s now protected by a thin barrier of shin-high black string.
Our tour group had an odd assortment of tourists and naturally we nicknamed a few of them. There was; Indiana Jones Hat, How Old is her Baby?, Hollister Sweatpants, Vampyria, Captain Cardigan and his mistress – Side Pony Tail. The last 2 sat directly in front of us on the bus and they kept licking each other’s faces like they were cheating on their real spouses. Of course, they were Greek. Which explains her “going out to the club after this” makeup and his thumb ringS.
That’s right. RingS. Plural.
After Stonehenge, our tour bus drove through Cotswold, to Bath (Highly recommend this city if you can) Bath is the home of a natural hot spring, and was once a luxurious Roman city renown for their spas. The spas are still there, but the Romans left centuries ago.
We ended the day in Stratford, the childhood home of one William Shakespeare. That’s his house right behind us.
I’m sure Mr Shakespeare would be thrilled to know that his childhood home is only 4 doors down from a Subway sandwich shop.
No lie.
We ended our week with a champagne toast on the London Eye.
It looks like a ferris wheel, but don’t say that to a Brit. At a speed of .06 miles per hour, one revolution takes about 30 minutes, and takes the pods up 443 feet in the air. The view of the entire city is just spectacular.
Shout out to our dear friend Kylie for setting us up on all our tours and excursions. She works for AAA Travel.
Such a great trip. We learned so much about Shakespeare, Winston Churchill, J K Rowling, Henry the Eighth, Elizabeth the Second, Diana, Benedict Cumberbatch, and for some reason, William Wallace. Honestly, William Wallace came up more than anyone else. My guess is that they want everyone to remember what happens to you when you defy the crown. (He was drawn and quartered)
And on that note, by the end of the week we were tired of touristing and ready to head back to Texas, and Harley Davidson, and our house with 2 almost functioning bathrooms.
Here’s a rare moment. In a city of almost 9 million people, most of which were pressed up against us the entire week, somehow we were almost completely alone on the street the morning we left.
But not before finding the perfect little memento…..to cram onto the Christmas tree…
Maybe now we can go back to pronouncing tomato like Americans again.
And stop using the adjectives “brilliant” and “lovely”.
And spelling color with a “U”.
After all, we’re Texans……and Texas don’t do stuff like that.
