Part 4 of 4: Weird Houses I Live In

At any given time, I have an awesome (and I mean that in the original sense of the word) list of things that I intend or would like to do. I’m not talking about the Sisyphus-like round of weekly and daily tasks that keep life running. No, I refer to the things I would do should I not have to wash dishes, make dinner, walk the dog, do laundry, clean the ______, etc.

Ssometimes I get to some extra thing. One task on the Extra Time List was to do some fabric prettifying of the bathroom. I have a shower stall (no bathtub) so my pretty shower curtain was way too wide. So I cut off the extra fabric from the curtain and made a little decorative curtain, trim for the rug, and a tissue box cover.

You may remember that the walls in my bathroom are concrete, so I couldn’t use a curtain rod. Instead I made buttonholes and used micro Command hooks. The tissue box cover I saw on Kirin Notebook and again on My Paper Crane (it would have worked better if I’d remembered to add a seam allowance). Just simple little things, but definitely a good impact.

While I’m on the subject, I’d like to make a note about this “house” I live in. I can’t remember if I told you guys, but this place was built around 1932 and was a garage that was added onto. As nearly as I can figure, whoever owned the house did all the work himself. He had pretty good intentions, but (a) no discernible sense of style or aesthetics, (b) no professional skills, just amateur ingenuity and a hardware store, (c) a whole lot of time on his hands.

You may note the “privacy glaze” on the bathroom window. That stuff is just weird and old. And you can see a bit of the tile there under the rug, but that’s the most normal tile in the house. I’m not kidding when I tell you we have a yellow brick road in the kitchen, a sun in front of the bathroom sink and a triangle in front of the toilet. It was clearly a custom tile job. It makes Jeff crazy to look at it.  And there is that spot in between the old garage and the addition that’s not quite sealed, where occasionally a vine from outdoors starts growing inside.  Not to mention the kitchen that still makes me think I’m camping half the time.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. There is more odd, one-off, inexplicable, uneven, painted over, hacked together, jerry-rigged, not-quite-functional crazy shit in this apartment than I can begin to tell you. I mean honestly, who else among you has a bedroom that’s like an underground bunker but with a vaulted ceiling? I have no idea what this guy was thinking while he did some of these things.

Ah well. I have a 10 minute walk to work, and I share no walls, and it’s not permanent. I keep telling myself that.