Tubs and Texture

Yesterday, I stopped by the house to see the progress.  Things are moving along nicely.  It doesn’t look like we will be in the house before Thanksgiving.  If we are in before Christmas it will be a miracle.

The landscaping above does not look good, although the hubster mowed the lawn, which makes me feel better.  I’m not sure how much landscaping we will get done in the near future…probably not much.  We will, however, be painting the outside of the house.  We have decided to go with a darker gray for the siding, white for the trim and under the eaves and a red or turquoise door.  Although it’s not a large house, there is lots of painting sf which could take quite a while.  The carport might take forever.

I’m sure the neighbors will be glad to see any improvement in the exterior of the house.

Inside, I was pleasantly surprised to see texturing in the kitchen…

Butterfly room (now known as the front bedroom because there are no more butterflies on the wall.)

and the middle bedroom.  The two bedrooms can probably be painted now, which we might start today.  We are still trying to decide on paint colors.

The best thing, is that we were able to pick out a new tub on Thursday, which will be delivered on Monday or Tuesday.  The contractor has agreed to install the tub of our choice and they have already removed the drywall in preparation.

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off me and I am very excited to see the new tub installed.

We need to pick out the rest of the tile today.  I’m looking for accent for the shower and bath and a backsplash for the kitchen.  I think I mentioned before that I would like to stay in the blue/turquoise tones.  I’m really hoping that we will find something today that won’t take really long to order.

We also paid for all the plumbing fixtures, sinks, faucets, tub, etc.  Big chunk of money, but it feels good to get that stuff ordered. The sinks are so expensive, especially the large kitchen sink and the trough sink in the master.  I’m glad we are not putting in two sinks in the kitchen, as in the original plan.  I’m also glad we only have two baths.  Plumbing bling is expensive, but probably worth it.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, I grew up in this house and sometimes I get a little emotional about it (reference the sad saga of the bathtub.)  The house is located in the quaint little gold rush town of Placerville, CA.  I am also emotionally attached to this little town and I am very anxious to move back.

Last year I was hired by the magazine Cowboys and Indians, to take pictures for an article they were doing on El Dorado County.  The article was called “A Culinary Tour of California’s Gold Country” and centered around the food and wine offered in El Dorado County with the little town of Placerville highlighted.  It was an honor and great fun to take pictures of the area where I grew up and now live. Here’s a couple of the published and unpublished photos of the town of Placerville, where we will be moving.

Then there is the Historic, but controversial, Hangman’s Tree, which is also undergoing a renovation.

Placerville, during the gold rush, was the county seat (and still is).  It was a rough and tumble area due to the gold rush and the type of unsavory people the gold attracted.  At that time Placerville was called “Old Dry Diggins”.  But, when a couple of horse thieves were hung for their crime, the town gradually became known as Hangtown.  No one was lynched.  The hangings were not about getting rid of witches or people of color.  Stealing a man’s horse was serious business in the old west.  It could literally doom someone to death to have his horse stolen due to possible dehydration/starvation without transportation.  Thus, when several horse thieves were convicted of their crime, they were hung.  Only three horse thieves were hung.  There were no more hangings after that event.  It probably was enough to keep more nefarious activities from happening.  More about the history here:  City of Placerville, CA.

On a more positive note, I was wandering around the old city cemetery and found this:

Anyway, more about my beloved town and the county of El Dorado as time goes by.