Yesterday I talked about the decision to redecorate the main bathroom, specifically why and a few of the generalities, such as not moving the fixed elements (tub, sink, toilet, window, linen closet), or tackling major changes like the flooring.
Having decided to "embrace the vintage," here are pictures of some of the vintage elements of the bathroom that are staying, with some minor changes or fixes. I apologize for some of the angles - it was difficult to get enough distance to take the pictures.
First up, the medicine cabinet, with mirrored door (and yes, that's my arm and hand holding the camera). You can also see the black and white tile, and the chrome cup holders built into the wall. Unfortunately, the bottoms of the cup holders aren't in the best of shape; however, they're a great place for small scented candles, so I'm fine with leaving them "as is."
Although it's not obvious from the picture, the mirror's looking its age, especially around the edges. I called Suburban Glass and Mirror and was told it would be cheaper for them to make me a new one, and they could copy the shape of the existing mirror. Ballpark cost without seeing it? About $30 - 35. If it comes it at that price or a little more, I call that a bargain.
Below is another fixed element that would be a headache to change. Originally the knobs on these drawers were plain white porcelain. I changed them to black and will keep these. Above is a counter space.
I might put a cupboard over this, but only if I can find the right piece at the right price. Otherwise, it will be art work, or perhaps another mirror.
Continuing around the room to the left, here's the window. We got it replaced when shortly after we bought the house about twenty-five years ago and I see no reason to change it, or the frame. It's frosted on the bottom because the back porch is on the other side.
Tomorrow, I'll be talking about the changes I plan to make and show some of the things I've already made or purchased.
We've been toying with the idea of moving. Well, I've been toying with the idea of moving. We've been in this house for 26 years. That's a lot of time to make memories and a lot of time for things to accumulate. However, we bought a cottage last year that's three and a half hours away. The kids are grown up and out of the nest, so I'm thinking it would be nice to move to a smaller community that's still fairly close to the city, but also closer to the cottage.
I'm aware that fancy, modern bathrooms sell houses. We have done some updating over the years: we put in a Jacuzzi tub, a commercial toilet (the kind restaurants use - uses less water yet never clogs), a new pedestal sink and a laundry chute in the floor of the linen closet. We added more white tile to match the original over the tub (the original tile went only part way up the wall, so paint peeled because of steam). The tile is white, with black trim.
The floor is black and white tile, in a basket weave pattern, set in concrete.
So the first decision was, do we tear out the bathroom and start over completely? I even have an old buffet I bought for a bargain price thinking it would make a nice vanity.
BUT tearing out tile, especially the floor, would probably play havoc with the walls and ceiling of the bathroom we added beneath the main bath, as well as be quite expensive. Given the location of our house - we back onto a school and have a lane to the school beside us - I don't want to price our house out of our most likely market: families with young children.
So I decided that instead of tearing out what we have, I'm going to embrace the vintage look of the black and white tile and floor.
I'm also trying to use what we already have, or what I can buy on sale or used/recycled.
I'll start getting into the specifics of what I've already done tomorrow. With pictures!
My latest book, HIGHLAND HEIRESS should be on bookshelves any time now. For the past few days, any time I'm in the vicinity of books for sale, I'm wandering by, seeing if it's there yet. So far, no dice. Has anybody else seen it?
Because although it will be twenty years since I made my first sale as author on April 2, some things never change. I still get a thrill seeing one of my books on a store shelf.
I decided it was time to get some painting done. My daughter's room hasn't been redecorated since she was about eight. She's now in her twenties, so...yes, about time.
I took down the wallpaper (not difficult, just needed a lot of water), and discovered minute cracks where every seam of the wallpaper had been. The walls are plaster, not drywall, and the drying paper had pulled the previous layers of paint apart. That means the cracks aren't in the plaster itself, but still - that's too much repair work for me, so it wwas time to call a pro.
I've gotten my estimates and am going for the most expensive guy. Why? I've discovered over the years that more often than not, you do get what you pay for, and he seemed the one prepared to do the most thorough prep. As far as I'm concerned, a good paint job is about 85% in the preparation.
That also means, though, that I've been scrubbing walls (to remove the last of the paste) and since we decided to get the bathroom done, too, taking down more paper and scrubbing more walls. And here I bet you thought romance writing meant a life of excitement and glamor!
Not that there isn't excitement. I'm looking forward to seeing HIGHLAND HEIRESS in stores soon.
ahead, ahead, ahead, a heaaaaaad!
What you're missing here is the tune, because yes, I sing this as a merry little ditty of joy. Moving the clocks ahead is one of my favorite times of the year. More daylight in the evenings, no major meal or cleaning or shopping to do to celebrate - yep, my kind of event!
And no, I don't mind losing an hour's sleep. It's worth it!
(About the picture: This clock was a wedding gift to my parents.)
I'm back and happy with the first four-star review of my next book, HIGHLAND HEIRESS, from Romantic Times.
"Moore taps into the culture and mores of Scotland to create a colorful Highland love story. ...* (with) a cast of charming characters, Moore delights her fans."
Even better, they included a picture of the (beautiful) cover.
I'm getting back to the blog later than I anticipated because I got sick when I got home from the cottage. Nothing major, just enough to mean I had to play catch-up when I was feeling better.
I'm taking off for a week to the Land That Time Forgot. I'm really looking forward to this winter retreat. Life's been a wild ride since the start of 2011 and I hope to finally put the finishing touches on a project that shouldn't have taken nearly as long as it has.
Until March, then, adieu!
Need I say more?
Ah, Valentine's Day - the one time of year the rest of the world pays attention to romance novels and their writers....
Contrary to popular opinion, however, I do not live for, long for, or particularly enjoy the orgy of "romance" articles at this time of year and here's why:
Mostly, they talk about/flog what I call the "props" of romance, in the form of gifts. Chocolate, jewelery, lingerie. Or the setting - "romantic" dinners by candlelight, in supposedly romantic places.
Essentially, we are told that love means spending money. Lots of money, or you don't care.
I ain't buyin' what they're sellin', either specifically or implied.
Give me genuine affection, respect and passion between two people. That's what I call romantic - and it doesn't cost a dime.
This is a project I started recently, and finished last night. I bought the wool for another project (a crochet animal), but after a disastrous attempt at that, abandoned the bear and searched for another pattern.
I like shawls, and I adapted a pattern so this one was easy to make. At the moment, given that we're still enduring upheavals on the family front, I didn't want anything too complicated or that might lead to frustration. I've got enough of that going on in other areas, including the story I'm working on. I'm at a crucial point in the plot and the romantic relationship and I can't decide if I've handled it the best way or not. I'll have to let it "simmer" a bit before I make a final decision.
In the meantime, I'll continue working on it, and start another shawl. Or maybe a stole.....
As I was shoveling snow this morning, I got to wondering which task, shoveling or writing, was easier/better/more satisfying. Let's look at it from the compare/contrast model so beloved by schoolteachers everywhere.
Shoveling snow is physically tiring. Writing is mentally tiring.
Snow shoveling burns calories. Sitting at a desk? Not so much.
Snow shoveling gets you outdoors. Writing - well, you can certainly do it outside in the summer, or if you live in tropical climes. In my neck of the woods? Only for part of the year.
Snow shoveling requires warm clothes. Writing? Clothing optional, I suppose, as long as one stays inside.
No strangers review my snow shoveling. I've never had my snow shoveling critiqued. OTOH, I rarely get complimented on it, either.
Nobody pays me to shovel snow. I do get paid to write.
Both can cause back troubles, if I don't use proper technique or posture.
But the biggest difference I thought of this morning?
When the driveway and front walks are cleared of snow, I am finished. There is no more to be done, until the next snowfall or spring. With writing, it isn't so easy to declare that the job is done. I simply have to decide that I'm at the point where changes will only be changes, not necessarily improvements, and it's time to submit. Nevertheless, I'm always wondering if I should have changed this bit here, or used a different point of view there, or made some other change(s). I can never say with 100% certainty that there's nothing I would change in a story, even after it's printed. So while snow shoveling may be physically taxing, at least it's over when it's over.
Here's the cover for my next book, HIGHLAND HEIRESS, which is an April release from Harlequin Historicals (which means it'll be on the shelves at the end of March).
This is the back cover blurb (which I really like - it gives enough information to make it interesting without revealing too much!):
Breaking The Law!
No sooner does wealthy heiress Lady Moira MacMurdaugh breathe a sigh of relief for avoiding a disastrous marriage to a gambling womanizer than she is served with a lawsuit!
Torn between duty and this impulsive beauty who stirs him to distraction, solicitor Gordon McHeath has no choice but to go up against the woman whose kiss he’s never forgotten. Until sinister forces threaten to upend Lady Moira’s world and Gordon
must cast the law book aside!
I've also added an excerpt on my website.
If you've read HIGHLAND ROGUE, LONDON MISS, Gordon's name might be familiar. If you haven't, don't worry - I always write books assuming nobody has read any of the prequels.
I can also now reveal where my son is going and why. He's moving to Seattle to work for...Amazon! On the Kindle! Appropriate or what? I just wish it wasn't so far away.
so unfortunately, despite my best intentions, I've been too distracted to think about blogging, or do much writing (except for necessary emails). I did manage to get lots of walking in, because that doesn't require any concentration.
This week, though, I simply must get back on track work-wise, although there are still medical issues to be resolved.
I will be tweeting from time to time, because they're short and quick, but I can't say when I'll be blogging again. I simply don't have a lot of time, and working on the gig that helps to pay the bills must take precedence.
I hope you all had a lovely holiday. For me, the excitement began when we got home from the cottage to learn that one of my children is moving across the continent. Great opportunity for him, probably should have taken down the tree before we left rather than the day after getting that news.
The next night we had a family crisis with an elderly parent. All is well for now, thankfully, but nobody wants to get that kind of 3 a.m. wake-up call.
So, that was the first three days of 2011 for me. I'm almost afraid to wonder what the rest of the year might bring!
The North Shore of Lake Erie in Winter
I'm very excited today because TVO (TV Ontario) is showing a wonderful BBC program, Victorian Farmhouse Christmas, tonight at 7 p.m, and at the same time for the next two Mondays. It's not just that the show is interesting and informative. The three people who lived for a year as Victorian farmers and farmer's wife are fantastic. Ruth Goodman is so enthusiastic, it's catching. The two men, Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn, are equally good. And it doesn't hurt that Peter has more than a bit of Oliver-Reed-in-his-prime thing going on. (I write romance - I notice these things.)
If you ever get a chance to see the whole series, by all means, do. It's fun, informative and makes you appreciate how good we have it in modern times. I enjoy history, but I wouldn't want to live it - although this series makes me think it would be fun to try, if only for a week or two!
Although I'm not currently blogging, I am collecting articles and thinking about topics to blog about in the new year. If there's a topic/question you think would make an interesting blog post from me, let me know!
In the meantime, here's another sunset picture from our most recent visit to The Land That Time Forgot.
I'm going to be devoting myself to my writing and Christmas preparations for the next few weeks. Blog posts will be sporadic. I'll probably be tweeting more frequently, so feel free to follow me on Twitter, where I'm WriterMargMoore.
In the meantime, here's a picture of our cat, The Count, I call Waiting for Santa:
So this turned out to be the last day of what was originally a twenty-day writing challenge, to end on Thursday, the 18th. My goal was to write ten pages a day for twenty days, for a total of 200 pages. Alas, events conspired against me, so I missed some goals. However, a couple of other things have cropped up that make this a good time to stop. What did I end up with?
I wrote five pages this afternoon, and 929 words, so my final totals for the challenge are:
173 pages, 36,601 words.
If I'd done ten pages today, and ten the next two days, I would have made my goal. But I'm not disappointed. I'm delighted with 173 pages. That's more than enough to give me a good start. And it turns out I should stop here for two other reasons:
1. I need to do more research before I can continue. I need some practical terms and especially more information for the setting.
2. I got grabbed by another idea last night, and when I say grabbed, that's pretty much exactly what I mean. This idea came to me so strongly, I had to write notes. Of course, that happened just when I should have been going to bed. I made notes, then went to bed. Then turned on the light to make more notes. Shut off the light. Turned on the light to make more notes. Turned off the light. And again. And again. Heaven only knows what the neighbors might be thinking. But I honestly could not sleep for the scenes popping into my mind. I tell you, there is nothing more exciting about being a writer for me than this.
I think this experience is directly tied to the challenge. It got my imagination pumping and the ideas flowing. And that's a wonderful thing.
Here I am in Sirmione. I gather this is quite the tourist mecca in summer, but it wasn't very crowded when we were there, on a beautiful, sunny day in October.
When I originally began this writing challenge, I wasn't going to write on the weekends. Those would be chore-and-rest days. However, given that my 20 Day Challenge is going to end early (either tomorrow or Wednesday), I wrote 7 pages, 1555 words, on Saturday.
I had a great writing day today, but alas, my aching shoulder is reminding me that I shouldn't push it.
Today's totals:
A.M. - wrote 9 pages, 1,804 words
P.M. - 4 pages, 961 words, for a daily total of 13 pages, 2765 words.
Total so far:
168 pages, 35,672 words
I don't think I need to say where I am in this picture. :-)
