Time and Tempers

We learned a hard lesson. We should have remembered that old saw...pick two;

1. excellent Quality, 
2. job done in short Time, 
3. affordable Price

...but you can't have all three.

We planned, designed and plumbed our new master ensuite bathroom. We bought some beautiful porcelain travertine tile. Then, we left our handyman/tiler to his own devices while we went away and  were otherwise occupied with a heavy workload. It is entirely our fault. The result was a horrible mishmash of crooked grout lines and dangerously sharp corners and uneven floors both inside the shower and out.
Rather than tell us that he was over his head, he soldiered on and the result is absolutely horrific. We have had expert tilers in to see if there can be any way of salvaging this mess and each one has shaken his head and one actually laughed.
But we take the blame, we should have hired a professional right from the start.
So, Monday or Tuesday the bathroom gets hacked up and thrown out.
Sigh.

However on the bright side, progress inches slowly on through the rest of the house, I will be getting the granite counter soon, and the cupboard doors go on in a week. At this point I will feel that I am home again. Albeit without an ensuite bath.

It is fortunate that I have been reading Bill Bryson's 'At Home'. It provides a rational perspective for me. This book is a walk through time and an anthropological dig into our home. Why we do the things we do and live the way we live. I loved this book, it is right up my alley. I love delving into the domestic scenes of 500 years ago. He goes on a great length how folks, not so very long ago, had to choose the colours of their walls. If you wanted white trim, you would probably die young because the only way to get white was with lead.
It hasn't been very long that we have had constructed shelter and not living in caves, not in the grand scheme of things. And it hasn't been very long since we have had clean, safe, prepared (read someone else killed it ) food, soft cloth, warm beds, rational medicine and education. Just over 150 years ago I would have been writing this with a quill pen while trussed up in a corset. Probably being 'bled' to cure my headache.  Oh and I wouldn't have needed a bath, that would have been out of the question. The toilets would have been a pit because the u-joint hadn't been invented yet.
So I haven't lost my sense of humour or my mind but I may take up wine. That might get me through. That has been around a long time.