Incoherent Scribblings

A Shower a Day

Apparently, for Germany we have a rather odd bathroom. You see, while many times German toilets, tubs/showers, and sinks are in separate rooms (actually more like closets), our toilet, sink, and tub/shower are all in one room. However, I always suspected from the orientation of our tub that there was something weird about our bathroom.

You see, our tub is partially enclosed by a wall. We had a hell of a time finding a proper shower curtain for it because we needed one that went around a corner. There are also little holes on the wall that have been filled with silicon.

Well, we found out the reason for these oddities is that our bathroom with all of its facilities in one room actually used to be two toilet stalls (hence the wall that encloses the shower) and a sink. Yes, you read right: Two toilets, NO shower and/or tub. All I can say is WTF? It is an apartment, not a department store!

The reason for the two toilets I will never know, because long before we ever moved in the landlord consolidated the two toilet stalls and sink into one room and added a shower and tub… And for that I will be forever grateful. Nevertheless, the remodeling of our bathroom apparently was not without complications because about six months after we moved in we noticed a water stain on the other side of the bathroom wall, which also happens to be our bedroom.

At first the stain was barely noticeable. Then we noticed that the stain had darkened and gotten bigger. The wall was damp and the bedroom smelled musty. We contacted the landlord and he came to investigate the situation. It seemed that the silicon used to seal up the shower/tub area was not doing its job and the water from our showers had seeped into the wall.

As the landlord and his friend fixed our bathroom, he muttered he didn’t know why this had happened. Did we shower often? A. said, “Only everyday.” A. didn’t add that we EACH shower everyday, therefore running the shower twice. From the look on the landlord’s face though, it was obvious he thought even showering once a day everyday fell into the “too often” category. But they fixed it… or so we thought.

However, about a month ago we noticed a new spot in the bedroom and the landlord and his friend came and fixed it again tonight. This time they used something else for the sealant and the fumes smell like nail polish remover. They informed us that the shower had to remain dry for 24 hours. Then they sternly reminded us (with what I thought looked like a twinkle of sadistic pleasure in the landlord’s eye) that this meant that we could have NO SHOWER until tomorrow evening! Oh the horror! How will I ever survive?

Finished AND Framed!

I have had a very crafty couple of days! Not only did I finish the baby sampler, I framed “Purr-plexed” and “Precious Family.”

You may remember that while back I ordered a frame from my local craft store for “Precious Family.” While I was not impressed with the fact that I didn’t receive the service I was hoping for and that they told me the frame would be here in two weeks, but in reality didn’t get here until Friday, just about a month later, I am happy with the frame. I picked it up today and framed “Precious Family” this afternoon and I must say, I think I did a damn good job! In my opinion, it looks very professional.

On top of that, yesterday I also framed “Purr-plexed.” You may be wondering about the bright blue frame that I chose for “Purr-plexed.” Well, there is a story (of course!) behind it.

Originally I bought this frame at my infamous craft store. I bought it unfinished and for “Precious Family.” I was going to stain the frame and then frame “Precious Family.” Well, when I went to OBI (sort of like Home Depot - the craft store only had paint… no stain!) all the stain they had for sale came in a liter can. It was WAY more stain than I needed and cost WAY more than I wanted to pay, so I abandoned the idea. Instead, I decided to paint the frame light blue since I thought it would bring out the light blue in “Precious Family.”

Well, once I got it painted the light blue was about 100 times brighter than I wanted and it totally did NOT work with “Precious Family.” So, I put it away and hoped to find something else for it eventually. I have tried at least 10 pieces with that frame in all of its blue glory, but it just didn’t work with anything.

So, the other day when I finished “Purr-plexed” I held it up to the frame and came to the conclusion it worked the best of any piece so far, so voila! I decided to put “Purr-plexed” in my notorious “light” blue frame. It could have turned out gaudy, but amazingly… I think that it turned out A-OK!