Remodeling

Over the weekend my sweetheart took me to see the Winchester House. We visited before, many years ago. The place is so bizarre that it has stuck in my memory these past 30 years.

Sarah Winchester married into the Winchester rifle family. After the loss of her husband at an early age she relied heavily on soothsayers to plan her future. She left her home in the east and bought a track of land with a modest home in San Jose, California.

She believed that the spirits of those killed with the Winchester rifles were haunting her. She was also afraid of dying. A fortune teller convinced her that if she started an ongoing building project she would live forever, and so her remodeling project on the simple 8 room farmhouse became the 160 room oddity that we find today. Doors that open to nowhere, stair cases that lead to the ceiling. The Victorian that she built is both bizarre and beautiful.

She had the workmen busy 24 hours a day. I am sure that sometimes my sweetheart feels my projects are as never ending in our humble little log house on the hill. For almost a year and a half we have been working on our master bath. A year ago it was finally functional again after 6 months of work. For the last year it has been an ongoing adventure in trim work and caulk. I think we could be finished if we would stay at home occasionally without extra guests visiting, but right now, travel seems to be my middle name.

Tomorrow we head home from our visit in California. It has been a wonderful trip, pleasant weather, fun memories, quiet thinking time. Everyone needs some quiet thinking time occasionally. I can hardly wait to get home and see how the homestead is holding up in my absence. I have been thinking about some of the projects we have waiting for us there--the main bath and laundry room are both at the top of the list. We will have to flip a coin to see which project gets first priority--maybe the trim work on the master bath should get the final touch before we start tearing out again. Of course it would be nice to finish the wood floor in the dining room as well, not to mention the winter maintenance the yard stands in need of, and then there is always........