J.T.

First, let me explain that in my house, I have a cute quarter-bath (just toilet and sink) off the master bedroom. Apparently it was standard in smaller 50s houses to have the master quarter-bath. It was a bit more upscale to get even the half-bath (shower, toilet and sink). My, how times have changed in this age of the jacuzzi.

But anyway, my cute quarter-bath still has its original tile work--green and white with a fancy pattern on the floor, where little arrow-shaped tiles fit together into hexagons. It's one of my favorite things about the house, especially after seeing some of the craptacular color combinations of other neighborhood baths--pink and brown, fuschia and brown, aqua and brown.

Over the weekend, I was poking around in the flower bed and swept up some dead leaves over a little concrete walkway that leads to the hose spigot. The original owner of the house, Jack Thomas (a postman), had poured lots of convenient walkways and flowerbed walls, and I had noticed before that this one walkway had some tiles laid in it. For some reason, I had never pieced it together, and for the first time I realized it says "J.T.," spelled out in the little arrow-shaped tiles leftover from the bathroom. With two square white tiles for the periods.

I feel like I've discovered the patron saint for my house. Where are you, J.T? Right now, half my kitchen is lying on the floor, and the other half is covered in plastic and blockaded by the stuff on the floor. Hanging the plastic by myself (12 feet of plastic, one roll of tape) was a challenge, but when I was finished the kitchen had a futuristic kind of feel, like in the movie Brazil. I felt like a performance artist, like Cristo in my very own kitchen. Later, I'll get to tear down the plastic and it will be like unwrapping a huge gift--there's my kitchen!

The indisputable rule to home repair is "it takes longer than you expect." It's a disheartening realization, but you might as well get used to it.

And of course, I'm working on where in my house or yard I can permanently place my own initials.