The last few weeks of work on our beach house have been intense and anything but smooth. This week we’re sharing the story of three setbacks that happened almost back-to-back: a missed deadline, a mysteriously absent water line to the house, and an unexpected medical scare. Renovations are rarely straightforward, and we’ll be honest about the bumps along the way. The good news: we made it through nearly 20 hours of tiling, and we discovered a small but indispensable gadget that let us work in a house with no electricity. Sherry remains defiantly non-obsessive about cleaning, and we also describe what it was like to attend a live recording for a major podcast—there were lines around the block.
How to Hear the Episode
You can download the episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, or TuneIn Radio, or listen to it through your preferred podcast app. Use this page as a reference for links, notes, and photos we mention during the show. If you’re reading in a feed reader, you might need to click through to the post to access the audio player.
What’s New
- The photo above sums up our recent beach house chaos: an excavator searching for a missing water line while we race to lay tile in four rooms within 33 hours.
- On the bright side, since we recorded the episode, Burger has made a full recovery. He’s off all medications and his eye looks almost normal again. We are so relieved.
- The image below was taken just before we left for the beach while Burger was still recovering from an ulcer. He was not impressed by the slightly melted dog cookie I found shaped like him—but he ate it anyway.
What’s Not
- We also talked about everyday cleaning habits and mentioned a reputable list of tasks you should consider doing daily to keep a home running smoothly.
We’re Digging
- The photo above shows our night-time tiling routine, made possible by a $30 area light we picked up right before heading to the beach house. The unit’s USB port kept our phones charged, which turned out to be essential. At one point we used a phone flashlight for close-up work, since we had to make final tweaks to a few blue tiles in the master bathroom. More bathroom details are on our Instagram feed.
- The image below shows the connected downstairs bathroom and mudroom. We used the same slate-style tile in both spaces for continuity. The floor needed a final cleaning in this shot, but you can also see the tile leveling spacers and yellow wedges we tried for the first time. They worked well, especially for larger-format tiles—look for a more detailed write-up in an upcoming post.
- To give you an idea of how hot it was working without air conditioning in Virginia’s summer humidity: here’s a photo of me sweaty after about 30 minutes of unloading the car and carrying tile inside. And we hadn’t even started tiling yet.
- If you enjoy reality TV recaps, Sherry highly recommends a hilarious recap podcast hosted by two comedians that covers the Real Housewives series. It’s a great example of how a funny, well-focused podcast can build a passionate live audience.
If you want to revisit topics we’ve highlighted in previous episodes but can’t remember which show notes to open, we maintain a master list of everything we’ve recommended and discussed across our podcast archive.
We’re also grateful to our sponsor for this episode, The Annie Selke Companies. They invited us to check out their new bed and breakfast and offered a special discount code for listeners. Their collection includes bedding, furniture, rugs, and other home pieces that fit a variety of styles and budgets.
Thanks for listening and following along with our renovation adventures. We appreciate your support and will keep you posted as the beach house continues to come together.
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