And then there was the question of pictures. As in—putting a few on the walls of our Puerto Rican retreat. Although I admire minimalism as a decorating philosophy, I’ve never been one for bare walls. Sometimes when I flip through Elle Décor and encounter one ultra-hip white-on-white room after another… …I feel frostbite nipping [...]
Archive for April, 2011
Picture Imperfect
Posted in Caribbean, Home renovation, Humor, Puerto Rico, Travel, Vieques, tagged caribbean, home renovation, Humor, puerto rico, second home, travel, vacation home, vieques on April 30, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Carpet Bomb
Posted in Caribbean, Home renovation, Humor, Puerto Rico, Travel, Vieques, tagged caribbean, home renovation, Humor, puerto rico, second home, travel, vacation home, vieques on April 29, 2011 | 4 Comments »
I’m sure FedEx is a perfectly dependable company in the 48 contiguous states. And for all I know, the residents of Alaska and Hawaii swear allegiance to it on a daily basis. But in Vieques, not so much. Somehow I had to convey this melancholy fact to my South Carolina rug vendor. I had just [...]
Carpet Bragger
Posted in Caribbean, Home renovation, Humor, Puerto Rico, Travel, Vieques, tagged caribbean, home renovation, Humor, puerto rico, second home, travel, vacation home, vieques on April 28, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Back in D.C.—with more than two months to go before we could return to Vieques to put the downstairs level in order—we asked ourselves what we could accomplish in the meantime. Hmm. We couldn’t easily buy more furniture without another kamikaze San Juan shopping spree, but we could order smaller decorative items and ship them [...]
Let’s Sea
Posted in Caribbean, Home renovation, Humor, Puerto Rico, Travel, Vieques, tagged caribbean, home renovation, Humor, puerto rico, second home, travel, vacation home, vieques on April 27, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Driving home along the twisting road from the Camp Garcia beaches I’m often struck by the stunning view. Sometimes I even wish our house faced south instead of north. “You guys are on the Atlantic side?” people occasionally ask when we describe the location of our place. They seem all too ready to draw the [...]
Leisure Studies
Posted in Caribbean, Home renovation, Humor, Puerto Rico, Travel, Vieques, tagged caribbean, home renovation, Humor, puerto rico, second home, travel, vacation home, vieques on April 26, 2011 | 2 Comments »
When I say we go to the beach to do absolutely nothing, that’s only half true. I do nothing. Michael does a lot. What he considers leisure, I consider a workout. He stands around a lot on the beach, looking out to sea; he goes for walks; he smokes cigarettes; he endlessly arranges and rearranges [...]
Shades of Blue
Posted in Caribbean, Home renovation, Humor, Puerto Rico, Travel, Vieques, tagged caribbean, home renovation, Humor, puerto rico, second home, travel, vacation home, vieques on April 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Our next stop was Blue Beach, which we’d also visited on several occasions. A real stunner even now, this beach was reportedly much more beautiful before the U.S. Navy decided to play war games up and down its length in the 1950s. One sunny afternoon the 65th Infantry, determined to defeat its “faux” foe at [...]
Beach Daze
Posted in Caribbean, Home renovation, Humor, Puerto Rico, Travel, Vieques, tagged caribbean, home renovation, Humor, puerto rico, second home, travel, vacation home, vieques on April 24, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Since we couldn’t do much more work on the house until our next visit, we made an executive decision to spend a day at the beach. A whole day. About time, right? So we set off along a back road Jane had told us about several months earlier—a road that snakes across the ridge of [...]
Floor Show Finale
Posted in Caribbean, Home renovation, Humor, Puerto Rico, Travel, Vieques, tagged caribbean, home renovation, puerto rico, second home, travel, vacation home, vieques on April 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Jane met us at the airport. We’d decided a few months earlier she didn’t need to bother with this little ritual anymore, but she probably thought we needed a little extra TLC this trip. “We found the tile!” I exclaimed, giving her a quick peck on the cheek. “Great,” she said, smiling from ear to [...]
Infant Tile Behavior
Posted in Caribbean, Home renovation, Humor, Puerto Rico, Travel, Vieques, tagged caribbean, home renovation, Humor, puerto rico, second home, travel, vacation home, vieques on April 22, 2011 | 4 Comments »
We must have traipsed through every kitchen and bath store in the greater San Juan area. Okay, maybe not every last one, but at least seven or eight. It was raining—my god, it was raining—and we were tired. We’d been up since 4:30 a.m., and we were booked on a 6:45 p.m. flight to Vieques. [...]
Match Game
Posted in Caribbean, Home renovation, Humor, Puerto Rico, Travel, Vieques, tagged caribbean, home renovation, Humor, puerto rico, second home, travel, vacation home, vieques on April 21, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Michael took one look at me when I walked through the door that night. “My god, what’s wrong?” I told him about the tile shortage. He sighed with relief. “I thought someone died.” “Our floors are going to look like crap,” I almost sobbed. He shot me his most reassuring smile. “They’ll look fine. No [...]
