I was blessed with endless patience and I believe good things truly happen to those who wait. Andy and I have been searching for a claw foot tub since December of 2006. Today we went to pick it up. After my dad and I returned from an antique store in Priceville empty handed, I went on Craigslist and searched. I ended up posting a simple ad in the wanted section. A woman from Decatur contacted me about having a genuine claw footed tub that she wanted to sell for ONLY $100. The porcelain on the interior of the tub is pristine. It needs a good rinse out, but that’s about it. There are a couple of places along the rim of the tub that need minor attention…nothing the porcelain touch-up stuff can’t handle. The outside just needs a good sanding and re-painting. She gave us step-by-step instructions on how to restore it ourselves (she used to do it for a living). Last week, I had called around to some places to get an estimate, and all of the quotes were well over $500 and one place couldn’t get to it for a month. Usually, there’s no need to have it professionally done unless the porcelain is cracked. So basically, we got a great deal and it just needs a bit of TLC. Aside from saving money, we’ll be able to take great pride in our tub once we restore it.

Andy already sanded off the layer of chipped paint. Next step is to strip the remaining paint. Sand. Use a rust reversal (oxidizes it and is available at auto stores). Sand. And the final step is painting it with a metal paint. We are planning on replacing the fixtures, so hopefully we can get those and the plumbing parts we need by the time we are finishing up the restoration.

A baby tomato! Our rabbit foot fern loves it on the porch, but we’ll probably have to move him inside when the heat of the summer hits. There was a ‘rubber plant’ in the pot next to the fern, but he went into shock when we transplanted him to a larger home. Luckily there’s green poking through, so hopefully he’ll be back soon. The afternoon rain was a blessing. We had the doors and windows open to welcome the nice cross breeze.

Once the rain slowed a bit, we walked over to the Dead Children’s Playground to meet some folks for a Memorial Day BBQ. It was a very pleasant walk and a wonderful dinner among friends. Complete with Disney sing-alongs towards the end…haha.