Good Things No.68: Upstairs Bathroom Reveal, Christmas Brunch, Jane Austen Puzzle, Book Reviews & More

A monthly list of good things to see, buy, read and watch.

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Welcome 2024! Every year the date seems more like science fiction to me, probably because I remember when the book ‘1984’ seemed futuristic and we were going to “party like it was 1999,” lol.

Anyway, a new year is a good time to reflect and do a bit of planning (which I shared in this review of 2023 and my 2024 goals), which is always fun for me.

I swear there are some years when it feels like nothing worth noting happened and then I look back and see, well, yes, we really did do some things and goals were met. Which is encouraging and ranks as a very good thing in my book!

As for the Good Things List this year, I will keep sharing here in this format any farmhouse updates, things I’m discovering and the books I’m reading. (If you’d like more behind the scenes and some things I don’t share here, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter to not miss out on anything – they’re the ones who get all the in process stuff!)

I’m also going to look back through these lists to find the things I’m still using and loving (and a few updates on what I’m not…), so be on the lookout for some of my favorite things from 2023 soon.

Good Things List

The Farmhouse Upstairs Bath Reveal

I’m so glad to share that the upstairs bathroom is DONE. We finished every last bit of molding just before our daughter and my parents came to stay for Christmas and it was wonderful to have another bathroom!!

As a reminder, here is where we started:

When we bought the house, the upstairs held just a half bath even though the room was big enough for a full bath (spoiler: when we removed all the layers of flooring, we could see an outline for a tub on the wood floor right where we put one, so we figure at one time it was a full bath?).

The goal was to add a shower/tub for a full bathroom and also to minimize the “throne room” look of the toilet alcove (tiling just this area like that really emphasizes it, don’t you agree?).

We did use some of the tongue-and-groove old growth wood we found when we tore out the walls as a backdrop in the toilet alcove, but continuing the flooring and beadboard walls took out the “special” throne look it had before.

It also helps that the ceiling of the alcove now follows the roofline, mimicking the roofline of the dormer in the main area (see first photo).

In this view from the toilet alcove you can see some of my favorite features: the restored original window molding, the revamped built-in cabinet (we simply added molding, hardware, and paint), and the old fir door we salvaged from another house, had stripped, and then had hung before Brian installed it (it was a plain 1960s hollow core door before) with all the original hardware and reclaimed knobs.

I love these doors and how adding back what was probably originally in the house immediately brings that 1900s character it was lacking when we bought it. (You can see the farmhouse before tour here and the hallway before and after here shows the difference these doors made downstairs, too – or go to the 1900 Farmhouse Renovation page to see it all.)

Here’s a little closer look at the tub-shower surround. I did all the tiling of the walls, caulking, wood filling, and painting of the moldings and trim. Brian did all of the rest himself, although we hired out the plumbing (which is a whole other story that you read about if you’re a newsletter friend – suffice to say we’ll probably do our own plumbing in the future if we have any!).

The front was supposed to continue the beadboard but the special sized tub I bought gave us nothing but problems and we couldn’t fit the beadboard under the lip. We had to go with a thinner wood product and then added some picture rail molding to distract it from looking like a piece of wood we just stuck there!

The other thing we had to change was the vanity I showed in the original mood board for this space. I really wanted to turn a dresser into a vanity like we’ve done in the last few bathrooms we’ve redone, but I could not find one that would fit this space even after many months of looking.

I wanted a wood vanity (not painted) because I like the warmth it brings to white rooms, which is what I show in the mood board. Unfortunately, I didn’t take into consideration the depth of the vanity and how much room just a few inches makes between it and the tub in this space. When we placed the wood vanity I bought in the room, it was just too deep and big for the area.

So we sold it and I found this vanity that was a perfect size, although it was painted white and was more expensive. So plans change sometimes and you just have to roll with it, right?

Do I still wish it was wood? Yes. But I’m happy with it and super happy it’s done and we now officially have two full bathrooms (it was permitted with our county so it would go on record). Best good thing of 2023!!

Christmas Brunch 2023

My simplified Christmas brunch continues to bring joy. I love setting the table with my collected red transferware dishes, my grandma’s etched goblets, and the silver I bought with money I made when the kids were little helping friends decorate and paint their rooms (most things have a story around here!).

We had our kids, my mom, and my aunt and uncle join us this year for brunch after the kids and us had peppermint mochas while opening our stockings. They stayed while we exchanged gifts and it was all that was good.

Jane Austen Puzzle

Once things quiet down Christmas afternoon, it’s time to pull out that year’s jigsaw puzzle. Depending on how hard the puzzle is, we may finish it in a couple days or work on it the week between Christmas and New Years.

This year I found this 1000 piece puzzle showing many of the characters and places mentioned in Jane Austen’s novels, which I’m a big fan of. It was super fun looking at this (it came with a poster and explained the characters) and thinking about the stories and visualizing the houses.

But I have to say, this was hard for me. Ugh – I didn’t finish until New Year’s Eve. Everyone who started to help me gave up because the pieces were so similar that it was super easy to put them in the wrong space. You had to look really close to see the image may not line up in one area (though it did in other areas…).

But I should also say that I’m a casual puzzle maker – I don’t do any of those hard ones where half the puzzle is blue sky or something. I like images with houses and people so I can finish an area and move on, which I thought this would be.

Oh, well – I can say that I felt a real sense of accomplishment when I finished it, though!

December Reads

The Murder of Mr. Wickham, Claudia Gray. This was okay, meaning I enjoyed it but not enough to read any more in the series. While it was fun to see many of the main characters from Jane Austen’s novels come together, it was also a bit much (the premise is a house party at Emma and Mr. Knightly’s house where Wickham makes an appearance). And I really didn’t care for the fraught and uncomfortable relationship of Anne and Frederick from Persuasion (my favorite Jane Austen), lol. I think I’d just like to imagine them at the end of Jane’s imagination (Elizabeth and Darcy are at odds most of the book, too…just no.).

In a Holidaze, Christian Lauren. I thought this would be a fun holiday read, but it was too unbelievable for me (a Groundhog Day premise without the comedy) and too open door. I skipped a lot of this – actually most of the middle – and it didn’t seem like I missed much when I picked back up in the last quarter of the book.

Hello Stranger, Katherine Center. I enjoy the banter and unique situations in Katherine Center books and this was no difference with the main character losing her ability to see faces after a head injury (this apparently is a real thing I hadn’t heard about before). This is especially unfortunate since she’s a portrait painter. Her life seems to be falling apart, but we see it come together – sadly way before she does. So this wasn’t my favorite Center book, just okay.

Counting the Cost, Jill Duggar. I’m trying to remember where I heard about this that I put it on hold from the library, but I waited about 2 months for it even though I don’t know much about the Duggar family and never watched the television show. It was interesting to learn about the family and the organization they were involved with (Institute of Basic Life Principals). Her story was confusing at times (the way she wrote I didn’t get that she herself had been abused by her older brother until there’s a lawsuit) and you can see she has a vendetta of sorts against the people who share her childhood depositions illegally, repeating the whole list of organizations and names at least four times. I’m glad she’s in a better place by the end and seems to have found a balance in her life and connection again with her parents (who she’s always very positive about).

The Museum of Ordinary People, Mike Gayle. I really enjoyed this quirky book – so much so that you’ll see it on my best of the year list! It’s because it hits the criteria for me of being 1) something I kept thinking about (where do the things you loved go when you’re gone, where should they go, and what is really important?, 2) tells a good story and 3) made me root for the characters to succeed. While there is a museum of sorts complied of people’s cast-offs that mean something to their families, it’s really a story of a woman who has lost her way after her mother died and how she slowly comes back into her own through this museum idea.

The Advent of Glory, RC Sproul. This was a perfect daily advent book to go through in December! Even though it was written years ago, it’s thoughts on the Christmas story and how it can apply to us here and now was still very relevant. The readings are not long and there are prayers and questions to ponder as well.

Flying Solo, Linda Holmes. Okay, so I really didn’t enjoy this book much. The central character came off as so selfish to me, though I think we’re supposed to applaud her putting herself first. She returns to her hometown and reignites her relationship with a nice and handsome high school sweetheart – but she won’t marry him because she doesn’t want to move, share her cupboards (!), or basically have to change her life at all? Puuleese. And people wonder why things aren’t so great and younger people aren’t marrying (or together with anyone)? Sharing is not a bad thing – most of the time we actually grow from it!

Murder at Morington Hall, Clara McKenna (narr. Sara Zimmerman). I found this cozy mystery (set early in the 20th century when rich Americans came to England to marry into a title) by searching for audiobooks narrated by one of my favorites, Sara Zimmerman – I just love how she reads books. This turned out to actually be really interesting! I felt the surprise arranged marriage by a boorish dad and how the main character comes to view her intended favorably really believable. Of course all this came around the murder of a vicar and how they helped to solve it and grow closer as they did. I’ll be listening to the other books in this series for sure.

Watching

Beckham, Netflix. We watched this when our daughter was home and we all loved it. Amazing story in many ways and just fascinating – and I don’t know much about soccer/football!

Wonka, Theater. Fun musical origin story of the character from Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with lots of color and magical elements.

That’s it for another addition of the Good Things List!

If you’d like to see more of what I’m enjoying, you can check out all the Good Things Lists here. I’d love to know what you think – if you’ve tried any of these or what you’d recommend. Leave a comment below with your thoughts!

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