Peeking behind the walls and some hideous vintage wallpaper…

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After cleaning and bleaching the black mold off the wallboard, our contractor wanted to make sure there wasn’t a larger problem lurking behind the wall and hauled out his spy camera.

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It’s a wonderfully nonevasive way to take a peek.

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And in a very unexpected turn of good luck in our usually cursed house…

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Everything looked fine.

No water damage, no mold. Yay!

Before the contractor started on something else, I had him remove an old useless thermostat left over from electric baseboard heat that was used in the ‘80’s.

Under that thermostat?

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Some really beautiful vintage wallpaper.

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Not!

But it does have all those wonderful 1970’s colors… olive green, gold and orange.

🤣

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A few more pieces of wood ripped out …

And then the reason our contractor loves charging us by the hour becomes clear.

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My husband, talking.

And talking. And talking. And talking.

Ka-Ching!

💰

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His Lordship?

Sleeping in the sun with a catnip mouse.

I wish my husband would do that, it would be so much cheaper.

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Thank you South Carolina… and the journey home.

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We woke up on the morning of the 8th day and had to say goodbye to our palm trees.

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Vacation was officially over and though I didn’t want to leave quite yet…

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We headed to the airport in Charleston, enjoying a few final glimpses of the South Carolina low country.

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It looked like the buzzards had lined up to see us off…

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But they were just having breakfast.

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Yes, my last image of Edisto Island was a carcass. Bet they don’t highlight that in the tourist brochures.

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We relinquished the giant rental vehicle… me quite easily – the husband with pangs of regret…. and began the long haul to the terminal. Seriously Charleston, could you put Avis any further away? Damn.

You’ll notice the husband is lugging both of our suitcases because…

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Yes. Mine might have been a trifle overpacked…. but it’s still rude of the airline to advertise the fact. Luggage has feelings too.

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Goodbye South Carolina. We enjoyed our visit immensely.

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Washington National Airport…

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Where your dog has a rest room too.

And apparently a fire hydrant.

We had two hours to kill and opted for lunch at PF Changs. We don’t have them up our way and I wanted to try it.

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One tasty Asian pear mojito in…

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I was questioning this man’s seating choice.

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I don’t care if there’s a heart, it’s still the business end of a very large horse.

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One horrible chicken lo mein and one even more horrible beef fried rice later, we vowed not to eat at PF Changs if they ever do make it up our way. Blech.

In other news, the flight to Maine did not start smoothly.

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Because of course, out of all the seats on the plane… my husband’s had to malfunction. The cushion was basically free floating and not attached to the seat frame at all. Every time he tried to sit down it just slid out from under him.

This delayed the flight a good 45 minutes while we waited for the maintenance people and did not endear us to our fellow passengers. After another 20 minutes of tinkering by the repair guys?

Velcro to the rescue.

I kid you not.

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An ignominious end to an otherwise delightful trip.

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At least it wasn’t duct tape.

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Oh, my aching back. And knees. And shoulders… etc.

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Day two of our working weekend consisted of ripping up carpet…

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Which was the easy part…

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Until my husband hit the closet.

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The padding was a bit harder to get up…

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And it left all those nasty little sharp staples which needed to be pulled by hand.

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The spots?

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That would be blood.

Home renovations are dangerous dontcha know.

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Next was the old baseboard trim, parts of which were damaged and all of which was beat up enough for us to decide we wanted new.

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His Lordship?

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Back in the bedroom sleeping with 3 mice on his scratchy post.

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The day ended with a much needed second coat of ceiling paint and two seriously aching homeowners.

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Saying goodbye to the boneyard and quirky Edisto.

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Thought I was done with the Boneyard Beach photos?

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Almost…

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I promise.

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But who could resist framing their spouse in driftwood?

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Making our way back to the path, I snapped my last photos.

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And my husband joined in the odd shell placement tradition…

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Trying to balance one on the sign.

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Success.

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Exiting through the marsh …

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We climbed back in the ungodly expensive rental behemoth…

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Of which my husband had become entirely too enamored.

It was late afternoon of our last day of vacation so we took a leisurely drive around Edisto Island and enjoyed some of its quirks.

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No one knows who erected this odd marsh angel but apparently she changes with the seasons and has become a local favorite.

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This is the only acceptable answer to the question what do I do with dead palm tree stumps?

Hula girls, that’s what.

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We drove past this native while on the main beach road.

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It was a wonderful sight so I made my husband turn around and circle by him twice to ensure decent photos.

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A poo covered jacket seems a small price to pay for such a beautiful friend.

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This bottle display is an old Gullah way of driving out evil spirits. They have to be blue, but sorry… for the life of me I don’t remember why. The Clemson tiger paw is a modern addition.

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Remember the herd of tiny deer we saw every night? I wondered where they could possibly live in so busy an area…

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The answer was our resort’s golf course.

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Where they clearly didn’t read the sign.

😉

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Damn. That’s too much like work..

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When the weekend rolled around it was time for the husband and I to go to work.

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Since having the living room stripped bare doesn’t happen very often we decided to take advantage and paint both the ceiling and the walls.

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Husband did the ceiling…

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I did the walls. Don’t criticize the paint on the baseboard trim, it’s all being ripped out and replaced anyway.

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And no, I couldn’t talk the husband into letting me pick a color other than off white.

Change is not his friend.

🥴

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Lord Dudley Mountcatten was inconvenienced yet again.

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And let us know in no uncertain terms he was not pleased.

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This window viewing platform was nowhere near as comfortable as the couch.

And as the day came to an end with both of us moaning and groaning about sore muscles and aching feet… my walls looked good.

The husband’s ceiling?

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Not so much.

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He actually thought he was done after one coat.

Silly man.

😉

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Do you think the other trees are jealous?

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When you’re in Edisto Beach, South Carolina one image looms large.

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It’s the one lone tree that stands in the surf at Boneyard Beach in the Botany Bay preserve.

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Admittedly it’s a fabulous tree.

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Silhouetted against the sky…

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All by it’s lonesome surrounded by plouffe mud.

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It’s certainly the most photographed tree there.

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But it does make me wonder if the other trees feel left out.

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No one prints postcards of them…

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And some of them are fabulous too.

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Such a strange and amazing place.

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I never would have thought dead trees could be so appealing before visiting here.

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But they were.

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And as much as I would have loved to spend the entire day here, our last few hours in South Carolina were running out and we had to move on.

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Past some live trees that were decorated with shells.

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Shelling amidst the bones.

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Walking the relatively treeless section of Boneyard Beach, it was all about the shells.

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All the beautiful shells it was illegal to remove.

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So of course most of them were perfect.

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It was hard not to slip a few into my pocket.

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There was no one around and they were so pretty.

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But I chose to do the right thing and did what others do.

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Found a perch and left my favorite (look at those colors!) for future beach walkers to enjoy.

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And then it was back to the trees.

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Those marvelously twisted…

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Skeletal trees.

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Needless to say it was against the law to remove the driftwood as well.

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A driftwood selfie was the best I could do.

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❤️

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News you can’t use.

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Because I’m helpful that way.

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Considering the decided lack of, I can’t say this surprises me.

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Heck, we do it for our dogs, why not ourselves?

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Oh sure, pay big bucks and end up with a week in beautiful downtown Cartagena. Don’t forget to pack your bulletproof vest.

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I’d be 103, so probably not.

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That’s the stupidest thing I’ve seen in a while, and I do these posts every week.

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Good question.

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Seems like the father of our country was the original thigh master.

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I don’t know about you but alcohol affects my workout this way…

Choices :

1. Go to the gym

2. Go to happy hour and drink $5 margaritas.

The choice is clear.

🍹

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Bones, burls, swirls and above all… wood.

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Yes, it’s another photo filled post of Boneyard Beach at Botany Bay preserve.

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I’d say I can’t help myself, but I could. I just don’t want to.

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We loved this place and I want you to love it too.

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It was truly one the weirdest natural wonders we’ve ever explored.

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The husband insisted I take this next picture.

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Clearly size is important to men.

Some of the wood was gnarly, some dried out and some twisted.

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But this piece was marvelously swirled.

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As we walked farther down the beach the trees were really piled up.

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Each weirder than the last.

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As we rounded a bend we found areas where shells had been strategically placed.

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It’s illegal to collect and remove things from this beach so people get creative.

It’s a wonderful way to conserve the beauty but this treeless stretch had some amazing shells that were hard to leave behind.

My husband, not caring about shells… found something else photo worthy.

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I can’t imagine why.

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🤣

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The blog in which His Lordship is inconvenienced but learns to make the best of it.

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Lord Dudley Mountcatten likes the noise plastic makes when he jumps on it..

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And God knows we’ve got plenty of plastic right now.

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What he doesn’t like is plastic rooms he has no access to….

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And in true cat fashion he’s always on the wrong side of the wall.

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The newly added zippered door helps, though he still has a propensity to sit and stare.

His Lordship doesn’t understand why his house is torn apart, noisy and covered in plastic…

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But he’s trying to make the best of it.

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😉

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