{"id":46690,"date":"2025-10-10T00:01:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T07:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=46690"},"modified":"2026-06-05T06:02:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T06:02:23","slug":"a-bathroom-and-a-book-i-finished-both-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/a-bathroom-and-a-book-i-finished-both-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bathroom and a Book — I Finished Both This Week"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"table-of-contents-barbara-falconer-newhall-book\"<\/a>
A glimpse at the table of contents of the book that got finished last week. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Great news! Last week I wrestled that consarned to-do list of mine to the ground. Two huge projects finally got done: A bathroom and a book — both finished last week.<\/p>\n

(Apparently, one thing that didn’t get done last week is the posting of this post, scheduled for last Saturday. I went to my website yesterday and there it was — not there!<\/em> Is my website even older and creakier<\/a> than I declared it to be last month?)<\/p>\n

But — back to the book and the bathroom. The truth is, there will be tweaks. And the tweaks might even be on the big side:<\/p>\n

In the bathroom, the new faucet is too skimpy — the water just barely makes it into the sink. Something with a longer spout might be in order.<\/p>\n

As for the book, it’s kinda long — 100 essays, each one maybe 800 words, which makes for an 80,000-word book. That’s not too many words for a novel or memoir, but for a bunch of essays? Will my readers find 100 essays, back to back too daunting? Will they put the book back on the bookshelf without sampling it?<\/p>\n

How about if I make one book into two books, 50 essays each?<\/p>\n

Hmm. What I need now (besides a plumber to install a heftier faucet) is a developmental editor who can stand back and take a realistic look at the manuscript.<\/p>\n

The book, as many of you know, is a theme memoir, a memoir in essays gleaned from the columns I wrote for the Oakland Tribune when my kids were little and I was juggling marriage, motherhood and career.<\/p>\n

The working title — and theme — is “Wanting It All: Dispatches from a Twentieth-Century Mom.”<\/p>\n

As for the bathroom. It’s exactly what I envisioned during the months and months I searched all over the Bay Area for tile. I wanted the new tile to echo the house’s original 1950s tile.<\/p>\n

Not an easy task. Everyone’s into austere slabs of quartz or marble in subdued whites and beiges these days.<\/p>\n

Not for me. I wanted color. I wanted tile that was tile — glazed and set in grout — yes, grout — to show off the squareness of the handmade Pratt and Larsen tile.<\/p>\n

Come back tomorrow for my regular weekly post. There will be photos of the new bathroom. And with a little luck, my creaky old website will have the wherewithal to publish it for you.<\/p>\n

For posts about remodels past, go to “Yay! Our Garden Remodel Is Done.”<\/a>\u00a0 And here’s one on our living room and deck remodel, “Hey, HGTV Fans. Take a Look at Our Remodel. It’s Finally Done.”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Big news. Two huge projects finished the same week. A bathroom remodel and a book manuscript. Whew!\u00a0 Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[221,52],"tags":[2960,134,1485,2853,3057],"class_list":["post-46690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-house-and-garden","category-the-writing-room","tag-bathroom-remodel","tag-books","tag-to-do-lists","tag-trib-book","tag-wanting-it-all"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48457,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46690\/revisions\/48457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}