Wanescote In the Privys

"Privy" really means "outhouse".

The privys here at Our Retro Bungalow are far from 

the old notion of wooden planks with a hole,
concealed behind a swinging wood door 

with an open crescent shape cut out.

But that's what Mr & Me call our half-bath and the private little room

with the commode in our master bathroom.

In addition to this little prelude...

I've mentioned on several occasions how, as a little girl, I loved traveling

to and spending long, humid, blissful summer days at 

my great-grandparents farm back in Waldo, Arkansas.

I, however, may have never mentioned that the only running water

in that little farmhouse was at the kitchen sink.

And that didn't come along until maybe a decade

before my birth in 1963.

Granny and Papaw Burke bathed every night standing in front of 

the kitchen sink in the dim light of the low-turned wick of a kerosene lantern, 

taking what folks from the south call a 'spit bath'.

Us children (my sister and I and our cousins) were bathed in 

a large galvanized tub on the kitchen floor.

Granny heated water in a kettle on the propane stove and mixed it into

cool water from the well just outside the back door because

drawing water from the well was quicker than filling the bucket at the kitchen sink,

which was pumped from the well.

No bathroom.

No indoor toilet.

And when Granny Burke passed away on that old farm 

in 1987 there were still no such modern convenience,

with the exception of my Granny's (her daughter) double-wide trailer

that had been planted just yards to the east a few years previous.

When a person (or persons) would arrive to stay for an overnight visit 

or longer, Granny would always remind them

"your suitcase is under the bed".

This was Granny Burke's polite way of saying,

"There's a chamber pot under your bed. Use it if need be."

Yep. 

Because nobody...NOBODY...better think once about 

using the "privy" in the night for fear of meeting up 

with a snake or skunk or some other not-so-friendly 

creature of the dark whilst on the trail outback

that leads to the wooden plank with the hole cut-out

concealed behind the swinging wooden door.

And, no, their outhouse door did not have a crescent cut-out.

Now,

with that little bit family history behind us,

shall we get on with today's subject?

Before we even had the sill plates down, I knew I wanted a

wanescote in the little half bath in the back hall way and I envisioned 

board and batten.

When it finally - finally - came time for me to order our

finish materials from Wheelwright, I ordered enough length 

of an appropriate baseboard 

(different from the baseboard for the rest of the house)

for that board and batten.

And then, of course, I changed my mind.

I decided I'd rather have a v-groove wanescote.

No worries.

That length of baseboard meant for the board and batt

got used to trim out another of my ideas -

an idea that I actually followed through on.

When it comes to following through on my ideas I average about 50/50.

How else is my good husband supposed to learn patience?

We got that wanecote complete the first part of this month

and it turned out 

FABULOUS!

We hadn't originally planned to do the master privy too,

but it got thrown into the mix and boy are we glad.

And jus' so ya know...

(cuz some folks don't)

This is v-groove

This is beadbaord.

V-groove and beadboard are not the same.

The guest privy (or half bath) before:

Actually, these are 'during' photos.
I forgot to take 'before' photos.

The guest privy after:

That's just like Miss Em - always in the middle of everything.

The master privy before:

The master privy after:

We're just about out of indoor projects!
There are a couple more on the burner and
we'll get those finished and/or started soon,
but we've still got plenty on the horizon.
And Spring is just around the corner,
so there'll be landscaping to work on.
No rest for the wicked...
or the daft.

Thanks for comin' to visit.
We're glad when you do.
No 'suitcase under the bed' here,
but your welcome to use our
charming little guest privy if need be.