Editing A Winter's Respite
Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
The edit can be undone.
Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
| Latest revision | Your text | ||
| Line 19: | Line 19: | ||
''Not bad. It goes well with the walls''.<br><br> | ''Not bad. It goes well with the walls''.<br><br> | ||
| − | Josephine poured the water over the leaves and settled behind her desk to wait for the tea to steep, thinking of the luxurious room she’d been given during her visit to Katherine’s. She had no doubt the furnishings alone in that wonderful bedroom would have paid for her property here twice over, with sufficient remaining to carpet the floors and paper the walls. Still, Josephine preferred what she had earned though her own effort to the luxury loaned by others. She had the opportunity to build her home from the ground up, fitted out as she liked, and no one but she would be the ruler of it. She remembered the thrill of recognition when she’d first been shown the rooms, how her mind had fastened on the potential hidden under the dust and disuse. She’d scrutinized every detail, had done some discreet poking and prodding when the | + | Josephine poured the water over the leaves and settled behind her desk to wait for the tea to steep, thinking of the luxurious room she’d been given during her visit to Katherine’s. She had no doubt the furnishings alone in that wonderful bedroom would have paid for her property here twice over, with sufficient remaining to carpet the floors and paper the walls. Still, Josephine preferred what she had earned though her own effort to the luxury loaned by others. She had the opportunity to build her home from the ground up, fitted out as she liked, and no one but she would be the ruler of it. She remembered the thrill of recognition when she’d first been shown the rooms, how her mind had fastened on the potential hidden under the dust and disuse. She’d scrutinized every detail, had done some discreet poking and prodding when the realtor’s back was turned. She’d taken in the stout construction of the walls, the wide planking of the floors, the newer addition of the skylights on the roof, the radiators and the gas jets that had been put in less than a year before. She’d signed the papers before she’d left. Josephine went straightaway to the bank, withdrew the funds from her account, and got to work.<br><br> |
The plumber announced scant days before she’d departed for Ireland that her greatest initial expense—that of having the pipes put in, were sound. The water closet (sans closet) and the two sinks were a veritable luxury, one she never failed to revel in. The boiler that supplied her radiators with steam was housed in a sturdy shed mid-block behind her building. Everyone paid a few pence extra to maintain it or went without. The building’s heritage as a mews, a place to stable horses and store the carriages of the well-to-do fronting the main thoroughfare, was evident in the noticeable lack of fireplaces. What need did horses and carriages have of them? Living quarters for the staff above the street had originally been heated with stoves and with the advent of the steam heat, the stoves and their chimney pipes had been removed. Josephine had spied the flue covers fastened to the walls and sliding one aside, she’d found the opening behind it filled in. The ground floor had originally been a tack room for the stables next door. They now housed her office and storage room, while the stables had been remade into a set of rooms to let. The entire block was in the throes of gentrification and modern improvements had been part of the process. Though Josephine had hauled water in buckets and dug privies every evening for that night’s camp for years, she was grateful to be done with it. <br><br> | The plumber announced scant days before she’d departed for Ireland that her greatest initial expense—that of having the pipes put in, were sound. The water closet (sans closet) and the two sinks were a veritable luxury, one she never failed to revel in. The boiler that supplied her radiators with steam was housed in a sturdy shed mid-block behind her building. Everyone paid a few pence extra to maintain it or went without. The building’s heritage as a mews, a place to stable horses and store the carriages of the well-to-do fronting the main thoroughfare, was evident in the noticeable lack of fireplaces. What need did horses and carriages have of them? Living quarters for the staff above the street had originally been heated with stoves and with the advent of the steam heat, the stoves and their chimney pipes had been removed. Josephine had spied the flue covers fastened to the walls and sliding one aside, she’d found the opening behind it filled in. The ground floor had originally been a tack room for the stables next door. They now housed her office and storage room, while the stables had been remade into a set of rooms to let. The entire block was in the throes of gentrification and modern improvements had been part of the process. Though Josephine had hauled water in buckets and dug privies every evening for that night’s camp for years, she was grateful to be done with it. <br><br> | ||
