We’ve been busy.  Boat repairs are half done.  And we built a new deck down at the boat shed. Its about 16 x 12.  Pictures pending.  It’s good.  Looks good, too.  So far, anyway.

Sounds ambitious, doesn’t it?  Gardening, quilts, boats, decks.  Hosted a few dinners and a few guests already.  And a whole new deck? But this deck is not as HUGE as it sounds. It is the lazy butt-head deck (LBHD).  You see, the deck is half-tucked away and half out-front but even the out-front part is private and all. And, well, we were gonna build a bathroom for our guests and a deck unexposed is kind of a bathroom….you know?  I will put a nice vanity and sink on it.  I will make a cute little water closet.  And the shower can come off the boat shed wall….maybe install a curtain rod….sump’n modesty-wise fer the women-folk, ya know….?

Here’s the rationale: Making a foundation and building walls and stuff and stuff is a chore, requires energy and what the hell do you get?  Really?  A little cramped room in which to ablute, collect hair and grow mold.  For the year that we lived in the boat-shed while building the house, we were so bloody exhausted at the end of each day just doing the main chore that we dispensed with a real bathroom.  We made do.  We’d just macho our way into the sea to wash. Then we rinsed off with a solar bag on the old deck.  Yes, sometimes it rained.  Yes, sometimes it was dark.  Yes, that meant occasional nude sightings of us by rounding-the-point kayakers but that also served to perk us up. Abluting on the deck and diverting now and then to Potty Point (just around the corner) kept us nimble, alert, flower fresh and clean.  It was au naturelle but good. Kind of exciting in a peek-a-boo kind of way.

But we promised a bathroom and so we felt obliged to keep our promise (made to ourselves). However, our guest days are dropping.  Demand for facilities is falling off. We may only have 15 visitor-days this summer. We’ve had many, many more.  They were a load in the beginning…….sometimes.  This new number of visitors is more easily doable and, with a lazy-butthead deck, more easily doable with style. Minimal and spartan, to be sure, but still some kind of style.  Guests deserve a bit of style. Funky-rustic and bare-back style.  But style, nevertheless.  It will at least be better than dipping in the sea. Better than peeing off the deck in the dark. Better than no sink, no tap.

AND, don’t forget: it’s summer time.  They won’t freeze.  They’ll be fine.  I think a private deck with a partition or curtain, a few concessions to bodily functions and all done minimally will serve us and our guests very well.

And, best of all? I have ready access to my own bathroom when I want.

It’s all about me.