Indoor Plumbing

Where our toilet used to be

I dearly love our quaint 1947 house, but it’s small and has only one bathroom. Since it’s just the two of us, this isn’t usually an issue. But when there’s a plumbing problem, the world practically comes to a screeching halt.

The bathroom was refurbished 11 years ago this week. In fact, I distinctly remember happily enjoying our new shower, when Tim came in saying a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center—but that’s a story for another time. What’s relevant right now is that the remodelers did a lousy job installing the toilet and so water has been slowly seeping into our bathroom floor and wall all this time. After monitoring the situation a while, we finally bit the bullet and are in the midst of extensive bathroom repairs. I work at home, so luckily there’s a McDonald’s only two blocks away. Lucky, too, they’re too busy to notice me slipping through the side door several times a day!

When you’re on the far side of middle age, spending the night without a working bathroom is tough. So last night we cashed in some of our Starwood Preferred Guest points and stayed at Culver City’s own Four Points Hotel. My parents slept there two years ago, so I knew it was nice.

The "Westside" Four Points

We checked in a little before 7PM, walked across the street to our fashionable “new” Westfield Mall—well, actually it’s the same ol’ Fox Hills mall that was recently remodeled after a couple of gang members were shot there a few years ago—and ate dinner at the much-better-than-average food court. (KyoChon fried chicken—YUM!) 

Our mall

We were ready to settle into our free room, when we noticed there was nothing on TV . . . so we drove home and watched tivo! Our new favorite show: Collection Intervention with our fave History Detectives investigator Elyse Luray. Highly addictive! At 9:30PM, we packed up our toothbrushes and headed back to the hotel. Thank goodness for indoor plumbing!

Room with a view . . . of Sepulveda Blvd., the 405 freeway,

and, oh yeah, Marina del Rey in the far distance