Calgon, take me away ...

Now that I have a horse there is only one thing that is really missing in my life and now that I have a horse I need it more than ever! When we moved into our house a year and a half ago I was thrilled at the thought of the boys having their own bathroom. No more sitting on wets seats or falling in because miraculously someone put the seat up but then left it there. I overlooked the tiny detail that my new all-to-myself (oh, I let my Other Half use it from time to time) bathroom sadly lacked a tub. There are four bathrooms in the house but only one tub.

Now, I love my baths, I used to take one at least three or four times a week with bubbles and a little pillow for my head and the door firmly shut while I rested my weary bones or soaked my PMS cramps away and I would read. Picture the first time I drew a bath (I love that phrase, makes me think of maids and ladies in waiting) for myself in the boys' bathroom. First of all, it is a luxury all-in-one fibreglass unit from the 80's with a glass door that hermetically seals shut for the steam unit. Yes, not only does it have jets but it has steam which we quickly disconnected so no one scalded themselves and the mold it spawned didn't spread throughout the house. After a good scouring with a very environmentally-unfriendly product, I bravely gathered my bathing must-haves - pillow, stool with my book, towel and cup of tea on it and climbed in.

It was strange, but I felt like I was stepping up into the tub. Then I tried to sit down and I realized to my horror that the tub was only 4 inches deep on the inside and I was feeling vaguely claustrophobic even with the door propped open. The length was okay but this one was so shallow that there was no way I could ever submerge myself. Now in my old tub I was used to alternating between submerged knees or boobs and that was okay because I love the water really hot so I have to let part of me cool off while the other bits are under water. But this tub didn't allow for anything to be underwater completely at any time. My belly (which, I admit, isn't exactly flat) rose above the surface along with just about every other part of my topside. Relaxing this was not, but I had no other option. Then to add insult to injury, I realized that the electric hot water tank that the previous owners had installed just before we bought the house, barely holds enough water to fill this pathetic excuse for a tub and it takes about an hour to heat up the next round. I like to top up my hot water every so often over the course of an hour long soak but that wasn't going to happen with this set up.

So, here I am, tubless over a year later. I have made it through two winters of coming home from the ski hill frozen and trying to warm up in the shower and now that I have a horse again my poor out of shape body cries out for a long hot soak after each ride. I am thinking about offering to clean my friends' bathrooms in exchange for a soak. I plan trips to pick up my Dad's mail so that I can hide out and have a bath. I don't know how much longer I can stand it. We have talked about redoing our en suite but that isn't in the cards for a while and the easiest thing to do would be to rip the hideous unit out of the boys' bath and replace it with a good soaker tub and re-tile the walls. Maybe that will be my birthday wish next month - I'll offer to grout and take great pleasure in ripping the whole thing out. Maybe the boys can use it as a fort in the yard?