For those wondering about the title, it’s what you say when you’re sailing and getting ready to turn the boat. “Tacking” or “coming about” is a sailing term for turning – putting your bow (the front part of the boat) into the wind so the direction of the wind on your sails changes – and it’s proper to give your crew the head’s up that you’re about to turn so 1) nobody gets bonked on the head by a swinging boom and 2) the crew pulls all the right lines and stuff and basically does their job.

I grew up sailing and heard the words in that title a lot. In fact I have said them out over small and big boat decks many times. (said being another word for yelled). Non-sailors sometimes say things like “changing tack” when they are talking about a change in direction of sorts…but somehow that doesn’t hold the same meaning for me. There’s something different when you tack on a boat.  You physically change direction and need to respond by pulling lines, moving your body, being aware of what’s around you and alerting your crew.

When I started this blog a couple of years ago my intention was to focus fairly exclusively on the ongoing house project that is Raglan.  We’ve actually been doing lots of work since 2013, but little of it has made it to this site.  I still plan to get things up.  It’s just that I’ve realized I may need to ‘tack’ a bit on this whole blog project.  My initial reason for this house-based focus was to separate things out in my life a bit.  I have a great job that is more of a lifestyle and worldview than just a thing I do that gets me a paycheque (to pay for the things we do to our house). We have amazing friends and family in our life that our part of our house adventures and our daily life. We travel to places near and far, eat and drink amazing delicious things (and sometimes super gross things) and have hobbies that are not house related. So I’ve been weighing my options and have decided that just being me on the blog is better than being only a part of me. I’ve realized that turning a house into a home is more than the house projects, it’s about me-us-more.

I’m not entirely sure what all of this actual means in terms of what makes it onto these pages. I haven’t quite set my course to follow just yet – but that’s coming. In the meantime, I’ll let things unfold as they will and see what happens.

shan:)