So a few years back, we embarked on a home improvement program that turned out to be (stop me if you’ve heard this one) a lot longer to execute than initially thought.
It sounded simple. Katherine needed a larger room. So we’d move her into the old guest room, which meant turning a room into a guest room in lieu of that. So we’d take the old office, turn it into a guest room (and office), move Kitten into the old guest room, and take her old room and make it into an arts / crafts / sewing room for the variety of things of that sort we have (and which we’re rarely able to do because, really, there was no space for it except on the breakfast table (and rarely space there)).
The overall program was complicated by a sad fact — we are pack rats, and not neat pack rats at that. The old office had always been a “what do we do with this box? let’s put it in the office” kind of place, and, despite occasional cleaning, the room had gotten that kind of “old reclusive woman found dead in home, crushed under box of newspapers from 1956” look to it. The fact that we didn’t really use the room for anything else (until recently) allowed assisted in that happening.
So anything we did in that room required moving and sorting a plenitude of, um, Stuff. Shift the Stuff out of the office (sort / toss / put away / box) out of the room, do work in there, move some Stuff back in, shift Stuff out of the old guest room, do work in there, move some Stuff back in, shift Stuff out of the old Katherine room, do work in there, move some Stuff back in.
Looking at that breakdown will show three things. First, we have a lot of Stuff. Second not all Stuff moved out gets back in, meaning a steady accumulation of Stuff elsewhere. And, finally, we would need a place to move Stuff to as a staging area.
Fortunately, for that last point, we did. Two places, in fact. Some went into our bedroom (thank heavens for a huge bedroom). But most went into our loft (and thank heavens for having a loft with solid construction underneath it).
This week’s activities have basically been wrapping up that effort, at least to te 99% mark. The new office / guest room is functioning superbly for guests (and backup office space), and remains Stuff-free. Katherine’s room is all moved into now, including a full panoply of books (even as some have been culled to go to other famillies or to charity) and clothes (old / outgrown clothes similarly culled). And the art / craft / sewing room is fully refloored and moved into now, too. That last bit was what Jim and I were doing.
Margie and Ginger have been going through boxes in our room, similarly sorting for use, posterity, or others. The mess there has been 90%+ reorganized and dealt with.
But best of all — and something I’ve only lately realized was really bothering me — we have our loft back. While there had been an accumulation of Stuff there, it was actually pretty well organized and pre-sifted. Which meant it was as much a matter of moving things as doing additional work. And while I was doing moving and putting away, Jim was tidying and organizing the place. And the loft now has chairs, a desk (yet another desk for Kitten to work at), the sofa, and is suited for lounging and relaxing probably better than it ever has been. Now when I get to the top of the stairs, I’m looking at our library, and a pleasant place to be, not stacks of furniture and boxes.
It’s nice.
(An incidental positive part of this has been doing a lot of work both to counter the Thanksgiving day food indulgences — and adding a lot of steps to my Walk to Nowhere.)
And that’s close to a wrap for the upstairs rooms remodels and shuffle. We still have some follow-up — a lot of hanging art is still leaning against the bookshelves which needs to be given a home of one sort or another, and the books behind it reshelved, and there are boxes of stuff (now actually boxed in a coherent fashion) in the master bedroom that need disposal. But I feel a lot better about the house interior than I have in quite some time. Many thanks (appropriately) to Jim and Ginger and Margie and Katherine for all their hard work.
And what does that leave for future, inevitable home improvement projects? Lots of noises being made about bathroom remodels … but that’s for next year …