Eviction

We’re moving!

Well, Jerry and I are moving. The kids are staying.

Jerry and I are going to move our hobby/work locations inside the house, AGAIN. I started out with my quilting area being in the little downstairs bedroom. That became Alice’s bedroom, and I moved up to Helen’s former bedroom since Helen moved down to Jerry’s old computer room. He moved to the east end of the New Room. Then in January of this year, Alice moved into Helen’s room, and Alice’s old room became “The Hangar,” where Jerry builds his airplanes. My current sewing/scrapbooking room, Helen’s former bedroom, has a floor that squeaks and because I get up to press seams so much, this is a problem. Not to mention the rat-a-tat-tat on the floor when I’m sewing a lot, or free-motion quilting. Because it’s right over the girls’ bedroom, the squeaky floor presents some problems when the girls are having trouble going to sleep.

Jerry’s computer area has been the east end of the New Room (which isn’t new anymore, but I digress) for the past 2 years. We designed it for that purpose, but he doesn’t like it — it’s visible from the front porch, he has inadequate furniture for what he does, and he doesn’t like sharing his area with a family room. And he doesn’t like having his back to the door when people come in. All reasonable complaints.

So I floated the idea of trading spaces with him — he can have Helen’s former bedroom upstairs, since a squeaky floor wouldn’t be as big a problem for him. Lots of closets with shelving to store his books, and he can even have the two 6-foot office tables that are in there and build airplanes up there if he’d like. He’s not thrilled with the idea of moving, because of the upheaval involved (and we all know Jerry’s not a huge fan of change), but I think he can recognize the benefits of that space for him over where he is.

The east end of the New Room presents some challenges for me, of course, because there’s no enclosed storage. None. So I have to figure out how to store all of my scrapbooking and quilting crap in a way that’s visually appealing AND not cluttery. This will be an ongoing challenge for me, but I’m up for it. 🙂 I have purchased a very large piece of furniture (a kitchen island, actually), and have spent the past 10 days finishing it with a “natural cherry” stain… It will hold a lot of stuff, and is pretty, too. I still need a lot more storage, though. And trying to figure out how to store things so that they’re out of sight (and therefore out of Alice’s mind) will be an interesting prospect.

Anyway…

Last night, Jerry was served with an Eviction Notice. Mostly because I know that he and I both could drag this out for the next year at LEAST if we don’t have a goal to shoot for. And since I also know that I’m getting sloppier and sloppier upstairs since I know I’m going to have to pack it all up to move anyway.

The Eviction Notice had the desired effect: Jerry giggled with that wonderful laugh that I strive for, and he gave me a hug. So while I know he’s not completely enamored with the idea of going through his stuff in there and moving it either upstairs or out of the house completely, he’s going to do it for me. 🙂