Home Improvement

For the past three years I've been devouring books, magazines, websites, and conversations to aid me in designing my dream home – a cabin-y cottage equipped to be our family’s homestead hub.  Until we’re ready to build, Weldon and I are living in a glorified garage.  It sounds a bit off kilter, but I assure you, our 1,200 square-foot shop building is an absolutely wonderful home…even with plywood walls, a concrete floor, metal ceilings, and a trailer-sized roll-up door.  Recently, it began to dawn on me that I've spent so much effort defining my future ideal that I haven’t given full attention to my current dwelling.  So, having made peace with staying where we are for at least another two years, I set out last week to look at our space with fresh eyes and renewed vigor.  Saturday’s grand finale was a John Deere tractor rolling toward my door with a piano dangling from its pallet forks.  Yes, you read that right.  All I can say is, “It was a good week.” 

It began when we ventured to the local hardware store last Monday and returned home with bliss in a bag – the makings of an indoor clothesline.  We haven’t owned a dryer in years.  I never miss it.  The electrical cost and energy savings alone are worth it, but I truly enjoy the rhythm of hanging my clean clothing and folding up sun-drenched, breeze-filled fabric at the end of the day.  Most folks think it’s fun on sunny days in May, but what about when the rain (or the mercury) comes a tumblin’ down?  It was in these moments that I had begun missing the backup plan, not the dryer.  Yes, I could cheat and run to my mother-in-law's (which I've had to do only twice), but an indoor clothesline would give us freedom to launder to our hearts’ content no matter the weather.  I’m not sure why we waited so long or what became the catalyst that kicked us in the pants, but we finally bought the rope, two pulleys, and caribiners and Weldon rigged it across the spare room just in time for below zero temperatures and an empty sock drawer.  Talk about simple satisfaction!  With the laundry hung, I scanned the room in hunt of another overdue project. 

The unique thing about our spare room is that it is as much a guest bedroom and dining room as it is our pantry, garage, storage, and now office.   Wide open space may be a beautiful blank canvas, but attempting to organize so many disparate “rooms” into one location has certainly been a challenge. With my new wave of nesting energy, I became determined to make the most efficient and homey use of the area.  All week I felt like I was playing a perpetual game of Tetris in my mind.  In one inspired evening I made my moves: the pantry shelving was stripped of its accouterments and relocated near the freezers and recycling at the far end of the room.  The couch was swung perpendicular to the bed creating a cozy guest area.  This left one open corner, by the only window, available for Weldon, who needs a designated office now that he is about to begin a 3,000-hour property appraisal apprenticeship.  Having moved his desk out of our living room, I took over the vacant cubby with a home organizational area of my own.  Back in the spare room I was desperate to get our collapsible closet and bikes out of the main floor space…but how!?!  Weldon’s brother came to the rescue when he and Weldon removed one of the family deep freezers we’d been harboring for the group.  With one less freezer, we could shove the storage into the freezer’s former nook and open up just enough floor space for the capstone of the project.  Which brings me to my piano…

When we married in 2010, Weldon called in some favors with his load-bearing cousins in order to move my upright player piano in with us.  This baby is an overly stout music-maker that each one of the hefty men was impressed (if not slightly challenged) by.  It took at least four of them to get it up three stairs and through the living room door.  When we moved into the shop last August, the piano remained in the empty house waiting like a long-lost love.  I had every intention of reuniting with it as soon as possible, but never expected that that moment wouldn't come until well over a year later. 

Months ago I began dropping hints to Weldon about moving my piano sometime “in the relative near future”.  I knew he dreaded the idea of coordinating the men to safely finagle my melodious barge back out of the old house and into the new shop.  I also knew that until we overhauled the formidable spare room we didn't have room for the piano anyhow.  I took care of the latter issue.  The former one was hovering over us like a lead balloon…until this past Saturday afternoon.  Lo and behold, my father-in-law’s John Deere came to our aid like a glorious green hero.  Weldon’s brother and his sons agreed to participate in the pilgrimage while my father-in-law volunteered to maneuver the tractor.  With a heave ho and the rolling of iron wheels on the porch at the old house, we got my girl in position.  With the pallet forks nestled under the porch eaves, we used two giant ratchet straps around the piano’s girth to strap her up.  Then as gently as a diesel engine and hydraulics can muster, she was swept off her feet.  With Weldon and a nephew escorting on either side, we decided the best plan was to simply parade down the road with the piano dangling from the tractor like a fat baby being delivered by a giant green stork.  I was giddy as a school girl with the hilarity of the situation.  A few passersby slowed to veer around us and acknowledge the odd pair, but none lingered long enough to get the whole story – the picture was worth a thousand words.  Without a problem getting through the massive garage door, her iron toes were soon back on concrete terra firma and we rolled her to her designated aisle in the spare room.  She is now an elegant façade between dining area and pantry…and thankfully nobody’s back was strained to get her there!    

   

Shuffling a room’s furniture is no big accomplishment in and of itself; but like so much in life, the details in our environs are often what provide small pleasures and needed comforts to our day-to-day. An aged garden table can be cleaned up a bit and used as a desk side table.  A quaint kitchen shelf can store visually interesting items off of precious counter space.  The oddities of a room can be minimized with creative organization. Purging unneeded extras and re-evaluating systems that simply aren't working can add a pleasant calm to daily routines.  The more I settle into the realities of home-making, the more thoroughly I’m convinced that life is too short to get bogged down at home – physical things are far from the end all be all, but they do matter!  Home improvement is all about loving the space you live in while making every bit of that space work for you and your family.  In my case, that includes a unique multipurpose room where I can now play piano, seat a table-full of guests, pick in the freezer, and grab an extra roll of paper towels…while drying my laundry.