In the past week, we’ve undergone some changes here at the old homestead. We decided last Friday that the boys, who have been sharing the largest of our four bedrooms, should have separate rooms. We also figured that it wouldn’t be fair to keep one in the big room while the other moved to a small room, so both boys got a new room, and we lost our home office and guest room.
Colin’s new room
Here’s how it’s working – we dismantled the guest bed, and found a cheap futon frame on craigslist upon which we have set up the futon mattress that used to be on the guest bed. Colin, who was on the upper bunk when the boys were sharing, is in the former guest room with what’s now a loft bed. Robert’s in the former office, and the office – two desks, two chairs, a couple of filing cabinets, half a dozen computers (more on that later), and approximately 2,749 books, along with the “new” futon, has been transplanted to the biggest room.
Heidi relaxes on the “new” futon
From my new office window I have a gorgeous view of the night skyline.
We took this moving exercise as an opportunity to do some book purging:
Robert poses next to the stack of purged books
Of course, this stack represents less than a quarter of my books, so it’s a giant pile, but a small step…
We’re still living in chaos, with closets to be emptied and files to be sorted, not to mention rooms to be “customized” in Colin’s words, but everyone appears to be sleeping well, particularly the cat, who is thrilled to discover beds in every room.
Good gravy! That looks like a lot of work.
Indeed, and it’s not finished yet! All three rooms still have closets filled to bursting with stuff that doesn’t belong to the current occupant – but at least we can close the doors and pretend 😉
The good news is that both boys seem very happy, and the office is actually neater than is has been in ages.
The book pile reminds me of our last move, but for our photos we spread them out in a line across two rooms for effect.
The pile is shrinking – a bookseller came by and relieved me of 200+, I’ve recycled several that really don’t have a market anymore (15-year old Marketing textbook, anyone?), and some unwary visitors have been cajoled into taking a handful of novels home. We’re taking what’s left to local hospitals and seniors’ residences.
Of course, in sifting through the pile for the recyclables, I found three that I reclaimed…
Two walls of the new office are laden with the books that survived the purge, and there are two bookcases in the living room still groaning. The boys each have a shelf or two, and there’s a small W.H.Smith outlet in my bedroom. But I maintain that progress has been made!
thanks for cajoling this unwary visitor into taking some books. We’ll be well read on our trip.
I’ll be happy to take any book you can throw my way, except for textbooks (I’ve got enough of those already)
🙂
Sayed! You’re not just a stalker anymore!!
Any genre in particular? I’ll put together a bag of goodies for you and bring it to our next class.
Paula – you’re more than welcome (and as you know, there’s definitely more where that came from). Have a great trip!