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Living Room Pt. 3: The Floor
After the necessary cleaning & painting of the room, it was time to tackle the floor. And it was here in this room that Gavin spent most every day of his Christmas break, 2017 on his hands & knees pounding in nails, sanding & then sanding some more. Because of the condition of the floor, it was especially challenging to remove every last bit of that dreaded red paint. However, the end result proves well worth all of the backbreaking work to get there. Detailed below is the progressive process of restoring the 210 year old poplar wood planks back to its natural, beautiful state. STEP 1: PREP WORK To…
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Living Room Pt. 2: Repairs & Painting
I began deciding on the wall color of this room at the start of October, 2017. I remember the afternoon walk I took through the quaint little town where I lived at the time, how crisp & cool the air was beginning to feel. I was searching for some color in nature that would be both comfortable & relaxing to suit the purpose of that space. By then, leaves had begun to make their decent to the ground & it was there I found my inspiration; a simple oak leaf with soft, beige tones. Though it wouldn’t be until winter that we’d have paint on those walls. Virtually every project…
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Living Room Pt. 1: The Hoard
This room served as my grandmother’s bedroom when my grandparents lived in the home. We began dehoarding this room with the help of my cousins, Emily and David plus my mom in May of 2017. The primary contents of this room included piles & piles of clothes which were gone through one by one in order to save, donate or discard. Unfortunately much of the clothing was covered in animal droppings & urine so they were then bagged & hauled to the dumpster. While cleaning out one of the armoires, my mom reached down inside & saw something moving under the clothes. Much to her surprise, an entire family of…
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Finding Stillness Amongst the Chaos
It’s been a month & six days since we’ve officially moved. The time that has passed from then to now has been a whirlwind of unpacking, cleaning, organizing & the unrelenting feeling of sore muscles & sleepy smiles. But, I can say without a doubt, that these have been some of the best of days. The struggle of settling into a new place, I’m learning, takes time. And with that comes the small victories of acquiring all of the necessary items for a household to have. Waiting for weeks to receive trash service, for example, gave me the much appreciated & joyful glean in my eyes when I finally saw…
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Dining Room Progression
It’s easy to forget the very beginning. Each room offering its own challenges and variety of items to go through. Every single thing, picked up, assessed and carried to its resulting place, either to be stored, donated or disposed of. With the help of my mom and cousins, Emily & David, we embarked on cleaning out this room in May of 2017. Serving as the room off the kitchen, it was decided that we’d make it into a dining room one day. Although not fully finished quite yet, this room has been dehoarded, cleaned with the help of Gavin’s grandma, Rita, furniture rearranged (including my husband & brother moving a…
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Putting in the Blueberry Patch – Spring, 2018
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The Hand Pruner Mystery
The other day, Gavin and I were trimming the boxwood shrubs that line the walkway to the pavilion. While he was excitedly using his new hedge trimmer, I was shuffling behind him picking up the fallen branches and throwing them onto the fire. Back and forth from the walkway to the fire, I passed the bedraggled lawn jockey that ceaselessly held out his arm with no lantern to show for. This statue is also part of my childhood for it has stood the test of time since I can remember. What happened next though, I still can’t explain. On my next pass to the shrubs, I mentioned to Gavin that…
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The Rhythm of Life
I groggily woke up this morning & turned over onto my stomach, eyelids still defiantly shut with little opposition on my part. I turned my head and let it lay heavy on the pillow. I began to hear a dull thumping sound. Where was it coming from? I was a bit irritated then at the thought of someone’s stereo system bumping down the road at six in the morning past my house. But I listened closer & it grew into a steady cadence. Humbled then, when I found that the sound was coming from my own heart beating, I grew still to listen closer. Each faint thud-thud a reminder that…
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Everything in Bloom
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One Year
I’ve glanced down to check the date. I sensed that there was some sort of significance in it. And when I saw it, I immediately knew – today marks exactly one year from the time when we began working on the house. This day last year however was not at all about the house. It wasn’t even a thought until later on when I was driving home with my mum. We went to visit my grandpa’s old Dodge truck that had been sitting in the field there. After his passing, it started to become part of the landscape, tires easing into the ground below, rust creeping its way under the…