Absent but busy!

The Carpenter and I have been absent from this blog for the past few days. I've been helping to organize a home. The Carpenter's been building a "Ships Ladder" in our cabinet shop. (will save that for another post!) …


My home project is going very well with my organizing partner. We've made good headway. Our efforts are starting to show! yay. We are making every effort to be as strategic as possible to bring as much functionality as we can to specific rooms. This home is being heavily remodeled (not by Applewood) and it's been going on for a long time. It's time for the homeowner to have some peace in the midst of the construction dirt and chaos.

She moved in 2+ years ago and still has many boxes to unpack. But she hasn't been able to unpack many of them because storage areas haven't been completed or created. It's been a challenge to figure out how best to proceed. How to make the most of the time she is paying for our services. Well I love a challenge. 

We're three days into the project and we're starting to gel working as a team- partner, me and the homeowner. We set up a sorting table and bring items to the homeowner to make decisions. It's a fine dance between taking direction from the homeowner for her wishes, and making hopefully helpful suggestions.

My partner is a flight attendant so her schedule dictates our organizing schedule. And that's a good thing. We work hard. It's intense. It's dirty. And it's mentally draining for a homeowner to have to make many many decisions about keeping, storing or selling house items. We need good breaks away from the project to rest (well my partner the flight attendant doesn't get much rest) and just get some breathing room from the process and each other. Because it is intense and it's draining, because the homeowner has invited us into her home to help her go through her stuff. 

I picture the home completely finished in my mind. I see the beautiful dining room where a dinner party is going on. Candlelight flickering against it's pretty blue walls. I see a bright kitchen, roman shades at the windows, sunlight streaming in on gleaming countertops, a beautiful bowl of fruit sitting on the table, I can smell a fragrant roast in the oven. I see the deck beyond the kitchen patio doors set up for evening meals, or the homeowner sitting out enjoying a cup of coffee in the morning sun filtered through the pines. Listening to birdsong and maybe some chickens! I see a cozy office, bookcases filled, lamp glowing on the desktop, filing cabinets filled and organized sitting neatly near by. I see a warm living room, the homeowner snuggled under an afghan with her kitty on a snowy winter day. 

Visualizing the end result has served me well. When we gutted our own home many years ago.. I would visualize walking up the steps of my front porch, illuminated by the glow of the porch light, the house all white and clean and welcoming. And that was very important during those dark ugly dirty remodeling days when all I did was haul out old house dirt and debris, and the house was any thing but white, clean and welcoming!

So I'm off to a good start on this organizing deal. So far I really am enjoying it. And well that makes sense because I dearly love making a house a home.

~ The Artist