About ten years ago, we made a move from one house to another. I will spare you the details, the stories and everything else involved with the great move – just know that nothing is ever as simple as it seems, and get to my point: My room.
When we moved in, my sister and I were basically given the run of the room upstairs. It was a long, narrow strip of room in the middle of two attics. It was a decent size, but awkward shape. The floor was covered in green carpet. The kind that you would find on a pool table. There were about 10 closet doors along one side of the room, and cardboard paneling along the other side.
We were told at one point, it was considered an orphanage. I don’t know how true that story is, but it’s one that my sister and I ran with for years. It made sense. It worked. And now there we were.
It was a frantic move that didn’t involve a whole lot of planning or preparing. One day we lived in one house. The next we were moving into another. Not for terrible reasons – the reasons were all good. It was just a rush to get from one house to the other – for reasons I can’t recall.
At one point, we had four mattresses lining the room – one for us, and one for the dog and cat. And then somewhere along the way, we stacked the mattresses, and made us each a bigger bed.
Our room also became a room for the chickens that were hurt. Or…needing time to readjust. Such as Amanda’s 10 year old hen: Big Red. She dutifully kept our dog supplied with treats. Moving along…
See the carpet?
This is one of those pictures that I really don’t know where to begin. Yes, that is a rooster on my bed. Yes he is crowing. Yes those are stickers on my wall. No I don’t know why they are there.
Anyways, over the past number of years, we have cleaned up the room, moved the chickens out (vacuumed), put drywall in, put a few decorations up. Re-stained the closets because, can we say ORANGE?
Also worth noting: That flooring is what was under the green carpet – leaving us not a whole lot to work with. And yes, that is the same rooster.
We painted an accent wall, repainted the rest of the room white, threw down a few rugs – and then Amanda got married and left me alone with the giant room. One afternoon, in a fit of anger (who knows why, really) I ripped up 1/2 the floor. Another day I decided a good color for the room would be “Jamaican Blue.”
Obviously we were going from bad to worse rather quickly. None of our plans for the room were panning out, paint wasn’t cutting it anymore, and I was ready for some updates.
When I returned home from England – I went and got a price to have carpet installed, and was literally appalled that we waited so long to make the move.
This last week I moved everything we stashed in our room (note to self: its time to get rid of things!) from one room to another. I didn’t think we had a lot of stuff, but moving things will prove you know nothing. I painted over the blue wall, and returned the entire room to a color known as “Hint of gray” (aside from our purple wall, which is there to stay.)
This was right before everything pictured in the room above was covered in tiny specks of paint. Note to self: Move the laptop and all other items of importance before painting.
….Out with the old….
And in with the new! I went up yesterday, and didn’t like the look. Hated it. Was upset with it. I had convinced myself that the color was going to be different, and upon seeing it – was devastated. I know, right? But after a few minutes, I took another look – and fell in love.
I spent the night at the shop, because the carpet man was coming to finish installing this morning at some stupid early hour, and I like my sleep on Saturday mornings. Mom was nice enough to let him in this morning (thanks mom!)
And then?
I don’t think I could be any more in love.
The purple wall and our ten million closets.
And this? Well this just makes me happy for reasons I can’t explain. I think it will be my happy corner. It’s the small things really. The attention to details. The carpeting AROUND the obstacles and making it look oh so pretty.
We aren’t completely done up there yet – I have big plans to change the closet color, and then comes the adding back in of all the things, but until then – I can’t help but brag just a little…
Tangled Thoughts 