Ode to the old office/baby room/playroom/guest room

Yesterday I sent the last of the copy edits back to my editor. "We're really working at the fine details, here, aren't we," I commented as we mulled the addition of a "now" here and the removal of italics there. It's very satisfying to know that a project has been carefully shepherded all the way down to the finest nuance. And just like that, the builders are also dotting i's and crossing t's in the new office space. The tile floor has been laid and grouted. Today the electrical work gets started, and tomorrow the trim is installed. Kevin has worked hard to paint walls, ceiling and boards. By the weekend, I will be moving this desk and this computer and this chair downstairs, to my new room.

So it seems fitting to thank this makeshift space in which I'm sitting right now. This is the room where the bulk of The Juliet Stories were written. This is the room where I started my blog. Over the years that this room has served as my writing space, my desk has always been right here, facing the wall nearest the door. I can turn my head to the left and look out the window at power lines over the street, which doesn't sound very poetical until you consider the birds I've seen gathering there, and the squirrels dashing like high-wire artists. One of those squirrels made it into the very last paragraph of The Juliet Stories.

My desk has always been here, but the furniture behind me has changed over the years. Not so long ago there was a crib and a change table and a rocking chair. Now there is a pull-out futon for guests and/or for cozy reading before bed (Albus's favourite spot.) The closet is crammed with Playmobil. There is an ugly chest of drawers from Ikea to which I cannot wait to bid adieu. (Filled with dress-up clothes.) There is a homework desk, now, too; and homework gum in the tiny set of drawers that serve as my office storage area.

As we look at reconfiguring the rooms, we still have some unsolved problems. Albus will be moving in here, and AppleApple will be claming the boys' former room, with the two littlest moving in together in what is now the girls' room. Where will the guest futon go? Will we miss having a communal playroom with shared toys? What will our family policy be on privacy and open doors? Is it time to set up a shared computer space downstairs for homework purposes?

Furniture we're lacking as we prepare for the move this weekend includes: a bunk bed for the little kids; mattresses; desks; storage cubbies and/or shelves. I've been hunting kijiji listings. It's going to be a busy weekend, a messy weekend, a weekend of playing around with space and imagining and painting and cleaning. It likely to be an unfinished weekend. This won't all get done in one fell swoop. But it feels like an early Christmas gift, and everyone is excited. Change is exciting. It's the act of imagining oneself into the future, imagining what might be, what could be. It's a good time of year for this. We'll stir things up.

And then we'll settle in for the winter.

:::

Also, total aside, but did I really used to have straight hair? Like, just a few years ago, as shown in that top photo? Because it's pretty curly/unruly these days.

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