moving on a Friday afternoon*

*hum "Groovin'" by George Benson while reading the title of this post!Warning: This is a long post - you may want a glass/cup of something delicious to get your through!

It goes something like this:

• DD and I somehow get involved in patchworking and take over the dining room as our sewing room. No one can find the dining room table for meals. Because the dining room window looks out onto a covered patio on the south-eastern side of the house, the natural light in the dining room is poor on overcast days (of which we seem to have had quite a few).
• I decide I want to move the sewing machine (which belongs to DD) to "her bedroom" because the natural light in there is much better. DD was married in January 2009 but seems to spend at least one night a week sleeping in her old bed. The rest of the time the room, which is the second largest of our four bedrooms, is completely unused.
• Having made the decision to move the sewing machine and enlisted WM's assistance to move a couple of small pieces of furniture, I realise that we can't use the sewing machine in that room because the cot is also in that room and the most likely time for us to be sewing is when GS#1 is sleeping!
• I suggest we move the cot to WM's office but that idea is soon vetoed!
• DD suggests I move the sewing machine into my study - this is the smallest of our four bedrooms, only 8 x 10 feet, with a built in wardrobe (closet). The room already contains a computer desk, a writing (and crafting) desk, two book shelves, a set of drawers and a three-drawer filing cabinet. The wardrobe is full of knitting yarn and crafting items. The only power outlet already has the computer, printer and modem plugged into it and is almost inaccessible behind the computer desk. There is no way that the sewing machine will fit!
• After further thought, I tentatively suggest to WM that it might be a good idea if I move my study to DD's former bedroom (which is big enough for a double bed) and move the single (twin) bed and cot to my study. WM agrees and later reminds me that he had suggested that when DD left home!
• We move some of the furniture from DD's room - the two chests of drawers and two bookshelves stay but the bed, the bedhead and the cot have to go - as do the contents of the bookshelves and the drawers.
• Suddenly my relatively tidy house looks like a bomb has gone off - there is stuff on the kitchen bench, the breakfast bar, WM's office floor, the sofa bed (also in WM's office), and all up the hall. The family room remains relatively untouched - but only because the "force of nature" (a.k.a. GS#1) has already swept through that room.
• During this chaos is a visit to the hospital to see FIL after he has been moved to his private room and all interventive treatments have been stopped; the last time DD and I saw him before he passed away.
• Back home, with WM still at the hospital, DD, SIL and I try to move furniture (and other detritus of nineteen years of living in the same place), but the major item - the computer desk - can't be moved without WM.
• Late in the evening, around 10pm, SIL goes home - he has to work the following day and needs to go to bed. About half an hour later, GS#1 finally goes to sleep. WM and I determine that the major pieces of furniture have to be moved before we can do likewise. The computer desk finally makes it from the study to DD's old bedroom (henceforth to be known as my "studio"). The bedhead gets moved from WM's office and the bed and it's accompanying drawers get moved from the hallway. Of course, in between all this furniture moving, the vacuum cleaner has to be used!
• We fall into bed around midnight with the kitchen bench and the breakfast bar still covered in books and other items that came off the bookshelves. WM's office still looks like a bomb has gone off but, at last, the major items of furniture are in their new homes. The sewing machine is shifted from the dining room to the studio.
• WM and I go off on holidays with mountains of stuff piled on the floor of my former study and on the sofa bed and floor of WM's office.
• DD sorts through some of her stuff and clears the former study (now the spare bedroom) enough for my mother's visit.

It will take me weeks to sort through all the stuff to be moved or discarded from my old study and who knows how long it will take DD to go though her things (she may not be living with us anymore but her possessions haven't left home!).

But for now, my new studio looks like this (clockwise from the door):

two bookshelves: the one on the left is 60cm (2 feet) the other 90cm (3 feet). The empty spaces show you that I have not yet finished moving books and magazines.


two drawer units: the blue one holds fabric (I already have the beginnings of a stash -how did that happen?), the grey one hold mostly DK weight wool sorted by colour: yellow and brown, green, blue, purple, red and pink


my computer desk - workplace central! To the right you can just see my very old (pre-DD) metal Muppet garbage bin, faded but enjoyed by GS#1 as a drum. The black shape to the right is the back of my chair, facing my work desk.


Perpendicular to my computer desk, under the window, is my desk/sewing table; to the left of the desk was an empty space which currently holds four archive boxes containing yarn, a roll of fusible web and a roll of stabiliser; to the right is a built in wardrobe (closet).
Under the desk, the red box is used to transport our "goods and chattels" to and from the quilting workshops and store things, like a walking foot and a stippling foot. The clear tub holds all the paraphernalia from when DD and I were learning Japanese. I am hoping to find another home for that tub! The black "thing" to the right is the electric cord and foot for the sewing machine!


On the fourth wall are two chests of drawers (back to back) currently with Quilt #2 rolled up and lying on top. As luck would have it, my cutting mat (35 x 23 inches) fits perfectly on top. Now I can access my cutting mat from three sides not two as before when I was using it in the kitchen! The height is still a bit low but WM assures me that he will build a little table to go on top and raise it to a better height (I prefer a working height of about 90cm (3 feet).

I hope you've enjoyed the tour of my new studio; I'll keep you posted with future developments!