ly is anything of monumental significance done there, but I love most all of it -- stuff and activities. The room has housed supplies, patterns, instructions, tools, and even people. Any one of you who have seen the room in recent times would kindly suggest that it was bordering on a disaster. I would tell you that it has gotten to the point that I can't function (or play) in there any longer. (The last batch of Relief Society birthday cards I had to make on the kitchen table and Beth's Taiwan clothes were made with just bare inches of clearance around the sewing machine.)Needless to say, for some time I have felt that a major overhaul was in order. I started by just pulling "things" out and piling them in the living room, the bedroom, and the kitchen nook. Part of this was motivated by the feeling that the siding on that portion of the outside wall needed "doing." (Pieces of siding were missing due to the resizing of windows in the bathroom and the boys' room.) So . . . that suggested that it would be appropriate to replace the windows in the west wall of the playroom at the same time as siding. The windows were ordered (and should have been here on Monday -- they arrived today and are beautiful, with a grid pattern similar to the original ones) and we have a tentative promise of some siding from a friend of Harry Caylor's who over-purchased. In the meantime -- Wayne Secrist has been talking about putting our electrical service underground for a couple of years. I guess that it is going to happen on September 5th or 6th. He is scrounging all of the conduit, posts, etc. so it shouldn't cost too awfully much. I also hear rumors that Glenn is coming and will put in the windows, maybe even get started on the siding -- if I get it purchased and painted whil
e still on the ground.But back to the playroom proper. Along with getting stuff out of the room, we have been giving things away -- a piece of paper here and a brad or two there. No, really, when Lorin, Ann, Lydia, and LaVon were here last week I shamelessly put them to work -- hauling stuff out of the room, moving things around, and cleaning the newly revealed surfaces. We took the old pattern cabinet over to Neighbor James (he was thrilled to have it) and the Rosses (Laura & Roger - most of you won't know them) took away the two shelves that were on top of the counter and tw
o lesser shelves that were downstairs in the basement.As you can imagine, there is a lot of stuff that is now without a home. There are piles of "stuff" in the living room, in the upstairs bedrooms, on the stairs, on the floor in the playroom -- just about anywhere we don't need to walk.
But there is also progress -- sort of. The one big work table has been replaced with two smaller ones -- one against the front windows (for paper crafting) and one against the side windows (for sewing). We also acquired a tall shelf unit from the Jairus Knudsen family (Wayne Secrist brought it over tonight and helped move around the tables) that has been added to the room. It now houses all of the Sizzix dies and other displaced "stuff." But there is still plenty that needs to find a home.
Much of what has been displaced is projects needing to be finished and moved out. When the working space is available, I hope to get a move on the finishing part. I'll take some more pictures in a while (hours? days?) so that you can see progress. It is my hope that the floor will be unencumbered and I will be able to walk from one side of the room to the other -- without walking/stumbling over stuff -- when I am done. (It was rather funny; when Wayne was helping me tonight, he upset one of the containers -- it was the one full of buttons and hook fasteners. They went all over, even way back into the shelves.)
I had hopes of being able to report that the room was "in order," but guess this project has to be labeled "to be continued." And continued it will be. I am too close to some sort of order, at least in the play room, to leave it be.
