Almost Home

I think we're here--the last stop before assisted living. (May it be many healthy years from now.)

After a six-month delay in buying the condo, I hit the phase-one remodel plan with a vengeance. We refloored to be ready for the cabinets. (Good riddance disgusting carpeting.)

While waiting,  I added my personal touch, paint, to the 1960’s bathrooms. It lifts my spirits to open a door and NOT see white (except for the retro four-inch square tiles on the walls.) 

I turned ugly brown sliding doors into faux barn doors. 

before

The bedroom has a kitschy wall-papered mural resembling a fifty-year-old movie set from southern California. Bill liked it but I didn’t, so we asked all visitors to weigh in on it. One craftsman pointed out that it tricked the eye to look beyond the wall toward an imaginary distant horizon. His brother could paint it into something really striking, he claimed. But his brother wasn’t in the budget.

However, that comment ignited my imagination like a match to a sparkler. I poured out my thwarted gardening desires and “planted” some of my favorite flowers in the mural. I'm pleased. More importantly, I enjoyed doing it. For now, it’s a keeper.

    My dad would be glad to see that my college art class got put to use. 

The cabinets I chose eight months ago were hung last week. Which meant I could unpack again.

Twice in the last three years I packed away our kitchen and art and home library. Both times I gave away bits of my history. 

Conversely, I’ve had fun unpacking happy memories—a teapot I bought at an open-air market in Turkey, the china tea strainer I bought in a small village in France half a life ago. 

Having my “stuff” in the cupboards makes me feel like I’m almost home, and I have desperately missed that sense of refuge. I grieved the loss of our perfect little place in North Carolina. While I don't embrace living in Colorado, I acquiesce to it.

Moving to the larger, sunny condo has helped.  As have the changes to reflect my personality and taste instead of the former condo’s perfect, but sterile, remodel.

The project is like a sliding puzzle with one empty hole. It's impossible to move the second piece until you move the first. 

Once the kitchen is complete we'll have room for new bookcases. Once those are filled I can rehang familiar art in new configurations.   

And when we get a bed for the study, you must come visit. Help us fill the space with conversation and laughter. 

Then it will feel like home.