One word,
Danger. Two words, Slippery Slope. Three words, Beware of Brother.
The trouble
with wanting a little space for a craft area is that when you ask for one thing
you end up with a whole lot more. One
shelf leads to 5 and one table leads to three.
A little light here and the next thing you know is you have track
lighting, white paint and windows everywhere.
A roof repair leads to a new roof, a little cement sidewalk leads to a
driveway. A little wishing well turns
into a fish pond with a waterfall as big as Niagara Falls.
I should have
been warned as I watch “This Old House” and “Sarah’s House”, nothing is ever
“just that easy” as my brother is willing to remind me several times a day as
he curses while struggling with tight corners and I scream at a hammered thumb. Both of us have wobbly knees and twisted
backs but we labour on as we envision Downton Abbey in miniature form. Alright, maybe not Downton Abbey but my own
little castle. Okay, okay, my little log
cabin on the prairie (but somehow that doesn’t sound nearly so romantic).
Some things can
make a very strong impression on a person.
Reading “Little House in the Big Woods” led to bigger and better “Gone
with the Wind” but the common theme was “land is the only thing in the world
that amounts to anything . . . for tis the only thing in this world that
lasts”. My parents were always very
house proud and enjoyed decorating their homes.
My father was never a handy man but with my mother’s help they would
hang wallpaper and paint walls and later on Dad even put up panelling. I remember he had a real love of walnut and
almost every one of our homes had walnut wood somewhere. At least one wall of the house also had grass
wall paper and it’s something I respond to whenever I see it (which doesn’t
happen very often now as wallpaper of any kind is very passé).
At the end of a
renovating phase all I can sigh is “Home Sweet Home”.
