I continue to be amazed by the ordinary. The ordinary can be quite engaging, if one avoids developing an addiction to drama.
The ordinary thing that has captured my attention this morning, is the degree to which a residential relocation brings disorientation into day-to-day life. I am noticing this today only because the disorientation is beginning to dissipate. A pleasant feeling of constancy is steadily, and very slowly, increasing; today it became noticeable.
It was something very small that triggered the pleasant feeling. We are still moving furniture all over the place, sorting through drawers and boxes of items, discarding some, storing others. It was when I knew where to place the two packages of pens that I found in the bottom of a drawer I was emptying, that I realized that we have reached a stage in the move where most things have a place. What a good feeling that is!
Attila is home today, it is one of his short breaks between changing shifts. He is assembling one of the low end wardrobes we purchased. This piece of furniture will be a more than welcome addition. As an additional bonus to the sale price, Attila discovered that the furniture is made right here in Ontario. Local! How sweet is that?!
Yesterday we returned to the city together, in the car, to have the lug nuts tightened after the new tire installation. It was quick and easy. Since we were already in the city, having spent the money on fuel to get there, it seemed appropriate to poke around a bit at the retail establishments. We visited the Restore, which sells used renovation items, and some furniture. We will need a small kitchen cabinet unit to go between the fridge and range, used would be perfect. The Restore had nothing suitable.
The next stop was Home Depot, where we found metal wire shelving units on sale. The sale price was so low that we bought three to use as storage units in the basement. The open wire racks are perfect for the basement because they are well ventilated, which is essential in potentially damp locations. We keep the dehumidifier running constantly down there, and it is dry, but that could change with a power outage. While we were at Home Depot we also picked up two small Poinsettias, beautiful and grown in Canada. We will not put up a Christmas Tree this year, no room for that yet, but these colourful plants seem a good substitute under the circumstances.
We have at least two pieces of large furniture in the basement that we need to get out of the house. One is an L-shaped computer desk, which is a great working space, but it takes up half the living room, so it has to go. I am finding that I can successfully work on the kitchen table with my laptop. The desktop computer has a much smaller computer desk, which is also sitting in the basement, waiting for a space to open up in the living area of the house. It is a patient piece of furniture, as it needs to be.
The other piece of large furniture in the basement is a large wooden storage cupboard, which over the years developed a case of mildew. Attila brought that with him when we moved in together. It isn’t a practical piece of furniture, large with awkward storage space. Attila would love to have it in his workshop in the garage, so it will be moved to the garage to hold shovels and rakes and other tall implements.
When these items have been shifted out of the basement, there will be room for the storage shelves. When the storage shelves are assembled, there will be room for the boxes from the front bedroom.
We found a kitchen cabinet today, suddenly, a surprise. It is a stainless steel workshop cabinet with a wood counter on top. It has a drawer, and two cabinet doors. It has wheels too, but I doubt that we will want to move it. Although, when renovating, one never knows when moving things out of the way will come in handy. The cabinet is less wide than the table it will replace, allowing a wider traffic area. It was on sale at 25% off, and is cheaper than the particle board kitchen cabinets we have been looking at.
Downsizing is a big job.
It would be a lot quicker if I didn’t get lost in my memories while sorting through the boxes! Tonight I found a box full of old posters for gigs in the 80s, when my musician partner, and his friends, were in their heyday. What a magical time that was! They look so young, and I guess I did too. Some of them are still plying their trade in the bars and cafes of Toronto. I won’t be culling anything out of those boxes!
We have a self-imposed deadline for getting the boxes out of the front bedroom, and the living space organized. Luna, Janus, and the Grandbabies plan on visiting for a few nights at Christmas. This is wonderful, and will be the first time the Grandbabies, or Luna and Janus for that matter, have stayed with us during the actual Christmas season. It will be a very merry event.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
2°C
Date: 10:00 AM EST Thursday 3 December 2015
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.3 kPa
Tendency: rising
Visibility: 24 km
Temperature: 1.9°C
Dewpoint: -0.4°C
Humidity: 85%
Wind: WNW 17 km/h
Quote
“Love conquers all things; let us too surrender to Love.”
Virgil
70 BC – 19 BC
“I’ve seen too much hate to want to hate, myself, and every time I see it, I say to myself, hate is too great a burden to bear. Somehow we must be able to stand up against our most bitter opponents and say: We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you…. But be assured that we’ll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
1929 – 1968
A Christmas Sermon for Peace on Dec 24, 1967
More pictures, please! I’d love to see everything you’re talking about. 🙂
I empty boxes and move what I thought was in its home spot to a new home. Almost there with unpacking!
Glad to hear of your new steps forward. It’s a dance, isn’t it. Two steps forward, shift some boxes. Two steps to the side, unpack some boxes.
The beauty of it is that there are no reasons to take two steps back., you and Attila are together and happy. Enjoy!
Congratulations on your sale finds. It really is nice to read about how things are coming together.
I’m enjoying reading of your progress! (I love the quotes, too!) (Yes, photos would enhance, 🙂 )
Kate, you have me thinking about the pictures! I know that when I go back to read past entries, a rare event, I find the pictures so much more evocative than the text. I think we are settled enough now that I can divert my attention from the shrinking stacks to the camera. It will do me good to get back to taking a few pictures, they anchor me to the present.
Congratulations on your progress with unpacking Lee Ann! It is a big job, and I know what you mean about every newly unpacked box changing the landscape of domestic organization. Best wishes in your new home!
It is a dance Teri. It has been the whirling Dervish for the last few months, now it is slowing down to the Twist, soon it will become a waltz, and after that the slow dance of my teens when we clung to one another and rhythmically swayed on the spot.
And you are right, since it is a dance for two it doesn’t really matter what it is, it is enough that it is.
Thanks Wendy! We regard the wardrobes as temporary, as they are so flimsy that I can imagine the doors falling apart, or altogether off, in time. However, we have our eye on wardrobes made of solid wood, so if and when the time is right we will replace the flimsy stuff. I am keeping my eyes open on kijiji for the very wardrobes we have our eyes on, haven’t seen them being sold used in Ontario, not yet.
Yesterday was a turning point, there was a serious increase in clear floor space; be still my beating heart. We are enjoying the process, and the leaps in progress are very satisfying.
Thanks Joan! The comments about photos are much appreciated, and very timely. Taking photographs is something that I do when I am feeling attached to my physical surroundings. It is time to come down to earth and out of my head, which has been busy with planning, planning, planning. And I know where I stored the camera!
Seeing grandbabies at Christmas…what could be sweeter! Wish you the happiest of times. You deserve it , especially this year, after all of your hard work and patience!
Thanks Lucky Few! We are looking forward to seeing them all on “the day”. We have enough lead time to bake special treats, and devise homemade gifts. Their visit is also inspiring us to “get our skates on” to move forward with the settling in.
When we were first married and in need of some bedroom furniture, we stumbled upon the name of a couple of brothers just north of here who were furniture-makers. Good references. The Spaulding Brothers. We called and went up to see them. Wow. They had a huge old Victorian House across the street from their barn/workshop and in the house on all three levels were samples of all their furniture styles — they would create anything we wanted just for us. We found a style we liked and the wood and stain color and they made us up some night stands, a blanket chest, 3 dressers (2 low and 1 high) and a mirror, an armoir to use as a closet with drawers below, an armoir for the living room, our huge bookcase in the living room made just to fit the space, and finally a bookcase to fit the space in Paul’s room for all his British books. It’s a shame they are gone now… but they made it all by hand, including the carved pineapples on the dresser fronts. Hard to find that kind of quality anymore.
showing armoir and large bookcase they made, and below, one of the mahogany dressers with the carved pineapple on the front corners.
https://flic.kr/p/oYTWJt
https://flic.kr/p/eq2vdp
That is beautiful furniture Bex! And it fits so wonderfully into your space. Perfect.
I had some custom made solid wood furniture, but it was too big for this little house, so Terra has it now. The downsizing means that the good furniture had to go. The new beds are solid wood and custom made, and we are paying a premium price for that. They are the item we need most right now. Eventually we hope to have the same company build us matching armoires, but we shall see. I have my eye on some of their other furniture lines for wall storage in the living room, but that again will have to wait until the dust settles here at the house, and Attila’s job security is ascertained.
One thing though, if we ever “upsize” the wood furniture we are now purchasing will fit into the dwelling. I do not anticipate wanting to move from where we are though, we love it here.