My parents had lived in this apartment since May 1991. They were settled in here quite thoroughly, and their things, rightfully, took all the space in the apartment. I got rid of nearly all my furniture and much of my other stuff as well, but still had quite a bit to shoehorn into an already full apartment.
I'm going to take you through this project one room at a time, beginning with the living room. This is how it appeared shortly after I moved in (and just looking at that picture gives me pangs of grief and remembrance -- when Mum fell, she missed hitting her head on the metal leg of that keyboard by about an inch. The pole lamp is damaged because the paramedics were trying so hard to get more light to be able to see how she was responding.):
The corner by the air conditioner became my study, with Dad's desk moved out of their bedroom, and various other makeshift ways of using furniture providing the rest of a basic office area.
It was cold by that large patio door and the wind
whistled through the gaps in the air conditioner, but I worked there
until early 2011 when the desk was moved back into what had been my
parents' bedroom, and is now my Writing Room.
It was nice to reclaim that corner for the small armchair, and when I got rid of the TV, I set up my grandfather's 100 or so year old barrister-style bookcase as a china cabinet.
The living room was workable, for a while, but there was still extraneous stuff in the room, and it wasn't quite the serene space I dreamed of.
I decided to send my grandfather's bookcase, and my grandmother's rocking chair to live with one of my cousins. I moved Mum's recliner/rocker into my bedroom, and gave Dad's recliner/rocker and the other armchair away, and bought new furniture -- which turned out to be too large for the space (If I had put my coffee table between the couch and chair, there'd have
been only a narrow walkway on either side to move through the room.) So both pieces were taken to a friend's garage, and subsequently sold (the furniture had been clearance price, so could not be returned).
For several months, I made do with just the dining chairs (which had been Mum and Dad's, purchased shortly after they moved here). It wasn't great, but it worked... until the wood in the chairs reached its "best before" date, and began cracking, and breaking. I could no longer allow people to sit on the chairs.
For a while longer, I got by with just two folding chairs, like card-table chairs. Then my friend Catherine told me about Julie Morgenstern's book SHED Your Stuff: Change Your Life, which was the catalyst for a final big push to get my home in order.
After the Great Furniture Shift mentioned a couple of blogposts ago, the living room looked like this:
Now with furniture in place, and books on the shelves, I am well on my way to the serene space I longed for. Some day I will recover the chair, and some day I will have an ottoman that isn't a bath bench with a bed pillow on top, covered by a tablecloth, but in the meantime, this space makes me happy. (Note: the sign on the music stand reads "Invisible Comfy Armchair" -- some day there will be a visible one in its place.)
Still to come -- bedroom, writing room, and storage room. Stay tuned! (I apologize for the length of this post, but I've found it quite a good exercise to go through the whole process. Thank you for bearing with me.)
