2021, Family, home, Uncategorized

The Big Re-arrange

48 Comments

Over the weekend, Husband saw that the last warm days were upon us, and cooler weather is ahead. He got the idea that he wanted to move his reading chair from beside the window to a more sheltered spot, in the dining room. And he was, with good reason, not fond of a temporary move I’d made while he was in rehab when I needed a desk for all kinds of medical paperwork – I had dragged little desk into the archway, partially blocking traffic flow.

Now, I’ve written before how I love to re-arrange the furniture. This was very unusual for Husband to initiate, and for me to follow, but it actually worked this time! If you’ve done this before, you know there is no way to move just one piece of furniture. We spent most of Sunday afternoon and eve pulling things out, dusting and cleaning, trying one position and giving it up for another. ALL KINDS OF FUN. We realized at one point that the TV, located near the computer, had to stay put if we wanted to continue watching via streaming. But when we were done, every other stick of furniture in the living and dining rooms had found a new home.

I wish I had a “Before” photo, complete with the renegade desk. But these “After” photos are the end result, with which we are well pleased.

What motivates you to make (any kind of) a change? If you live with others, who instigates a change in your surroundings? What would you most like to change about your dwelling space?

48 thoughts on “The Big Re-arrange”

  1. Necessity. Mostly from getting old.
    The Birds do not appreciate my rolling their aviary around for cleaning purposes so rearranging the living/tv/bird room furniture is right out.
    I would most like to change the flooring to all vinyl plank. But since I rent, I’m not about to make that investment.

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    1. We have vinyl plank flooring in our kitchen here in MN. We had it installed in our condo and loved it, so we have it here, too. It is soft to stand on, easy to clean, attractive and durable. What an impressive product. This winter our contractor told us that people are not putting in much wood anymore, having decided to go with the vinyl plank flooring.

      The pattern in our kitchen floors hides dirt, the true test of flooring.

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      2. Kelly and I were just laughing the other day; we liked the kitchen counters because it hides the dirt. but then when you realize how dirty they really are, it’s kinda disgusting, haha

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  2. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I used to move and change easily and efficiently. Not any more. We are going to have our contractor alter our upstairs bathroom so it is a walk-in, which would allow us to stay in our house if one or both of us become physically impaired, so we do not have to have a disruptive change. That is really the only change I want in our living space at this point, since we have remodeled the entire house at this point.

    My husband would never initiate a change—he does not cope well with any change and he never has. I had to stop re-arranging furniture because he found it so upsetting.

    Steve has been on my mind. Steve, if you read this, Get Well!

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    1. Jacque, I’m with you about Steve. I’ve only just got to know the guy, I’ve got a lot more stories to get out of him yet. What a good guy. I haven’t even mentioned how much I hate shooting and hunting, it doesn’t seem to matter much.

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  3. I explained about our ground floor, and WordPress couldn’t find the site, and the comment disappeared. The site is right here, isn’t it? Even I have found it.

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    1. From the time I sent the comment about Steve, to the time I sent that last moan, it was 21 minutes. So let’s say one third of an hour at ten euros an hour. €3.33 that WordPress owes me, lucky I don’t charge the full hour.

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        1. skype is free
          at least for now
          use it and you have choice of video or phone discussion
          texting and file sharing make it ideal for my international interactions
          i’m not a big whatsapp guy but that works too

          Liked by 1 person

      1. Barbara, well it’s been a few hours, and my comment really seems to be gone. Unlike yesterday when I made a lame comment about Bob Dylan twice. (OT: today, by coincidence, the wire cutters I picked up off my workbench and briefly used, were made in Duluth.)
        Once again-I tell people that our house wasn’t built, they just put a roof over the path between the larger houses each side. When you look in our front door, you immediately see every feature of, and the mess inside, what looks like a long, narrow “railroad apartment,” including seeing through the the permanently open door to the scruffiest side of our still unfinished kitchen.
        Our motivation for the constant layout changes to the space between the front and kitchen doors, is to try to make it convenient and cosy to live in. We do love our little house. But those aims are hard to achieve. The dividing wall between what used to be two rooms, was removed in part before our time, and various factors prevent the removal of the remainder. Which dictates where the division lies between the dining and living areas. So we have the dining area by the woodburning stove, and the living area at the cold end, because we can’t really make it work the other way around. But we’re regularly motivated to try.
        We’ll be motivated to change the kitchen as soon as we have the money to actually finish it. The lockdown set that plan back, but we’re working on it.

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  4. my changes are due to long prescreened thoughts about the how why and when involved
    i enter a space decide how it should be and do it
    i once heard that when a dog enters a new unfamiliar setting if you watch the process is able to immeasurably
    access the surroundings and determine the correct spot to settle into. natural feng shui. me too. my next project will be my garage and my music room
    i will get stereo and workout arranged properly in garage and tidy up the accumulation in the music to create an inviting nest rather than the piles and storage aura that have evolved
    my wife is very adiment about my not bringing stuff into our abode so my storage needs are a seperate issue
    the garage will also need to accomadate a photography and processing corner for my transition from warehouse elat orange to out the door goods for my facebook marketplace friends
    when i had my warehouse i was handcuffed to being available for pickup on stuff offered
    now i walk a tightrope of stuff for sale and the process involved in getting it gone
    my favorite process is hanging art
    it makes the room the room
    i have a fondness for my arranging stuff to create the setting that will be the vibe
    rooms with no art make me sad
    i wonder about the walls and often think that ceilings are an unused unappreciated option
    mobiles and sculpture are created in my brain regularly
    i will have to get a studio to process the actual creation of them one of these days

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    2. Tim, I too give a lot of thought to such projects. People aren’t aware of this and are offended when I don’t take up half baked, spur of the moment suggestions. Nearly as offended as I am, that they made them.

      I never did fully explain my caravan /workshop. I think I went to sleep. If you all move out here, you could alter the timing of the blog. Let me know how many tickets you need, but remember, we have winter here too, mild admittedly. Antonio claims he’ll show me some trees dumped by the council, which I can cut for firewood for free, but I’m sceptical. But keep it in mind.
      Angus/Angelina and I built an extremely strong workbench in late 1968,the best one I’ve ever owned. We fell out because he wanted to make the top out of cheap one inch boards, so I bought him out for 5 pounds, cheap even then, and finished it properly with two inch timber. We could see by now, we couldn’t agree, and his attempts to imitate Dad’s mannerisms were infuriating.
      My caravan was the fifth and last place I put it. I made double doors across the workshop end, with the left hand door used as the entrance, and the workbench fixed along the right hand side, almost butting up against the other door. Both doors did get opened occasionally, for instance when Des Boundy came over with a loader and lifted a tractor engine in there for me. I don’t remember how I got the other one in, there were two in there when I burned the place down.
      Ha ha, more to follow.

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  5. My apartment is in complete disarray. Some furniture and pictures and the like taken over to her apartment. Decided to get rid of all the decorative/design things she has amassed. Lots of good stuff. Charity awaits my every visit. Another load today. Tore into every place. Found 17 pairs of scissors among other things. Put all my mothers quilted pieces together to get a count. They bury the short sofa. 27 quilts, plus another 5 quilts from other places. Six quilted table clothes., 6 wall hangings. Another 9 smaller items.
    This will prepare me to move, which is seeming more likely to happen with big hold on her MA application. Seems I will be paying her cost. I can do it 11 months if I move to cheap living and scrimp. If I live that long. Also reduces load on my daughter to clear out if it falls on her.
    They are replacing the carpets in this building with vinyl planks, which must be a cheap brand. People below hear every step people take. I am on the ground floor. Also, marks fairly easily if you drop things. My carpet is very much in need of replacement. They are waiting with me to see what I do, and what they will now do about flooring.

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    1. There are sound absorption flooring products that perform very well. Doubles the cost of the product but very easy to install. Too bad they weren’t installed above you.

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  6. What motivates me? Desperation mostly…
    Daughter rearranges her room frequently. But the bed only really works in one place… and therefore the dresser only works in one place…. a window on two walls, a closet on a third, only leaves one wall and there door opens onto that wall. And since we don’t live in a McMansion, options are limited.

    Same in our bedroom. Windows opposite closets, and a door limits our options. And it seems like the bed needs to have it’s head to the West. Which direction to you sleep??

    In the living room we have an upright piano. To keep it out of the sun it has to be where it is. And then to keep the TV out of the sunlight it has to be there which makes the couch and love seat here. Adding a Christmas tree is a challenge.
    We have a full basement that’s hardly used. Storage. Office, bathroom. but I don’t wouldn’t want to watch TV down there; can’t see what’s going on in the world if I’m down there.

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        1. For me, it’s merely a practical arrangement. It’s the only way the bed fits in the room if I also want to be able to get into the closet.

          Liked by 3 people

    3. Nit picking department. Ben, is that a dresser or a dressing table? Not the same.
      I sleep any direction, anywhere, any time. My father’s son in that, anyway.

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  7. The art on our walls are about the only things that shifted around regularly at our house. It’s usually some new acquisition of a newly completed painting by husband that is the impetus. That and my plants. Which reminds me, I should go and bring in my geraniums and my Chistmas cacti before it’s too late. The geraniums spend the winter on our porch. They are still in full bloom.

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  9. I sleep with my head toward the south. I woke u there were beautiful pinkp this morning and looked out the window and steaks across the southern sky. I have a window on the east wall, but can’t see very much due to the trees in that direction, but I figured if the southern sky was that colorful, the eastern sky must be blazing. I threw on some clothes and went out, and there were clouds overhead in three directions lit up with the sunrise. I think I missed the best of it, but what I saw was lovely.

    I would really love to have a big walk-in closet. My house was built in the days when people didn’t have stuff and didn’t need closets. It’s been a challenge.

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    3. Don’t know how that got so scrambled, but it should have read “I woke up this morning and looked out the window and there were beautiful pink streaks across the southern sky”

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  11. I am not resistant to change but I also don’t go out of my way looking for it. I’ve always assumed this is a response to how much change I had in my childhood because we moved around so much and I went to so many different schools. I could be wrong, that’s just a guess. So left on my own I don’t move the furniture around, I don’t change the art. YA is another matter of course. Pretty much all changes that have happened around here in the last 10 years have been at her instigation. That’s OK. As I said I don’t mind the change I just don’t feel the need to be unleashing it.

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