Reimagining

My Christmas gift from my Middle Son has not only arrived, it has been installed and has moved into its rightful spot within our home. Mom's books have finally found their way to where I imagined them all along. In "Mom's room" ...

Before

After

It has all come together

The books moved into their shelving last night. I have spent the morning tweaking the look, the whereabouts and have brought out pictures which will complete the look.

This room has been one of several guest rooms within our home. It is the room Mom stayed in when she came out to help us move in (26 years ago). It is the room I dubbed "Mom's Room" from that day forward. It is the room she slept in whenever she came to visit (except when it was re-purposed as a daycare room for a while).

The third upstairs room has been transformed into my work-from-home space. The master bedroom has become my room once again. We officially have ONE guest room instead of three.

I have been wandering through the house this morning looking at it with fresh, new eyes. Our house has gone from "home" to "daycare" to "guest house" and presently it is its current state which utilizes every room upstairs. Finally.

I loved when our house was used for a daycare. Every square inch of our home was utilized. Inside and out. Every working day for fifteen years. When I closed my daycare and sold off all the daycare wares I remember feeling I was making room for what was headed my way ...

Little did I know I was making room for some of Mom's belongings after she died. Each and every item that entered our home had an empty spot waiting for its arrival. I had to shift things around in one room. Everything else just "fit".

I was lost for a while afterwards. It was a time when I had many guest rooms and lots of space in my life, heart and home to welcome company. When all three of our spare rooms were filled to capacity late this winter, I felt our home had found its identity. A home-away-from home for those who came to stay.

Then came COVID-19.

Self-isolating. Working-from-home. Staying home. Appreciating our surroundings.

Finally, finally the world reopened enough in and around the same time my son had enough time to devote to the task of installing the bookshelves he built this past winter. I wandered in and out of the room during the installation process. Part of me was panicking. The job of re-homing all Mom's books and belongings I have had in storage felt daunting.

Then I began.

One by one, each book found its spot. The Royal Family is altogether. A space for the Kennedy's. Another spot for biographies. True stories. Family history. Classics. School readers Mom collected (containing many verses she learned in school and could recite until her dying day). Reference materials. Some fiction. Almost everything has found its rightful spot within Mom's library (I am awaiting the final touch ups before re-homing the last of Mom's books on the top shelf).

I am looking at our home in a whole new light this morning. Mom's room looks and feels exactly the way I envisioned it. My office however? Needs a little work. The amazing part of this, is that most of what I need to turn this make-shift office into a "real" office is within our home. Some re-shuffling of what we already have will move the office reno in a forward direction.

Everything starts with a "before". The picture of the "now" is real. The vision of where you want to go is imagined. Unless you draw a picture of where you plan to go. In my case, I have framed my son's vision of the home he saw for Mom's books:

“A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true.” ~  Greg Reid

I am re-imagining our home's purpose. It is a beginning.