Summer is starting to wind down, and thankfully, that also means that Project Basement has come to an end as well. Everything is in its place, our first weekend guests have given the "downstairs suite" rave reviews, and finally, Andrew and I living in our home rather than avoiding the construction dust from a few drop-cloth enclosed rooms..
For me, the blinking sign in the sky that proclaims summer is ending turns on this evening. Every summer, I teach a section of college composition. For seven weeks, my students and I give up our Monday and Wednesday nights to write, write, and write some more. And then I grade some more - a task that I've never loved. I love reading what my students write, but assessing it is less fun.
Each summer, I ask my students to begin class with an essay topic borrowed from NPR's This I Believe project (found at www.thisIBelieve.org) . The students are challenged to write about a life lesson and a narrative that describes how they've come to hold a belief.
Every summer, I test out topics with them. I've written my share This I Believe essays since I started teaching. It's a topic that a writer can re-visit a thousand times and still never be satisfied with one solitary direction. My essays fall into a mashup of about 3 categories: home, family, and teaching. Typically home - but I think it's always a metaphor for all three.
I've written about taking leaps, facing challenges, accepting failure and moving to the next possible solution. I've talked memories, and preserving the "old" because it's part of my history. I've talked about family, and how it's intrinsically linked to my identity. I love writing about our house. In a lot of ways, it's a metaphor for life.
Writing about teaching, to me, is a tougher metaphor - politicians and angry people rarely have public forums (or fora, if you'd like to be grammatically correct!) about rennovating a home..though even that has occured in my community. But teaching seems to strike a cord in everyone. Writing about teaching is like writing about love. Everyone attempts it at some point. Most of these attempts are probably not worth reading.
This one may not be worth reading, either. But here it goes:
I believe in learning and teaching. And I believe that both of those things require challenges that are well worth the end result.
When I was in graduate school, my mentor constantly challenged her students to "model" what it is you value. Model your academic interests, model fairness, model kindess. That's a pretty good life lesson (shoot, she stole it from Jesus!). And in this class, I received the highest compliment when a student wrote "Don't mistake our instructor's kindness for weakness." Exactly. I know I do a lot of things imperfectly, but to convey that in academics, in writing, and in life, kindness and strength are both virtues - well, that seems to sum it all up right there. I know that I don't always model my values. None of us do. But in seven short weeks, I've learned a lot from them, and about the craft of writing and teaching. The paycheck is measly, but the rewards are fantastic.
Sometimes - okay, most of the time - a true investment doesn't give monetary rewards. When Andrew and I watched the foundation of our home get cut, drilled, re-poured - we were making an investment. A rather large monetary investment, especially in proportion to our earnings. It was scary. Even though we were technically paying for someone else to do the work, there is plenty of our sweat equity, time, thought, and planning involved as well. For several weeks, Andrew and I stayed up late painting, touching up paint, preparing. At one point, I felt like I was drowning in the "Crashing Waves" color paint that we'd so happily chosen when we found it Lowe's. It takes time to do something properly, and it takes cooperation, hard work, and a focus on the end result. And those things aren't easy. More than once, I went to bed with a frustrated, churning mind and paint in my hair.
Learning, even little lessons like those that I've encountered with my home, will always have obstacles. Teaching at a community college, I've heard about a lot of obstacles. Many are heartbreaking decisions that have no clear answer. But I keep going, and I challenge my students to keep writing and keep learning because I believe that education is an investment that's worth it, if the student (and teacher) are invested in the pursuit as much as the end result.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
Almost there...
After my near total meltdown on Tuesday night, Andrew and I made some significant progress in the last few days. I was getting frustrated that we had no idea what was in the attic and that things would end up lost, broken, and ruined (so far, the only casulties have been a few bent candles and a lamp that Andrew swears was already broken). Because Andrew had taken things up to the attic in a 24-hour rush, there were a lot of things that were strangely packed and packed in behind other things. But in April, this didn't seem like a big deal. Now that it's July, the attic is like a dusty, oak-lined sauna, which means that there isn't much patience for digging through a box to see whether it's worth carrrying downstairs. So, we made a list of what we wanted to come down, what needed to stay, and what was getting donated, and then pretty much stuck to our lists with trips to the attic. It helped the process immensely.
At this point, nearly everything in our attic is either designated to be donated, to be stored there, or to stay there for a few years (books, etc). Also, most items from the overflowing upstairs pantry are now in the pantry room, along with the extra dishes that had been cluttering my countertops.
The next step, which I'm tackling tonight, is cleaning out our over-stuffed coat closet and hallway built-in. I'll take the excess stuff downstairs to the new bathroom vanity and our extra closet in the family room. After that, I'll sort through the remaining rubble that has been taking over the table in the basement, and I think we can call ourselves mostly officially moved in and finally put the handrail back on the wall, since carrying armfuls of stuff is no longer neccessary (other than to do laundry).
There are some tiny construction projects still needed, however. We do have a minor flooring issue - Andrew found a bubble in the pantry room, and the flooring folks need to come back to do a fix on the side of the stairs. We haven't called our contractor yet, but a little more needs to get taken off the bottom of a door that keeps getting stuck on the carpet. And, we need to hang the headboard for the guest bed (an old door from upstairs in our house). Eh, it never ends.
And some major upkeep will need to continue outside. As my dad put it, we have a lot of faith in our waterproofing system. Though we've rarely had water in our basement to begin with, we need to continue to wage a war on moisture (this is my least favorite word in the English language). When we dug the egress window, our crews mounded the dirt in low areas around the house. However, clean gutters and downspouts are also key in keeping our basement nice and dry.
Since I'm holding off on finished basement photos until a) we're done putting everything away and b) I have the time to put together a really cool before and after collage, I'm "releasing" a few photos from other areas in the house.
One photo is of the upstairs bathroom ceiling - it's crazy high. I also love how the walls don't drip with condensation anymore when I shower because the fan actually works.
The other photo is of our study/guest room/dressing room. This used to be our guest room and we do plan on keeping the twin bed there, though I assume most guests will want to stay downstairs. And it is still our study - the desk and computer just aren't very visible in the photo.
This room got a little dismantled when we started putting stuff in the basement. Since we have a second TV area now, we figured we didn't need a third TV (if anyone needs a tiny TV, let me know!). The night stand that the TV was sitting on went to the basement. Then an extra bookshelf went to the basement. And then the artwork on the walls went to the basement. When the dust settled, and we looked around this room, it was pretty much empty but a twin bed, desk, and night stand. I went to my two favorite places - Target and TJ Maxx - to buy a mirror and a new picture for the lonely walls. We hauled down a table from the attic (table is used very loosely in this instance - it's actually a barstool with a cardboard table top nailed in; this was a DIY project from our wedding ceremony for when we needed a tall table to sign our marriage certificate). I took a side table from the dining room, and voila! A whole new room. I'm kinda shocked how much I like this set-up.
It's also a little strange that in the process of re-modeling the basement, we also ended up re-vamping our living room (new couch, mirror), upstairs bathroom (ceiling), study (described above), upstairs pantry (curtain). Only our bedroom, dining room, and kitchen remained virtually unchanged.
At the end of the day, it's starting to feel good. I still can't believe we bought a flip. Very little about this house looks the way it did when we moved in. Did we really flip a flip? When we moved into our little house, I thought of it as being our "first house." I felt we'd compromised a lot from the list of things we'd originally wanted. I could rattle off all the things I wanted in our next house - bigger bedrooms (more bedrooms!), bigger closets, a second bathroom. I don't think I ever thought realistically that we'd build these things into our existing home. Now, when I come inside, I can't help but thinking this little bungalow has become, at least for now, our dreamhouse. I feel so lucky.
At this point, nearly everything in our attic is either designated to be donated, to be stored there, or to stay there for a few years (books, etc). Also, most items from the overflowing upstairs pantry are now in the pantry room, along with the extra dishes that had been cluttering my countertops.
The next step, which I'm tackling tonight, is cleaning out our over-stuffed coat closet and hallway built-in. I'll take the excess stuff downstairs to the new bathroom vanity and our extra closet in the family room. After that, I'll sort through the remaining rubble that has been taking over the table in the basement, and I think we can call ourselves mostly officially moved in and finally put the handrail back on the wall, since carrying armfuls of stuff is no longer neccessary (other than to do laundry).
There are some tiny construction projects still needed, however. We do have a minor flooring issue - Andrew found a bubble in the pantry room, and the flooring folks need to come back to do a fix on the side of the stairs. We haven't called our contractor yet, but a little more needs to get taken off the bottom of a door that keeps getting stuck on the carpet. And, we need to hang the headboard for the guest bed (an old door from upstairs in our house). Eh, it never ends.
And some major upkeep will need to continue outside. As my dad put it, we have a lot of faith in our waterproofing system. Though we've rarely had water in our basement to begin with, we need to continue to wage a war on moisture (this is my least favorite word in the English language). When we dug the egress window, our crews mounded the dirt in low areas around the house. However, clean gutters and downspouts are also key in keeping our basement nice and dry.
Since I'm holding off on finished basement photos until a) we're done putting everything away and b) I have the time to put together a really cool before and after collage, I'm "releasing" a few photos from other areas in the house.
One photo is of the upstairs bathroom ceiling - it's crazy high. I also love how the walls don't drip with condensation anymore when I shower because the fan actually works.
The other photo is of our study/guest room/dressing room. This used to be our guest room and we do plan on keeping the twin bed there, though I assume most guests will want to stay downstairs. And it is still our study - the desk and computer just aren't very visible in the photo.
This room got a little dismantled when we started putting stuff in the basement. Since we have a second TV area now, we figured we didn't need a third TV (if anyone needs a tiny TV, let me know!). The night stand that the TV was sitting on went to the basement. Then an extra bookshelf went to the basement. And then the artwork on the walls went to the basement. When the dust settled, and we looked around this room, it was pretty much empty but a twin bed, desk, and night stand. I went to my two favorite places - Target and TJ Maxx - to buy a mirror and a new picture for the lonely walls. We hauled down a table from the attic (table is used very loosely in this instance - it's actually a barstool with a cardboard table top nailed in; this was a DIY project from our wedding ceremony for when we needed a tall table to sign our marriage certificate). I took a side table from the dining room, and voila! A whole new room. I'm kinda shocked how much I like this set-up.
It's also a little strange that in the process of re-modeling the basement, we also ended up re-vamping our living room (new couch, mirror), upstairs bathroom (ceiling), study (described above), upstairs pantry (curtain). Only our bedroom, dining room, and kitchen remained virtually unchanged.
At the end of the day, it's starting to feel good. I still can't believe we bought a flip. Very little about this house looks the way it did when we moved in. Did we really flip a flip? When we moved into our little house, I thought of it as being our "first house." I felt we'd compromised a lot from the list of things we'd originally wanted. I could rattle off all the things I wanted in our next house - bigger bedrooms (more bedrooms!), bigger closets, a second bathroom. I don't think I ever thought realistically that we'd build these things into our existing home. Now, when I come inside, I can't help but thinking this little bungalow has become, at least for now, our dreamhouse. I feel so lucky.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Moving in for the second time
It's been nearly 3 years since I've walked into a completely empty space that needs to be filled with our belongings. I have a love and hate relationship with that moment. It's a beautiful thing to be looking at a completely blank canvas. But at the same time, it's overwhelming.
The upstairs of our house is something like 1,064sq. We finished about 900-950sq in our new basement, meaning that we nearly doubled our living space. However, in that 900sq, we also had a lot of storage. Since we've been married, we've had the luxury of a lot of basement storage, which means that we haven't exactly thrown things away. We have about 4 mis-matched end tables. Lots of rubbermaid totes. Posters in frames. An extra table. An extra couch. An extra bed. Luggage. Shelves with paint. Shelves of extra dishes. Boxes of extra non-perishables when we've bought in bulk or accidentally gotten doubles.
So, while we have a "blank space" it also means getting a lot of odds and ends to either look presentable, go to attic storage, or go to the curb. Since we were in a rush to clear everything out, nothing got cataloged or sorted the way I usually do when we move. So I'm not sureally sure what's in my attic other than the big things I can remember. It's no fun trying to mentally sort it all out.
Typically, I move fast. And by that, I mean the process of moving. My dorm room was unpacked and set in 30 mins or less, my first apartment in a few hours, my first apartment on my own in an evening...when Andrew and I moved together, across half a state with 3 cars full and a stuffed moving truck - arrived at 5pm on Saturday and I was unpacked and my house was ready to go by Sunday night. It's all about the planning.
Our lack of planning and organization for this has been out of character to say the least. And it's taking more time to get things together, which is making me antsy.
However, of the mental checklist I posted last week, already a lot has been accomplished. Tasks yet to do are bolded.
Entry way:
Hang mirror (*is at my parents' house - need to pick up this weekend)
Hang hooks below
Set up bench and a couple of throw pillows for a mock hall tree
Pantry:
Put together shelves for all extra dishes, extra food, tools, and crafts.
All other stuff (holiday decorations, toys, children's books for our unborn child) goes in the closet off of the bedroom area.
Hang curtain
*Buy/make more shelves
Bathroom:
Hang all hardware
Hang picture
Straighten shelf
Bring down towels
*Get a shelving unit for inside closet
Family room:
Put together table and bring down chairs (extra chairs in closet off the bedroom area). Contstruct shelf in the family room closet and put away games.
Put rolling rack in family room closet.
Move extra coats from upstairs closet to rack.
Bring bookshelves downstairs and set up along exterior wall.
Hook up stereo, organize CDs, set up DVDs.
Construct TV stand and hook up TV.
Find suitable side tables from our collection of small tables - donate a couple that are no longer in use.
Bring downstairs rocking chair, re-cover couch, add new throw pillows (yay!).
Hang up framed poster that used to be in living room and framed art from our current study.
Hang curtains.
Bedroom:
Hang posters that we recently had framed.
Put up curtain rod and curtains over egress window.
Put up room divider rod and canvas curtains.
Install curtain hook thing.
Set up bed
Hang headboard
It's coming along. The big things that are left are to organize closets and the pantry, which is in line with setting up the kitchen...it's the big task that no one wants to do.
The upstairs of our house is something like 1,064sq. We finished about 900-950sq in our new basement, meaning that we nearly doubled our living space. However, in that 900sq, we also had a lot of storage. Since we've been married, we've had the luxury of a lot of basement storage, which means that we haven't exactly thrown things away. We have about 4 mis-matched end tables. Lots of rubbermaid totes. Posters in frames. An extra table. An extra couch. An extra bed. Luggage. Shelves with paint. Shelves of extra dishes. Boxes of extra non-perishables when we've bought in bulk or accidentally gotten doubles.
So, while we have a "blank space" it also means getting a lot of odds and ends to either look presentable, go to attic storage, or go to the curb. Since we were in a rush to clear everything out, nothing got cataloged or sorted the way I usually do when we move. So I'm not sureally sure what's in my attic other than the big things I can remember. It's no fun trying to mentally sort it all out.
Typically, I move fast. And by that, I mean the process of moving. My dorm room was unpacked and set in 30 mins or less, my first apartment in a few hours, my first apartment on my own in an evening...when Andrew and I moved together, across half a state with 3 cars full and a stuffed moving truck - arrived at 5pm on Saturday and I was unpacked and my house was ready to go by Sunday night. It's all about the planning.
Our lack of planning and organization for this has been out of character to say the least. And it's taking more time to get things together, which is making me antsy.
However, of the mental checklist I posted last week, already a lot has been accomplished. Tasks yet to do are bolded.
Entry way:
Hang mirror (*is at my parents' house - need to pick up this weekend)
Hang hooks below
Set up bench and a couple of throw pillows for a mock hall tree
Pantry:
Put together shelves for all extra dishes, extra food, tools, and crafts.
All other stuff (holiday decorations, toys, children's books for our unborn child) goes in the closet off of the bedroom area.
Hang curtain
*Buy/make more shelves
Bathroom:
Hang all hardware
Hang picture
Straighten shelf
Bring down towels
*Get a shelving unit for inside closet
Family room:
Put together table and bring down chairs (extra chairs in closet off the bedroom area). Contstruct shelf in the family room closet and put away games.
Put rolling rack in family room closet.
Move extra coats from upstairs closet to rack.
Bring bookshelves downstairs and set up along exterior wall.
Hook up stereo, organize CDs, set up DVDs.
Construct TV stand and hook up TV.
Find suitable side tables from our collection of small tables - donate a couple that are no longer in use.
Bring downstairs rocking chair, re-cover couch, add new throw pillows (yay!).
Hang up framed poster that used to be in living room and framed art from our current study.
Hang curtains.
Bedroom:
Hang posters that we recently had framed.
Put up curtain rod and curtains over egress window.
Put up room divider rod and canvas curtains.
Install curtain hook thing.
Set up bed
Hang headboard
It's coming along. The big things that are left are to organize closets and the pantry, which is in line with setting up the kitchen...it's the big task that no one wants to do.
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