Onedia in the Ozarks

Over many years we have accumulated a number of things.  We have at times actually purchased houses based on the furniture it needed to accommodate.  I remember so clearly the search for the perfect house in Texas.  Each of us had our particular requirement for our person preference  and then there was the sideboard. We had inherited a huge Victorian period dark, heavily carved sideboard with ornate carving, a slab of marble and mirror and all sorts of things.  It was tall and needed about ten feet of wall space.  So, every time I walked into a house I not only checked the kitchen ¹, the bathroom ²  for me.  Matthew checked the space for a workshop and how close to the neighbors it was.  Lydia had her own list.  But bottom line there had to be a place for that sideboard!

It only moved into a minor role when we purchased Matthew’s Mason and Hamlin Artist’s Grand. The realization of his life-long dream  he played every piano in and around Portland and finally after two years ³ selected this one .  It also requires space and other considerations. Space away from drafts, strong sunlight, wide variations in temperature and humidity and frequent tunings ⁴, special attention when dusting, and many other accommodations. ⁵ However, there are times when some things just need to come before the things we have collected or inherited over our lives.

We are fortunate to have lived in places where some fine things were available to us at regular prices and we have furniture from Asia, pottery and rugs from the Southwest ⁶, and just odds and ends of things with sentimental and aesthetic attachments. That is great, except when we moved into our little house that is half the size of our previous houses we had to make choices about what was unpacked and what was not.  Further, we actually built a building the size of a single garage to store these items we could not part with. Additionally, I stacked and shoved things into closets (limited) and nooks and crannies and into the furniture.  Pottery was precariously placed on top of book shelves that were wedged next to the TV and there were pictures or textiles on every open wall space.

The results of this tactic? I constantly wanted more rooms and more closets.  So the addition plans were developed and my talented husband has drawn several plans based on our discussions while not making adequate progress on his own studio.  The point of the ramble?  I have been boxing up things this week. Well Katha has for me on the weekend.  Down came the pottery  and the extra stuff on the walls. The book shelves moved to the studios as did a couple of extraneous chairs and all the studio stuff I have.  The good dishes, silver, and doodads that I never use or care to use are being boxed up to await my daughter’s first house.   I can see walls and the house seems larger and I am feeling more able to wait for another bedroom or a family room.

Perhaps we will decide that the TV and the piano are fine in the same room.  Perhaps instead of a bigger bedroom we will simply acquire a smaller bed.  Perhaps instead of a big fancy bathroom with soaking tub we will just get a medium sized above ground pool  and instead of the gas fireplace in the family room we will build a fire pit in the back garden area. Perhaps instead of  sitting in a family room we will sit on our front porch ⁷ stargazing.   Perhaps we will be spending more time in the studios creating and those things just won’t be important anymore.

These days I spend most of my time in comfy workout clothes and rarely wear a dress.  You can go most any place in this fishing and boating and hunting and outdoor oriented region in casual clothing .  Our lives are relatively simple but we have some good friends most of whom have left their big houses and fast paces behind as well.  I am still learning each day and it only took me three years to figure out that as long as I am comfortable and sheltered,  have creative pursuits, good friends, books, and my loved ones those things are better packed or passed along.