A Long Winter’s Nap times four

Oh, well.

I didn’t REALLY want to sit on the sofa anyway.

          

Woosh!

That’s the sound I imagine when I think of how fast time is going by. November already!

This past summer my husband Paul and I embarked on a new adventure known to quite a few of you as “Downsizing,” getting rid of unneeded and little used possessions and moving out of a way-too-big-for-us living space. Now we are nearing our goal of passing along our rambling circa 1872 plantation home to a new family excited and eager to begin taking over the project of renewing and restoring this beautiful old house.

“Where are you going?” you may ask, “And what about the dogs and cats?”

We will be moving very soon just a few minutes farther away from Shreveport, to a little house on 35 acres (mostly woods, with plenty of running around room for the dogs) with a pond I’m sure Roadie will love, and a little used “jeep road” that runs down through the woods to the next property.

And even though we’re downsizing, we still have a heart for old houses; so our new little project is circa 1910-20 or so, and needs a LOT of work, but it’s small, so very do-able for us. It was a fun challenge to plan how to utilize to the fullest every square inch of the under-1000-square-foot farmhouse, but I’m pretty excited about the big room with north-facing windows we’ve designated as my studio/workshop space -- AKA the “cat suite” where Jo and Pontoufle will take up residence and continue in their duties as studio cats. The other big front room will be Paul’s office/music studio and will also serve as our “winding down” space, or family room, complete with fireplace. Then we have our bedroom and bath, kitchen, and laundry room. What we will end up with is basically all the rooms we use in our house now, without all the extraneous unused space. Oh, and Moustachio will also continue in his position as King of the Front Porch and All He Surveys.

The one room we won’t have that I think I’ll really miss is the sunporch, but I really am looking forward to the coziness of our new place. I’ve already been taking lots of  “before” pics, and will continue documenting with photos as we move in and work on the house.

In addition to painting walls, I’ll be doing plenty of painting pictures, too, so keep checking in!