Ohio:

Now that Hardi's retirement clock is finally audibly ticking, its time to start actually re-purposing some stuff in the house to see if things'll actually work the way I envisioned when we furnished the little house as a camp.

What style do I actually LIKE? Thats easy-- Frank Lloyd Wright mansion with supermodern simplicity. I wish! How do we actually live within an accessible footprint we can afford? Answer: real stuff with memory stories, in a Crazy Quilt design proportioned to the footprint. Not a fan of matchy-matchy or contemporary furniture. If we could afford it, I still wouldn't buy that stuff.

There've been some indications of this direction. There are two mirrored "faux windows" on nails the sellers had left. On the day I opened the house with a few pieces of furniture now 4 years ago, I hung quilted placemats as faux valances everyone loved. Since then... the house looks more colorful than those placemats... which I've loved but am tired of looking at.

Now, I have a pile of colorful fashion scarves, which look great draped there instead. They "go"-- but don't match--and I can swap them around anytime I pull one off to wear.

Living here so much of the year has caused many well-loved "first-looks" to evolve just like that.

Today's "lets just check" project will involve some sweat equity:

Measuring the bigger, newer, and bluer rug currently in my office here, I find that yes, it will replace a smaller green LR one as planned (which will then be available as a front door and/or kitchen door mat).

The bigger/bluer rug will have ongoing traffic wear at one corner... which happily turns out to be diagonally opposite to the least-wearing corner, for periodic rotation. All these can be cleaned periodically (out in the patio).

The LR area it will cover extends from abt where the smaller green rug is now, across to near the dining table that is also in the LR. In other words-- again happily-- it won't get a lot of food spills! It will be under recliners in 3 corners to help prevent shifting. A LOT of the existing (stained) beige wall-to-wall carpeting will be covered, and left in place for now.

When finances permit, that old beige carpet and padding will be replaced by laminate flooring, but I much prefer removable rugs to wall-to-wall carpeting. (We might even just keep the existing asphalt tile under the padding, which is a faux cork pattern I like and am about to live with in my office.)

I'm hoping to swap out these rugs myself with zero paid labor, because altho furniture coming in May will sit on it, every spare penny is going towards consumer debt payoff.

After I try getting that rug out from under the library shelving, I'll know if I need to call upon BIL an hour and a half away.

Wish me luck!

~S~