Done... sort of... for now.

After about three weeks of piddling around with it, today I got the office done 'enough' to at least move the furniture back in so that when I return on 1/7/08 I can begin working again.

I know, terribly thrilling, isn't it?

A project that I'd optimistically thought I could get done in a week, in the end, at least as far as I've gotten, ate up three weeks. Not every day, mind you, nor every hour of the days I did decide to go work on it. Instead, I tended to do things like wash clothes, take walks, go to the gym, play with the two children in the house, read books, etc. Y'know, do vacation stuff, or what other folks may call... normal.. things.

Such as it is, even in it's unfinished but operational state, I can't believe what sort of feeling this room gives now. There's a warmth and calm I've not known in a while just when I sit in there. I've still things to complete: marble the posts, add doors to (and paint the insides of) the cabinet, age the arches a bit more, add wall dressings, close off the old double doors, et cetera, but at least I've come very close to realizing, and completing, something I've had floating around in my head for a few months.

That's a rarity.

...

The arches, walls and cabinets painted, with a basecoat on the floor are below. The arches have sort of a Venetian Plaster treatment, but I didn't want to apply the same texture to the permanent walls in case in a couple of years I want to change the scheme again (which is probable). I applied a paint treatment instead using the same colors that went with the plastered texture:

The same view, this time with the floor complete:

A better look at the floor. It goes well with the other furniture I have in there and gives a nice comfortable, lively weight to the room. The bluish haze you see is the still drying sealant(at the time of the photo, at least):


For other in progress images, look a couple of posts back.

Hey, where are the drawings?

I've gotten a single comment concerning the lack of promised drawings of what I'd been planning on doing to my office.

The simple fact of the matter is that I was so involved in actually doing the project that I only did enough of any particular drawing to solve some visual or dimensional problems... otherwise, I forged ahead with the construction. As a result, there were no post-worthy drawings completed.

Work was indeed begun last week. However, as predicted, I did not choose to spend each day of the first week of my vacation at the sceneshop. As the opportunities arose, I did whatever I felt like doing throughout the week, which meant that by the end of Friday I was about two days behind on the construction. No matter, though. I'm still having fun with it.

The bad news is that I'm still working on now, the second week of my five week vacation/holiday/comp hours festival. The good news is that the visiting percussionist and his friend (frequent houseguests of the landlords) will be in the house this week, Tuesday-Friday. This means that even if I do come home any of these evenings, I'll be greeted with a neverending, booming, loud voice and other various 'trick-ticka-ticka-tacks' from which no nook or cranny of the house will provide escape. When this occurs I usually just make a hasty exit and go see a film or something, just so the added noise in the house doesn't drive me up the wall... While that doesn't sound so great on my end, the good news comes into play that I'll have plenty of opportunities to work on the office during night hours this week, as going home isn't really an option.

As a side note, lest I misrepresent, this percussionist and his friend are great guys. The problem is that I just don't mesh with the additional noise. At all. Screaming/crying babies I can tune out easily, but for some reason, the noise these guys bring seems to, in my head, get so amplified I can concentrate on nothing else.

Anyway, so I'll be working on the office another week. Maybe, just maybe, I'll have it completed by the time I leave the place Friday night.

In the post below you'll see images of what I've done so far.

Arches in progress (no drawings, though).

Image #1: The barren corner of my office as it stood last week. The white blinds are drawn down, covering the floor to ceiling windows. You can also see one of the two 'Superman' blue walls (the third wall is 'Superman' red) and the faux marble floor I'd done a couple of years ago. I'll be changing the color schemes of the walls, obviously, and the floor will be painted to resemble wooden planks.




Image #2: The same corner as it appears today, with my gothic/monastic inspired forms. I still need to complete the last pillar (seen on the floor in front of the cabinet), repair seams, fill crevices, and add doors to the cabinets themselves, which will have a design mirroring the arches above. I should be painting this by Wednesday.



Image #3: A closer look at the mouldings and pillar caps I carved out of plywood and pink foam. The foam will be coated with a hardening agent that will protect it and, while not quite making it 100% damage proof, will make it incredibly resilient... enough, certainly, for a low-traffic area as this.



Image #4: The same wall with the lights turned off, obviously. While dark, you should still be able to make out the bushes on the other side of the window. The cabinets are masking the unsightly pine straw and roots but will still allow the green tops to peek through. The arches above hide the overhang of the front of the building. I'll post better images of this view (even taken during the day!) once it's complete.

I'd considered carving one for myself once, but only got around to building one out of sand...

The headache is still ever-present, though not as intense as it was thirteen hours ago. This is not a good sign, and I am hoping that it is not there to greet me again in the morning.

(For those of you out there who are mothering types, yes, I have been taking meds for the pain. Even handfuls of five ibuprofen at a time don't seem to help much...)

Not that it's related, but there's something else...

I went to a memorial service tonight for a friend's father who'd passed away earlier this week. Not a funeral (the man had been cremated), it was indeed a memorial... many people stood and gave their memories of the man and how he'd touched their lives. I'd only met him once, and from what I saw and experienced I do not doubt a word of what was shared tonight.

The thoughts of what I'd like as a going-away ceremony had come to me before, and tonight as I drove away, I thought of how much this quiet, heartfelt, and tasteful memorial gathering mirrored what I would like. I have no documents dictating this, nor have I ever, but I've never wanted an opulent funeral. If it could be done legally, I'd rather just be dumped in a hole in the ground somewhere in the mountains or in a pine box. Cremation would be fine, too, in many ways preferable, but I'd rather it be done on a pyre just for the aesthetics. Again, a probably a legal problem. For me, and no offense to anyone reading this, but breaking the bank on a funeral, even the box the body is put into, seems silly.

I like the idea of a memorial, too, where folks come together not to dwell in sadness but to relish the memory of someone they knew and cared for.

I'd also like pizza served at the reception, should there be one. It is, or will have been, after all, my favorite food.

So, whoever is reading this, should I expire for whatever reason, now you know: Not a lot of flowers, no frilly casket, no huge gravestone (unless it's in the shape of a knight's effigy with a really amazing quote... that'd be cool. Oh, and that's what this post's title is about... I can't find the photo of it, though.).

Whatever is less expensive, go for it. I won't mind. I'll be dead.

That's not a bird chirping...

One of my favorite things to wake up with is a splitting headache. It just sort of sets the mood for the rest of the day, 'know what I mean?

The second item on that list would be waking to the sound of a hairball being hacked up right next to my pillow.

Lucky for me I got both this morning.

I hated to do it, being all compassionate an' stuff, but I had to make a kitty cough grenade by tossing her off the bed before he could actually wretch up the offending glob... 'Still have the railroad spike going through my right eye, though.

'Can't seem to cast that one off as easily, no matter how may ibuprofen I take.