Originally posted on 2021-01-17
Yet we still need to make it work. Knowing it’s temporary doesn’t mean we can make do with things that don’t work at all.
The first thing that wasn’t working was the setup we had for all three of us being at home for the COVID crisis and the little one doing online learning. Originally Dad had a desk where it is now in the corner, she had a small desk next to him, and Mom was over on the kitchen table. This didn’t work for ensuring that the little one was doing what she was supposed to be doing and it didn’t really work for dinner time or for playing games. Realizing we had a long table that recently went into storage before demolishing most of the house we decided that we could all be lined up against the wall in the living room, and we could move the printer to a place that was out of the way as well as closer to the computers. It was also great that our small filing cabinet fit between the table and the fridge, giving us almost an office set up in our living room. This will work a lot better until the new house is built, even once everyone is back to work and school.
Another thing we did was to build a temporary partition wall between the living room and kitchen. We were worried that it would make both rooms feel crowded, but it hasn’t had that effect. In fact, being able to move the television to be against that wall freed up the space we needed to fill the west wall with computers as we could move the exercise bike to where the television used to be. This has also made watching the television from the couch nicer as the couch is currently blocking the southern sliding door. We may have to rearrange this again come spring if we want to use the southern sliding door, but with the house, the size it currently is walking around it to get to the lake isn’t a big deal for the short term. Either way, we have a few months before we need to even think about it. The door is covered in plastic for the winter anyway.
On the other side, we picked up another wire shelving unit (we’re up to five now!) and used it to get the microwave off the counter and our canned goods out of where we keep the pots and down where they’re more accessible. The kitchen table is still in the kitchen as there is plenty of space for it there. These changes have made the house far more functional for the short term.As well as this, we organized the closet under the stairs and the rest of the shelving units to get them functional and to get rid of all of the crap we don’t need to keep. We’ve also been continuing the clean up of the house debris outside.
Taking apart the easternmost wall we found the above picture, showing us that it was either built or rebuilt in 1970. We are considering putting something like this in the new house, but since we’re making it of concrete it’s unlikely anyone would be tearing it down anytime soon. We still have some time to decide exactly what we’ll do. That is all for now. You can now leave comments and we encourage you to do so. You can also sign-up for a mailing list so you never miss a new post. Please also follow us on Facebook for additional photos of the work being done. Thank you for following us on our journey and I look forward to seeing you next week
Huron The Lake 