Monday, July 26, 2010

The urge to rearrange

Early in our marriage, Bill never knew what configuration of furniture he would find when he returned from work. Looking back, I am amazed at what I could accomplish while the kids were napping, and how I could rearrange a lot of bedroom furniture in a very small room.

Picture this (said in my best Sophia Petrillo voice from The Golden Girls): Our bedroom was perhaps 10' x 12' with a double bed that had large head and foot boards, a tall dresser, a wide dresser with a hutch mirror attached, a night stand and a tall narrow cabinet. Our bed had to be nestled into a corner to make all the other furniture fit. With a door, a closet and a window to work around, the best I could do was flip placement of the bed from one corner to the other on the same wall, and switch the dresser placement. The cabinet had to stay on the wall between the closet and the opened bedroom door as it was the only piece that fit in that small space.
Occasionally I would place the nightstand in the living room (it matched the tables out there) to give the bedroom a little more wiggle room. The rearranging phenomenon was never done when Bill was home. He thought this was nuts and to say it exasperated him would be an understatement. He never complained out loud, but he did give me a look from time to time. For a while he was better at eye ball rolling than I was! 1sm067eyeroll Pictures, Images and Photos

In order to accomplish the rearranging, dresser drawers would be pulled out and stacked in the living room. Some of the drawers were too wide to carry through the hallway normally so I had to side step down the hallway grunting under the load I carried. Moving the large bed and chests in a small carpeted room was not easy. This was before the invention of furniture sliders that are so commonly used today. Pull a little here, push a little there was how things were moved. The hallway was full of knickknacks from the tops of the chests and nightstand and some of the smaller drawers.
This was also before portable phones. We had a phone in the living room and one in the kitchen. Heaven help me if the phone rang while I was wrestling with furniture and had the doorway blocked. If Bill were calling, he knew it was the boys' naptime and I would likely be home. I didn't want to worry him by not answering so I would climb over whatever was in the way and try to answer the phone without sounding winded.

Bill: Are you alright?
Me: Sure (pant, pant)
Bill: You sound out of breath
Me: (with fingers crossed for fibbing) I was just jogging in place / blowing bubbles for the kids / chasing the dog to get my shoe or whatever came to mind that day.

Did I fool him? No. He would come home to find the bed in a different corner or the couch on a different wall (at least the living room was easier to rearrange) and say that he knew by the phone call that something would be different when he came home. He would guess which room on his way home and was right 75% of the time. The bedroom caused more panting. (Hmmm, that doesn't sound all bad, does it?!)
Now, even though our living room and bedroom are much larger, their configurations are such that rearranging furniture isn't easy. Besides that, I try not do anything to cause back muscle spasms.I've pretty much lost the urge to frequently rearrange things.

Except for here.

So here I am with a new blog background. I hope it is easy on everyone's eyes. I will check it on Bill's computer and our laptop later. Each monitor is different enough that I get an idea what your views may be like.

I'm off to run the vacuum now. Photobucket And maybe move the basket of magazines to the other end of the couch. That will be strenuous enough for one day, after all the exertion to get that sunflower over here on my sidebar. Photobucket

5 comments:

LemonyRenee' said...

You had me laughing out loud with your description of furniture arranging antics. I can relate!

LOVE the new blog look. Lovely!

Sewconsult said...

I use to move furniture... use to being the operative phrase. Now that DH & I both have limited back usage, I find drawing a room out on a grid and moving furniture on it works well. I did that when I bought an L shaped desk for my sewing studio. #2 daughter kept telling me that there wouldn't be enough walk room around one end. She claimed that my drawings weren't accurate. She just had a difficult time converting my two squares on the grid to actual walking space of 4 feet of real space. She had to offer an apology to me once I had the desk set up! I have a grid for my future sunroom and I can envision where all the furniture is going!

Chatty Crone said...

Isn't it funny how we change what we like to do or what we can do - when we get older.

It's good now that you can change your blog page and there is no pain involved.

I love it - in fact I almost picked this background too.

Love,
sandie

The Urban Chic said...

Knit I can picture you panting while moving heavy furniture-something I did on a monthly basis when I was young, but with the way my living room is made, there's no way to rearrange anything, not even in my bedroom. Oh well, changing a few accesories every now and then helps the boredom. And beside that, I couldn't move anything even with the gliders. Have a great day, Hugs, Pat

Anonymous said...

I love the new look of your blog. It's very pretty. I was a re-arranger too and still live in the same small house. I remember getting trapped in the bedroom many a day. Over the years I have learned to like where I put my furniture and like you leave most of my decorating to my blog :>)