The “Floorplan”

Well, we’ve been here in the ‘new’ house for a month now and I’m still unpacking. Translation – I’m not ready to show off any rooms just yet. Instead, I’ll share the floorplan with you.

It’s more of a hand drawn footprint, really. I suppose I could make a digital one but I just like sketching. Translation – this isn’t to scale. Or even close. Although it’s a little better than the first one I did.

I scrawled this out with pencil, before we moved in. We used this one mainly to figure out where we were gonna put the big furniture.

When I’m serious about space planning, I’ll draw each individual room to scale and also the furniture. This ‘paper doll cut out’ method saves my back just a tad, and loads of wasted time.

Once we moved in, I redrew the basic floorplan for the upstairs and then one for the downstairs.

Again, not to scale. I just wanted something with measurements that I could take shopping.

I kinda like when a fellow shopper stops and asks me for advice because, armed with floorplan on clipboard and measuring tape, she thinks I must know what I’m doing.

Looks can be deceiving.

I’ve measured walls and windows mainly. As we find we need a bookshelf or whatever, I’ll note those measurements too.

The upstairs, Mom’s floor, is pretty well put together, as far as furniture goes. The front door is in the bottom left corner and we made a “sitting area” that leads into the living room. It’s open and spacious, wrapping from the front door all the way around to the dining area.

I’ll post pics in a few days. I promise!

I wanted to get her living spaces put together first. We’re still not organized – at all – but as soon as we got moved in, I got incredibly busy with some painting gigs and other projects. So I have to squeeze the house stuff in between work. But her area looks pretty nice and comfy and I love going up there on ‘breaks’.

Mine, on the other hand, is . . . well a work-in-progress. Kinda like me. My bedroom is pretty well situated but the rest of the downstairs is in limbo.

Originally my art studio was going to be in the upper right room and the “fitness” room was going to be in the lower right. But . . . well, Mom’s exercise equipment wouldn’t all fit into a tiny 8-1/2 x 9’ room, the lighting wasn’t as good as I’d thought it’d be in the studio and it was way too hot. There’s no central air conditioning downstairs, only upstairs. I have a portable a/c that works well but needs a window, of course, and it’s in the office, more centrally located.

So last weekend I couldn’t stand it anymore had the bright idea to flip the fitness stuff with my art stuff. I got as far as moving two of her ‘machines’ from one end of the house to the other (with moving discs) and then my tables and paints into the office and called it a day. So everything is more chaotic than it was before, but at least I can work without tripping over a Pilates machine every time I walk by. And I kinda like having my office stuff with my painting stuff, all in one room. It’s a big room – 13 x 11-1/2’ – so there’s plenty of room. I just haven’t made it look . . . nice. It’s just functional right now, not pretty.

Pretty has to wait a while.

I mean, my To Do list for the house is longer than my arm. But I want to make or paint a lot of things. Like the curtains for downstairs. I’m planning on using canvas paint dropcloths and painting them. I’ll need to put those up before the weather turns cold, that’s for sure. Mom has some beautiful curtains that I think will work upstairs, but I need to change out the traverse rods to the wood poles & finials I painted for her.

Anyhoo, that’s where this floorplan comes in handy. I have it on a clipboard and toss it in the car when I go shopping. If I see some good deals, I have the major measurements right with me. Of course, I spend a lot of time at the thrift store so I also need a tape measure.

One of these days, soon, we have to get up to the cabin. It’s up for sale and really hasn’t been cleaned or ‘staged’. There are quite a few things up there that might work down here so that’s why I’m hesitating setting up my sitting area and a few other spaces.

That’s what I’m telling myself, at least.

So we are making progress but it’s slow-going. Although there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t look around and thank God for the incredible blessing of this house.

And for you too! Thank you all so, so much for your love and support. It means more than I can say. I am trying to get back to a regular blogging schedule. That’s on the To Do list too, right at the top.

Do you take measurements of everything around the house? How do you keep track of them?

Colleen

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