Making Room

I think it is funny that while my mom is always telling me I should do something with my interior design degree, both she and Michael are better space planners than I am.

Michael is responsible for the only living room arrangement that has ever worked for us in our living room space. Yesterday my mom came over to help me get ready for Isaac. I had already done some rearranging of Parker's room, but she suggested a couple of additional changes. When Michael came home at the end of the day and saw what had been done in Parker's room he said, "Wow, this is a more efficient use of space."

It isn't perfect. My rocking chair is no longer next to the bookshelf, so choosing books at bedtime will be a little more tricky. And we still have to put some of Parker's toys into an organized rotation, but with the work my mom did yesterday, decisions about rotating toys are going to be a whole lot easier. Also, she found a way that we can keep the chest of drawers in Parker's room so I'll have some of the storage space I'll need with an even smaller child in the house.

I'm feeling better about fitting Isaac into our home.

I Always Liked to Watch The New Yankee Workshop With Norm Abrams

My favorite courses in Interior Design at the University of Alabama took place in the engineering department. There we learned basic drafting techniques, how to use an earlier version of AutoCAD (earlier than 2000, that is, which I learned how to use much later), and certain details about construction. I especially liked the stuff about construction.

In the art department I most enjoyed using the power tools in 3-dimensional design, besides the drawing class I took with Mr. Dooley.

I wish I knew more about construction now. Anything I may have gone over at the time I have forgotten. It would be so useful now I as think about the things that should be done to my little house.

When I worked at Lighting Plus, my favorite part was running back to the warehouse to locate items needed by the local electricians. I thought how interesting it would be to be a female electrician.

I like doing things myself, like putting together Parker's various paraphrenalia. I've taken Parker's bed apart and put it back together more than once, although not since we moved into this house. Yet I am intimidated when it comes to cleaning the bathroom.

Do Me a Favor Please

I have got to get a new exterior door for my home, I can't spend a whole lot of money, but I can't stand any of the examples I've seen from the big hardware chains. It has to be 36" wide. Where do I look next?

Internet, no good.

Home Show Inspirations

Michael's parents took us to a Home Show on Sunday. It was quite inspirational, almost enough to interest me in interior design briefly and once again. The Home Show at Huntsville Civic Center conviced me once again that I have expensive taste, though expensive by whose standards? (I'm reminded of a joke I saw; I think it was on 30 Rock.

Overheard during a poker game:

Come on. Daddy needs a new suit.

I'd hate to see the suit you could buy for $250.00.)

What the Home Show also succeeded in doing was to remind me of what sorts of books I should look for when the opportunity for a bookstore excursion presents itself: Architecture, Interior Design, and Art. I'm most interested in anything on Frank Lloyd Wright, possibly Greene & Greene. Mission Style, Prairie Style, the Arts & Crafts Movement, Possibly Arts Deco and Neuveaux.

Frank Lloyd Wright's work is exciting in part because of the way he worked in sympathy with a home's natural landscape, and in part because he was so far ahead of his time. I remember noticing when I was in school that things he designed in the 20s and 30s looked as though they had been designed in the 60s and 70s. That might not sound great to you, but it certainly is to me.

I think I remember reading that the old River Road swimming pool was designed by a student of a student of Frank Lloyd Wright's.

Something to Think About

One of the first things I learned when I entered the Interior Design Program at The University of Alabama was that in certain philosophies of interior design ornamentation should carry meaning, an idea which certainly appealed to me. This was a response against those earlier design philosophies such as French Rococo which said that if a little ornamentation was good, more ornamentation was even better.

The subject came up when I was on Spring Break Outreach with Chi Alpha at Florida State University my Senior Year of College.

We had done a mime routine a bit earlier, and were fitted out in black clothes and white make-up. I wandered with one of our guys around the green searching for students to talk to.

"Why the white make-up?" a young man asked. We explained to him what we had been doing, talked a little bit about University life, as well as our designated courses of study, those things all students have in common. There was a pause, and I said to him, "You know, in interior design I learned that all ornamentation should carry meaning, and yet here I am wearing white make-up. It has no meaning. In a sense this make-up is a violation of my principles as a Christian, one of which is to be honest and transparent in the way that I face the world. What do you think of that?"

From the outside this may not seem like much of an evangelical message, but I believe it opened up the conversation and showed this guy that we were willing to treat him like an actual person we had met instead of as a stop on some imaginary evangelical pilgrimage. (It must have been the work of the Holy Spirit, because I am not very evangelical as a rule.)

I'm thinking about this incident in a couple of ways as we approach the subject of relationship evangelism at Grace Church in the following weeks.

In one sense I'd like us to discuss how ornamentation carries meaning in our lives as Christians as we face the world from day to day. Lauren Winner has a lovely little book called Mudhouse Sabbath that applies to this in some ways. It talks about ways that certain Jewish traditions can be profitably incorporated by the Church.

The other way I'd like to discuss this is in terms of different evangelical techniques that we have tried, the ways that they have been effective, when they are appropriate and when they are not. Mime, for example, can work beautifully in some cases, and in others it may be offensive (in a detrimental way: remember not all offense is detrimental) because it uses artifice to convey an extremely didactic message.

Discussion?

Exterior Design

We are in the market for a new front door and screen. The setup we have right now includes what I believe is the home's original door, one of those hollow core deals with a diamond shaped glazed opening, and no deadbolt, incidentally. Our storm door is, well, a storm door. It is metal, and loud, and unlockable, which will make it next to useless in keeping Parker safely inside the house on those gorgeous spring days that are coming. I love letting the fresh air in at doors and windows, weather permitting. Right now fresh air without accompanying bugs (and other hazards) just isn't a possibility.

So what would I like to get? The house was built in 1946, and relying on my own memory of architectural styles, I'm thinking Charles Remey McIntosh, Greene & Greene, the Arts & Crafts movement, and my favorite architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. Maybe I'd throw in a touch of something different just for fun. If I could remember the name of the style I'm thinking of, I would throw it's name in here. It's the one with lots of curves and silhouettes. I'm thinking that a lot of posters were done in and based upon this period.

The problem with architectural dreams, of course, is that they usually require vast amounts of disposable income, something I just don't have.

The house is a simple house, after all, so anything very fancy would be out of keeping with its primary features.

I've remembered (2 1/2 hours later). The style I was trying to remember was Art Neuveaux (sp?)!

Early Christmas Presents

We got our Christmas present from my parents today. It is a 50s television cabinet that we found at Circlewood Thriftstore. We got it to elevate our television just out of Parker's reach and to hide the other ancillary machines (DVD player, stereo) with buttons that Parker loves to press. Unfortunately our CD player was damaged just a few days ago.


I almost got the picture I wanted from yesterday, the one in which Parker ran to us with such glee. The one I really wanted turned out to be blurry. This photo (above) almost communicates that feeling, but isn't the one I had hoped for.

Another Word Game

I once found a lampshade back when I was working the sales floor at Lighting Plus. The shade had a tag attached to it that read "One of a Kind." At the time I joked that in this instance "one of a kind" was code for "That's one ugly lampshade. Please take it off our hands." Fortunately this particular lampshade was perfect for a lamp I had sitting in my apartment, and together lamp and shade weren't at all ugly, so I bought it.

Then I thought about those words, "one of a kind," a bit more.

Interpreted literally, "one of a kind" should really mean that this is one lampshade of a particular kind. In other words, there are lots of lampshades just like this one, and this is only one example of the kind. I think of an episode of Rugrats wherein Chukkie, pretending to be an ice-cream 'man, asks Lil what kind of ice-cream she would like. Lil responds, in that cute little toddler voice, "I want all the kinds."

Of course in actual usage "one of a kind" means that an object is unique, that there are no other objects that are like it. Usually the words "one of a kind" are paired with "original." Or maybe I'm mistaken. In reality "one of a kind" may actually be short for "one of a kind original" in which case current usage begins to make more sense.

An Undisciplined Question

These are the types of questions you ask your friends when you are in college and involved in a campus ministry:

How can I justify encouraging materialism in clients as an interior designer? Am I really doing them a service if I do things that encourage them to cling to the comforts of this world? Am I not betraying my own principles if I assist others in indulging idolatry?

There were good answers to these questions, I know there were, but I thought of them (the questions) again as I wrote about my new kitchen the other day.

Prudence and good stewardship dictate that we plan ahead for any and all future financial endeavors. The idea that you make car payments to yourself in advance of purchasing a car rather than making those same payments to someone else after the fact only makes good sense. But I was wondering, as Christians, what right do we have to purchase more than the minimum to meet necessity? What right do I have to put together a dream kitchen, or make more than the minimum investment in the property value of my home when those very same funds could be used instead to support five children in an orphanage in Calcutta, to cite a recent example.

I don't mean to say this in judgement of anyone. So many of our financial decisions are made between ourselves and God. I only mean to question what my own philosophy in this regard should be--and I am being hypocritical in the making because I crave stability and forethought, and I have very expensive taste as well. I would love, love, love to have one of those beautiful homes I see on tv. I would love to buy only the best groceries without concerning myself with the cost. I would love to have the best fabrics and coffees and wines. If I had the money for those things, what would I do with it? I much prefer to keep my money in my wallet instead of giving without qualm.

My faith is defective because I do not really and truly trust God to provide my basic needs, and because I fear I would not be satisfied with having provision for only those most basic needs. And I know without a doubt that I am not alone in this.

I hope my readers understand, and that I am expressing only what I mean to express. This post is part confession, and part message to the church that such questions are out there whether or not we ask--and the answers are not simple because of our position in, though not of, the world.

Kitchen Improvements

I promised in an earlier post ("Cooking Basics") that I would add photos of my current kitchen once it was clean enough to photograph. For some reason, keeping up with the kitchen has been particularly hard this week, while those who visit my house regularly can tell you that I don't like for it to stay messy for long. My sink is currently full of clean dishes, but that's as close to clean as I'm going to get this morning. Time to photograph:

This is 100 times better than what I had before (see POSSUM!, posted earlier this month). There were aspects of my old kitchen that I really liked, especially after we decorated some while I was pregnant with Parker, but really and truly, that old kitchen was a nightmare. I liked the view of trees outside the window that reminded me of campus ministry campouts in college. I loved the wonderful light that came in through the window, and the fact that there were birds almost always flying about. I liked my ragged cobalt blue composition tile floor, and the fact that I could open the door and let fresh air in whenever I liked. I didn't, however, like to spend very much time in there, which really is a problem when you're trying to be sensible in your spending. Writing about it this way, though, should help me to remember. The new kitchen doesn't have the best layout I've ever seen. However it does have a built-in dishwasher, a double sink (!), and countertop work space.

You can't tell from the picture, but there's a bookshelf in the space between refrigerator and oven. The door to the outside is nice, but I need to get a screen door for it so that I can open it in warm weather and not worry about Parker crawling out. I like it pretty well the way it is now, but one of my goals for the future is to tap into some of my interior design training and redesign the whole thing, probably with assistance with IKEA's online kitchen design program. I'll do that on paper and then Michael and I can decide what the priorities are, and how much we'll have to save to implement the design. I said I have interior design training, but I never really worked in the field, so I don't have good experience to draw on. I hope that what I have is good taste and good sense to come up with something truly functional. The more I cook in this kitchen, the more I'll know what actually needs to be done. For now, I'm just happy to have a kitchen of my own, and I think it's pretty besides.