Dear curious reader,
Catching up. As autumn settles into winter, our body readjusts to the new temperature in a way it sees fit. Sometimes, in the most unfortunate circumstance, that can take weeks. Then suddenly, it was time to whisk off to Karuizawa to spend the new year with the family. Now that we’re back in Okayama, it’s time to close up. Again. To reiterate, my timeline is all over the place and that often leads to foggy memories. So here I am, grasping and writing about everything I can recall before it fades into something that might be a fever dream.
If you’ve been following since the beginning, and I mean from the very start when we first bought this house. When we made the announcement. When you realised that we’re actually doing this deranged assignment for real. You’d remember the bar counter tucked under the stairs.
At the risk of sounding totally uncool, we are not big drinkers. In that we don’t even have the casual glass at parties. Sean is often the designated driver and me well, I’ve spent so long not drinking that sometime in my mid-20s, I seem to have developed an allergic reaction. A sip and my skin starts to turn crimson. Within seconds, I’m in the corner willing myself not to scratch. To put it simply, we do not consume alcohol at a rate which renders a bar. And thus, from the very start, I’m sorry for saying this, did not find retaining that nook very appealing.
So we scrapped it.
This project was going to be helmed by one person only. Can you believe the genius and the skill an individual could possess? Insane isn’t it? And because it required coming back, working on it while living within, this platform has been in the works for a while now, seeing it’s completion a year from the day we knew what we wanted to do with it.
We considered turning it into a play corner for Luna. Or a mini living room because we didn’t actually incorporate one yet. (My internal cosy autumn girlie is scoffing at the fact that couches with thick blankets could be an afterthought.) Then, we are also massive book people. So how about having a library under the stairs? I think that was the most enchanting of all. And then you ask yourself, why does it only have to exist as just one thing? News flash, you can do whatever the fuck you want when it’s your own home.
And if you can’t decide on what you want, you combine everything. It is now our elevated library platform. One that holds books, a couch, our ever expanding art collection and storage for seasonal items. Enough space to stay for the night. I am pinching myself because in what universe did I ever think I could fall asleep in a library within my own home?
Now, on to another magical person. Lou. Because of her, we’ve also finally gotten round to replacing the god forsaken chandelier. Nothing against what was here before us. Just that it doesn’t really fit with the changes this house is seeing. You see, our living room anchors the entire space. It holds such a magnetic pull that everyone is simply drawn to stay awhile. So when she suggests the idea of our main light to mirror a cloud being captured. That maybe it can also be controlled by a switch and a pulley system. Take it higher and there’s more evenly distributed illumination. Bring it down low, and there’s an intimate glow. She foraged for bamboo in our woods, a nod to the fact that we are a home nestled in the forest and it became the cage. Tapping on to the idea of washi paper lantern for that softness of having a piece of the sky in our main hall. We said yes, yes and yes. Yes to all the ideas and the way it happened within a week.
If I must admit, I do catch myself wondering if I’ve embellished the way these contributions happen. That when you walk in, it’s always the view of the forest that people are enamoured by. Everything else - the lighting, the flooring, the kitchen etc. If it doesn’t spark your curiosity, it’s all a blanket “Oh, DIY. Okay.”
While I’m here, looking at our beloved residents, having conversations that reveal who they are. How overnight, you begin to wonder how you survived this long being unaware of their presence because they feel like old friends.
When morning comes around, you watch ideas churn in their heads. Witness the formulation of a plan and suddenly working to make it a reality. It is here that I think, hold on. There’s nothing wrong with romanticising the occurrence of these additions. Because this IS a beautiful thing to be a part of. They ARE beautiful people worth documenting about. I’m just so incredibly lucky to be in the right place at the right time over and over again.
And so I’m going to keep writing as such.
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