This Island Matt

by Matt

My wife & I were talking about resetting the girls' rooms for when the baby comes. We live in a typical suburban bungalow, with two bedrooms on the main floor and one large room for us upstairs. E's room is still set up with a crib, so the baby will go in there. E will move in with her older sister, L.

We were trying to figure out what to do with all of their stuff. Our kids are the only grand kids on both sides of our family. They have 2 sets of grandparents, 3 uncles & an aunt that love to buy stuff for them. And I love that. It saves us some money at their birthdays & Christmas. The only problem is that these people neglect to make cash donations to us for the addition we need to build to hold all this stuff. We still have Christmas gifts that are still not open, that will be used after the big move. There's nowhere to put all of it.

Well, that's not entirely true.

There is room for some of this stuff. The problem is that it will take the place of our stuff.

When we moved in (nearly 10 years ago), we had a computer room and a library on the first floor. BOTH. I can't imagine what that would be like now. The computer room was dark green, with some Hawaiian themes (from our honeymoon). Bamboo shades covered the windows. Our library had two cases full of books. The walls were a dark maroon, with brown trim along the floors and windows. It was the coolest room I had ever seen.

I kept my horn in there with my other music stuff. We even had the old piano in there that the previous tenants left. I could walk in and practice, or sit down in a comfy chair and read a book. It was quiet. It was nice. It was my sanctum sanctorum.

When L came, the computer room mashed up with the library. We got rid of the chair, piano (it was in pretty bad shape anyway) and some other odd furniture. Then when E came, all of that got sent to the basement.

I was okay with all of this. I still had a place that I could get away for a bit. I had it separated into sections: computer/library/music/practice area, TV area & comic area. It was cold in winter, but otherwise I dug the basement.

With #3 on the way, the decision was made to have the girls share a room, and we'll move their play area to the basement replacing the TV area. We'll leave the TV, but everything else had to move out.

So now I have to get rid of some stuff. The old hi-fi I got from a friend I used to work with needs to go. The funky end tables we got from my wife's aunt have to disappear. The newspaper covers of sports teams accomplishments will be replaced by Ariel, Belle, & Cinderella.

My retreat is proceeding apace. This basement is the last outpost of my identity. Send reinforcements!

Or send cash.