Working spaces
Thursday, May 18th, 2006My parents dropped by our house last week — the first time in many months. Even though we live less than five minutes away from them, we see my parents only once in a while — yes, yes, I’m a terrible daughter… In any case, my mom was a little horrified to find that yarn, fibre, equipment and books seem to have exploded in our living room. I think her exact words were “oh my god, you are almost getting to be like your father” — except that she said it in Mandarin.
You see, my parents’ house is not and will never be a spread out of a fancy interior design mag — it’s a working space. My dad’s studio is the living room. Their ‘living room’ is now sort of a tiny area between the the painting studio and the dining room, marked by the presence of a paint-covered sofa. There is paint on the floor, of course, and oil paintings stacked a foot deep all around the living/dining room area. But this is the only way… there is a massive north-facing window in the living room that my dad paints by… the view of West Coast mountains and water… it’s perfect. I mean, really, where else would you set up your workspace?
This is my workspace…
My so-called “knitting/dyeing/spinning/weaving” workspace is also our living room, dining room, bedroom, and second bedroom… it’s freaking everywhere. Sometimes, I don’t know how Richard can live with me. In July, we’ll be reclaiming our entire basement, so many many things (like rarely ever used golf clubs) will be able to move down there, including my design/work studio. I’ll get one half of the space for my office and fibre/equipment storage and Richard will get one half for his office…
That will leave the second bedroom empty for a nice, big floor loom (suggestions are welcome!). This room gets gorgeous, diffuse daylight and I’m looking forward to the days when I can wake up and weave or knit a bit with my morning coffee before going down to work. Ack. Can you tell that I just can’t wait to come home?
