Sometimes you stay in one place for a while and get very comfortable with it. It's soothing to know that some things never change. Every time you walk into your house, it's more than just entering a building, it's coming home. The furniture is functional, the knick-knacks are familiar, you are accustomed to the colors and smells...
The trailer office Sonny & I use 365 days a year is kinda home for us. Sonny still remembers the day it was brought to Brandeis and how he almost died that day. A lot of people have visited it, from volunteers, students and their parents, to colleagues and wranglers, old and young. Upon entering this sacred mecca, anyone recognized the organized chaos of the ranch mess it was and immersed themselves in the mixed smells of horses, hay, tools, and yes even sweat & blood on occasion...
But all this is GONE! At least for a short period of time.
SAY HELLO to fresh paint, new furniture and floor design!
The trailer is the same and has not moved, but the office looks and feels brand new.
It started with taking things off the walls and filling the holes. There was a lot of them...
The floor was more or less bare wood with leftover carpet glue ridges throughout in a nice shade of dirt color that remained even after sweeping and vacuuming.
After taking everything out, and I mean everything, the 1st big step was to paint. Believe it or not, the dark blue color everyone had grown accustomed to had been there for about 13 year: a 5$ can of paint someone had returned to the store that was too good a deal for Sonny to pass on... You may notice the discoloration on the walls after the pictures and white boards came off. I personally found it dark and a bit depressing.
Thankfully, Sonny agreed to pick a light color to match the vinyl tiles he wanted to cover the ugly floor.
Next was putting down those new tiles.
Neither of us ever had to do this before but despite a few mistakes, I think we did a pretty good job!
It felt so much bigger than before! The whole room vibrated with excitement and wonder.
Oh wait, that was our voices bouncing off the empty walls!!!
Off course, empty is not an option as it would deny this space the purpose it was created for... so we started filling it up again, with old and new stuff. Re-arranging things and organizing the space to be more functional and welcoming (with free Craigslist finds like shelves and an Ikea desk) makes the office feel brand NEW. The kick plate on the door looks bitchin' too ^_^.
The new floor plan and the smell of new paint is pretty cool and I would even say invigorating! The floor is SOOOO easy to clean now, the leaves, dust & even the winter mud won't get a chance to settle in this space.
Hopefully our visitors (that includes you!) will find it welcoming.
Come and check it out! Let us know what you think!
