Notes from Maine - 2022/04/10

Mom has changed rooms in anticipation of my sister’s arrival. Neither my sister nor my mom have a named room here. Over the years, some of the rooms here have been assigned names. Todd’s old room was turned into a gym, so now it’s Todd’s gym. This house was formerly a nursing home, with small bedrooms for each of the residents. Closets had hasps for padlocks to keep others out. Some doors had no locks, and some had reversed locks to keep wanderers in. There’s a medication drawer in the kitchen with a lock on it too. Todd’s gym is extra large because at some point they removed the wall between two rooms. I closed up one of the doors and put in a window to the hallway. That way I can keep an eye on things while I’m riding the exercise bike. I enjoy adding/removing walls and doors every so often.

Dad used to say in the room at the end of the hall, so that’s Dad’s room. After Dad’s last stay, Mom and I put a new floor in there after she painted. It seems like a different place with the bright blue walls and bamboo floor. Next door, George’s room was turned into a lounge, so I refer to it as George’s lounge. He was a Great Dane with a very large personality. He really needed his own room. For the past couple of years, I’ve been writing in George’s lounge. It has a nice view of the driveway and a rickety table that wobbles as I type. 

After Mom’s second husband died, she came up here for a while. That’s when we finished the room over the kitchen and dubbed it Alex’s room. We installed walls, wired up overhead lights, made a closet, and then put down a nice floor. It has a bed on one side and a hammock under the sloped ceiling. It’s really a lovely room. Tonight, my nephew will stay in there. It has stood empty since his last visit.

I never intended to have a house with so many rooms, but it’s just what I wound up with. Twenty years ago, I searched and searched for an affordable house with a pasture and a good barn for horses. I never found one, so I decided that I would have to build the barn and fence the pasture myself (with the help of many friends). This place had decent land and a price that I could handle. I’m glad I found it. Moving around the house to renovate different areas has kept me busy and entertained. There’s still a lot wrong, but it suits me well. 

Lately, I’ve been feeling guilty that Mom doesn’t have a room named for her. She has been here for a month and she’s still staying in one of the “guest” rooms. It’s a good room. I never go in there ever since I refinished the old pine floors. Dog claws and pine floors don’t work well together. I’ll start referring to that room as “Mom’s Room” and see if I can get that designation to stick. 

The only room untouched is the kitchen. Every year I plan to gut it, replace the cabinets, floor, and appliances. Every year I push it off. It’s never the right time. I need the kitchen too much. Maybe next year I’ll start it. I have too many things going right now.

I wish this house still kept secrets from me. I miss those first few months when I could picture a cabinet or a closet and then I couldn’t figure out where I had seen it. Unexplored corners of a house are magical, whether they’re filled with old plates or just cobwebs. There are a set of lockers down in the cellar. I found treasures in there, like a box of old fluorescent light bulbs. One time, decades ago, Mom found a stack of dessert plates on some shelves in the root cellar. They cleaned up well. My friends ate cake off of them the other night. I’ve tried to build in surprises for the next owner to discover. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve found everything that the last residents left behind—given that it was a nursing home, maybe I don’t want to find everything. 

For the next week, the house will be filled with family. My sister is in Mom’s room. Mom moved into Dad’s old room. Only Alex is in a room named for him. Maybelle is sharing a stall with her daughter. I think Maybelle is growing a little tired of that arrangement. 

It might be time for a change. Maybe this summer I’ll start another big project. It won’t be the kitchen though—I still need time to think about that.