Wonderful progress -- and OMG that looks so so nice!!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE the black-and-white photos -- especiallt the big one!!!

You did very very well!!! :)

Time to do the Happy Dance!!!!! :)

Dancing ..... Dancing ..... Dancing .........

THANK YOU, teacats!!

Here's a link to the big photo. Ron, the photographer, sent me the enlargement very recently. He and I were paired in an exhibit of poetry and photography at a local university last year, and our entry won first prize! I posted the poem in the KT forum not long ago. Here it is, for those who would like to read it. Be sure to look at the photo, preferably after the poem.

The Visit

In the first rays of morning he opens
the kitchen door, letting in the cold
as he lets himself out. One hand pulls up
the brown corduroy collar of his worn canvas
jacket; the other guides the joystick. Down the ramp
and onto the grass. Frost crunches under his wheels.

Crisp white silence is broken by the soft hum
of the motor. He thinks of it as his motor now,
an internal force that begins with a thought and ends
where he wants to go. Each dawn this is his destination.

The house sleeps. Grey smoke rises in a thin plume
from the chimney. In a front bedroom, his wife
rolls cautiously onto her hip and pulls the comforter
around her shoulder. At her feet, a tabby stretches.
A mouse lies motionless in the attic.

Sun reaches sky now. Again he meets the challenge
of the road, a flat dirt ribbon once crossed in six strides.
He rounds the stone wall and heads down a slight incline
to the shed. In the first two bays, his faithful truck
and a long-grown sonÂs once-red Camaro. In the third,
the tractor. His hand moves slowly back and forth
over the cracked rubber of the tire, eyes closing with a sigh.
When he opens them, his chair knows, and turns.
At the doorway of his barn, his love, he takes it in:
         &nbsppieces of rust
              &nbsppieces of light.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wheat Barn

Susan, Your poem caught me by surprise. Just sleepily browsing here...couldn't see the photo clearly, so as I started reading I had to really sit up mentally and pay attention. And oh, what a picture you drew for me! The photograph was beautiful when I later clicked on, but I was already right there beside your old farmer. I know there was sadness but you conveyed the good memories he held also.

Maybe it's because it's just after the holidays but I feel I just opened a small nondescript box and got such a delightful surprise! Thank you. You and your photographer are very talented and compliment each other's work beautifully.

I'm very glad you cleaned up your hall table~~smile~~ josh

First Monday without a job, that sounds so nice!!! The area you completed looks great. It also appears that completing one area has given you a much needed lift. I am happy for you.

I can't imagine that area having ever been cluttered. It looks so neat and clean. I'm envious.

Wonderful job, Susan! I'm trying to get motivated to clean my bedroom, which is just a complete mess. I bought a new bed, and pretty much have to do it. I'll use your picture as inspiration.

I read your poem when you posted it a week or so ago. It's really lovely. I'm with Josh - I was right there with your old farmer, remembering my son driving the old Camaro.

How beautiful, both the photograph and the poem. I keep looking at it and reading the poem over and over.
Bianchi

Susan - Good for you. Isn't it refreshing not to have to go to work? Take it easy and gradually, or full on, as the mood permits. Allow yourself the ebbs and flows.

Carol

Excellent progress in 5 days!!! What finally made the big difference?

Happy at-home days to you!!

Julie

Thanks, everyone, for those wonderful comments. Julie, my attitude changed after reading the responses to my post about feeling overwhelmed. I looked at the little table and all the stuff that surrounded it, and thought, I can do that. I was able to think that because I pretty much knew what to do. Like many of us, my big problems are those jobs that I really don't know how to tackle. (Including the ever-present "Where does this go?")

I have "before" pictures of every area of this house, and one of these days--probably after I get a scanner--I'll digitize and post some of them, along with "after" shots, of course. There are really two "befores:" The first was from 2002, when the condition of the place was a reflection of my state of mind after losing my daughter and watching my husband's mental health slip away. The second started a year later, when the remodeling began and everything got packed into boxes and stuffed into the living room. Before #1 was squalor. Before #2 was squalor, Collier Brothers Style--but substitute cardboard boxes for the brothers' stacks of newspapers.

Does anyone remember the Collier Brothers? My mother used to tell me about them... :-)

Susan

big problems are those jobs that I really don't know how to tackle. (Including the ever-present "Where does this go?")

Oh, is that true!

My kids have that problem, too. I'll yell at them to put something AWAY, not "down," and they'll say, "where does it go?" And it's THEIR STUFF! Time for less stuff, so there are spaces around it, and another reorg.

I remember the story of the Collier Brothers. Really sort of scary, to think of people that imprisoned. But they were sort of nutso too, even before accumulating all the junk, weren't they?

Susan,

Congratulations on that change of attitude! Now that you've conquered the front door table area, what's next? That might be the way to do it, one oasis in the clutter at a time? Keep the pictures coming!!

By the way, this is also a good reminder for me, too, to take one piece of a room at a time and "fix" that (rather than look at a whole room at one time).

P.S. Yes, I think the Collier Brothers were nuts beyond just collecting junk.