Saturday, August 17, 2013

The Attic

When we first moved into our house I was impressed with our attic. I finally had space to store things I no longer needed and yet didn't want to get rid of. It is the first atic we ever had that I could walk around in it with out worrying about bumping my head.

We also have a room upstairs that I use for storing things like books and other items I don't want to subject to the hot and cold extremes of the attic which means I don't have a reason very often to actually wander up the creaky stairs to the attic.

If I calculated correctly it had been over a year since I last ventured up there, opting to send the children up with what ever needed to be stored there. They had also turned half of it into an area to play house. When ever I heard the sounds of laughter floating down the stairs I would smile and envision a fun place to spend rainy summer days playing.

That all changed a little over a week ago when LV asked if I saw the attic recently. "No, I haven't been up there for quite a while," I answered blissfully unaware and visions still dancing through my head of a cozy place to play. There may even have been some unrealistic visions of beautiful lace curtains and other wonderful vintagey things that should be the part of any dreamy attic.

I opened the attic door and was greeted with an assortment of empty boxes, several bags of clothes, and a few toys on the stairs. After gingerly picking my way to the top my jaw nearly dropped to the floor. Half of the attic was simply one huge heap of boxes, some empty and others filled but their flaps were open and contents spilling out. It looked as if the children had simply stood on top of the stairs and flung the boxes and where ever they landed was fine with them.

The other half looked somewhat better, but certainly not a cozy place to play. Instead of lacy curtains, cobwebs danced at the windows, remnants of several picnics stared at me. I blinked my eyes several times in hopes this whole horrible mess would simply vanish. There was no such luck and so this past week was spent cleaning and organizing.

I didn't take any before pictures. But this is how it looks now.


 
The lace curtains and vintagey things won't happen. But at least things are clean and organized once again. And this time I'm determined to keep it that way even if it means I have to wander up there more than once a year.

10 comments:

  1. Wow, that is a great attic! Good job getting it all cleaned up! Almost inspires me to brave our second floor (in which my kids do the same box throwing thing). Almost. ;)

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  2. OK. So I would have loved to have been one of the children helping make that mess! I always loved playing in our attic. But I would gladly decline being on the Mom end of the mess! Great story.

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  3. I have the feeling our attic would make a great "before" picture. My husband's idea of putting things into the attic is to open the trap door and shove stuff as far as he can. As a result, it rather resembles a crowded bus. If you can fight your way past all the folks standing in the front, there is lots of empty space in the back. You are confronted with a wall of Christmas decorations, my teaching gear, suitcases, and the like - but if you crane your neck you can see vast (well, sort of vast) expanses of open floor.

    Unfortunately, the attic isn't tall enough to stand up in, so getting either of us geared up to tidy up is almost impossible.

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  4. It is a lovely attic, though! You could still make it a vintage lace-curtain sort of place for you, and have a sort of alone place to be when the kids get to be too much for you! (spoken as a mom with experience in that sort of thing lol)

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  5. Attics are among my favorite places, full of untold stories and memories. That one of yours looks great and would definitely be a place you would find me. I even did a photo essay on mine called scenes from the attic.

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  6. Oh, how I would love an attic...no such blessing living in a mobile home,but I do have a good storage space :) Blessings

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  7. This is so funny! I just started reading your third book, A Big Year for Lily! When I started reading your post I was imagining the bedroom in chapter two! Sorry there are not any lacey curtains and vintage things, but glad you have a large storage space!

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  8. What an awesome attic! How do you resist converting it into a beautiful vintage bedroom?

    Mrs.B

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  9. I agree that you should have your very own reading/sitting room up there with the lacy curtains and all.(No kids allowed! lol)

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment. I love hearing your thoughts.