Suddenly, they were jarred from peaceful slumber by a wrenching, ripping, cracking sound, followed by a tremendous thump. Then, all was silent.
What the ^%$$ was that?!? Jolted from a deep sleep, I couldn't quite get my bearings at first. Was that sound in a nightmare? Or, did I really hear something? Better investigate. With the faithful and equally befuddled Duchess in tow (Gus was still sound asleep on the bed...never heard a thing...and Mr T was out-of-town, so he didn't hear it either), I first checked the deck to see if a tree had fallen on the house. No, that wasn't it. Then, I tiptoed down Mom's hall to see if she had possibly fallen while getting up in the middle of the night...and taken down her nightstand in the process. No, wrong again. What could it be?
Upon checking the master closet, I found the source of the sounds. The closet had collapsed, off the wall. Completely collapsed. I kid you not...every thread of clothing that Mr. T and I owned was in a pile...in a heap...on the floor. The wire shelving that the previous owners had used just couldn't support our clothes...and shoes...and other stuff. What a gigantic mess! Nothing to do but climb back into bed, pull the covers over my head, and pray that the closet fairies would fix it all by daylight.
No such luck.
Fortunately, for me at least, after a couple of weeks of dressing out of wardrobe boxes which we stationed in the dining room, Mr. T took over this project and wrangled it to a happy conclusion. He designed us a new master closet, complete with lots of shelves and cubbies and hanging space, and built it all...pretty close to how he designed it. Oh, there were a few words uttered in the heat of the moment, usually after he discovered that a shelf wasn't the exact length he wanted...followed by him muttering "that's why they tell you to measure twice and cut once." But, all-in-all, it's a fabulous improvement over what we had. (I can take zero credit for this one, as I would scamper away at the first sign of dust...terrified that I'd repeat my prolonged bout of bronchitis of earlier this year...and, I must say that re-doing a closet is one dusty project indeed.) Check out the photos (mid-way and after...I didn't have the heart to take a picture of the "before").
Meanwhile, the unpacking process continues. I have finally unpacked all of the Cat's Meows...I think. You see, the movers didn't pack them all together...no, that would have been way too logical. They packed them in whatever space they could fit them in...a few in this box, a few more in that box. Since I have over 200 of these little collectible houses, you can imagine that I didn't take too kindly to having to go through so many boxes to find them all. Oh well. I've been putting them up on the door jams and window sills, all around the house (see photo, left, for the view into the foyer from the great room). Before you ask, yes...I do find that I have to use this sticky stuff called Happy Tack to keep the houses from falling from their perches. Although that still happens sometimes, anyway. We call it "Falling Real Estate!" And, let me tell you...those little blocks of wood can hurt if they score a direct hit on your head! (Voice of experience.)
As I said in a previous post, we got the curtains up in all of the rooms, so it doesn't sound so hollow when you walk through the house on the hardwood floors. In addition, the quilts and quilt racks went up this past weekend...which means the house is really starting to feel like our home.
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