I now have access to a large room in our house that I can turn into a space for me.  This is something that I have looked forward to for some time, but am also a bit saddened by its availability.  You see, my daughter has moved out, which is why this room is now available.  She's 18 years old and believed that we were the evil parents that were holding her back from realizing her full potential, so she has moved into a house with a friend and the friend's mom.  Somehow she thinks that will be better, and maybe it will.

Personally I don't think she has all of the knowledge or skills necessary to go fight the battle of life on her own, but I'm pretty sure I didn't either when I left home at about the same age.  Like her, I thought I did, and when I was presented with obstacles that proved I could've used a bit more of dad's wise advice, I either asked the question of him, or I figured it out on my own.  Either way I began the process of learning to fend for myself and have become successful in many ways since.  My daughter will do the same, I'm sure.

Now, back to this available room.  It's the attic space of our house and is fairly large, maybe about 500 square feet.  Right now it needs to be painted so that it is not the abstract colors and designs that my daughter had made it.  She's an artist and prefers things to be out of the ordinary, which was fine when it was her space and I didn't have to look at it.  Now it is a place I intend to use, so it needs to calm down some and be much neater.

There are too many paint choices in the world and I have asked for my wife's help in choosing one, or two, but haven't landed on any yet.  My wife has some ideas on what to do with the space that are somewhat different than mine, which I'll get into later, but one thing that we must agree on is a color choice and scheme.  The house is ours, not mine, and it is important that we both like to be in any space without thinking about changing the color.

Of course painting it won't make much sense if the room's use hasn't been identified yet.  I would hate to get it painted and then have to construct walls or do any reconfiguration.  My wife believes we should have part of it as a spare bedroom for guests.  We seldom have guests, but I guess she is hopeful that if we build it, they will come.  If nothing else, maybe we could rent it out and make a few bucks--NOT!

The room is big enough for 2 purposes, but would need to have a division created so that I can use it even if we do have guests.  This means either a removeable divider or a permanent wall.  I'm aiming for something removeable so it can be the large space when we want it to be and be something smaller when needed.  This also helps with the ventilation aspect as the heat vents are only on one side of the room.

There are overhead lights in the room that I intend to change, but still plan to use lamps for creating a relaxed atmosphere.  I enjoy meditation and overhead lights aren't really condusive to good meditation experiences.  There are plenty of outlets in the room, so finding some lamps at garage sales or thrift stores should do the trick.  (these are great places to find things if you're looking for a certain item, but not if you're going just to look and buy things you don't really need)

I guess I am kind of figuring this space out as I write this Xombyte.  Putting it down in writing is helping me to think it through and determine what it is that I really want to get out of this new-found space.

With the walls determined and the lighting determined, I guess it would be ok to choose that color scheme and get the room painted.  I'm thinking something dark and manly.  My wife seems to have chosen some light and airy colors.  We may have some negotiating to do.

The floor is painted wood right now, which I like (or will when it's painted a better color and evenly).  I'm thinking a large area rug for comfort and sound deadening.  We tend to agree on this, though we haven't discussed the rug material, shape or pattern yet.  That should be fun--NOT!

One of my most exciting reasons for capturing this space is to have a quiet space to write where everyone knows to leave me to my thoughts for that time period.  Right now I write wherever I am and sometimes get interrupted simply because it doesn't look like I'm doing anything important.  I want a space where I can say that whatever I'm doing while in that space is important (even if it's not).

Now that I've written out my thoughts on what to do with this space, I believe I'll turn this into a bit of a series, possibly with pictures, to show the project from start to finish.  When I finished our basement into our Master Suite, I did not take enough pictures along the way to show the progress and now I wish I had those pictures.

I hope you enjoy the story as I go about creating my writing/meditation/guest room.

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