Property Daydreams

Summer rolls around and all kinds of out-of-character ideas pop up. I often dream of a little vacation house like this little cabin-in-a-kit. Get-a-way houses are generally in the mountains, near a lake or by the sea shore! This year I'm dreaming of ways to make my own property feel like a vacation spot and it's kind of funny. After all when you are really on vacation you don't have to clean or change the bedding or cook or load and unload the dishwasher. Yikes! I'm not sure how I'm going to pull this off. One idea might be to develop amnesia about household chores. I like that one. Another might be to turn a blind eye to the piles of doggy hair that the dogs are shedding at lightning speed now that the days are turning warmer.

If I had a little cabin like this one down the canyon in our yard I could hide from everyone and maybe then I would feel like I am on holiday. Hmmmmm. We really do have room on our property and I'm thinking that this could be a good idea. I'll need electricity, but we have that already running down there. I want air conditioning, because I'm spoiled by that in the main house. A fountain outside the door could drown out the hum of the traffic below running through Rose Canyon. Nothing will silence the sirens or the groups of motorcycles periodically rumbling down the road, but I can live with that inconvenience.

This idea has legs. We've always wanted to put the land to better use, but as it happens the wind blasts through the canyon and up across our yard. That's why the idea of a pool never quit took hold. I once thought that our neighbors and we could build a huge common pool, but it is just too cold on top of the bluff for a swim most of the time. Besides we live right above an honest-to-God earthquake fault (the Rose Canyon Fault) and I always imagined the pool cracking and the water seeping down onto the broad boulevard below. So the idea of a little hideout is better. Got to get serious about this plan.

In the mean time we are running away for a couple of days this week. We are going to pretend and go to Las Vegas where we can visit Venice, New York and Paris in just 3 days! Quite a bizarre concept, but definitely an affordable break. Then I'll come back and straighten up my office and maybe get moving on my disastrous garage! That will require a pitcher of chilled margaritas I think and several long afternoons.

Summer Projects

When you are a kid the prospect of summer arriving is sort of like waiting for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve or the expectation of getting some great present for your birthday. But when you are the mother of three little kids and you are trying to figure out what to do with them during a summer break, well that is not fun. Nor is the reality of facing a summer without the resources to entertain or educate your kids. If you aren't able to take the traditional summer vacation this year either I can understand feeling kind of grumpy about the summer solstice rolling around and that goes for all ages. I'm irritated because I'd love to be headed for an exotic vacation too.

Instead this year I'm thinking of really tiny goals that don't cost much money. These are mostly items that involve my home and are activities instead of relaxation. First, I would love to re-landscape the back yard but I'm pretty sure that it could eat up $100,000 because it is very large. So instead, I am going to dig up a part of my front yard and plant drought resistant shrubs that bloom. What does that have to do with the backyard you might ask? Absolutely nothing, but if I can coax the front into being as attractive as I can make it by myself then I won't be so discouraged about the wild state of my back lot. I can't do it all at once because of physical issues, but I began tonight by soaking the spot that I have in mind. I want a kind of wild South of France garden and fortunately we share similar climates where native plants of delicious varieties thrive.

Next, I have a garage that is literally dangerous to enter. It holds the remnants of my office and for months I could hardly even look at it. I began to simply toss things on the pile instead of putting items where they belong. Now I have a garage that resembles the people I make fun of on those programs about hoarders. Organizing that disaster is my next goal. I will not be able to clear it out, but I can make an improvement in how it functions. That little bit of progress will be enough for me.

Finally, I need to paint the entrance to our home and dining room of the house. The baseboards are scratched and the paint is worn off thanks to my enormous Labrador Retrievers. This task I think I will leave to the professionals and I will at least begin by getting a quote. Many painters are surviving in these times by accepting smaller projects so I know that they will be grateful for this small project.

Just to prove that I'm not all work oriented another goal for the summer is to get a tan! It's been forever since I've even had the time to sit out in the sun and generally I find it a waste of good time. However this year I'm gifting myself the idea of just sitting outside in my completely destroyed back yard for about 20 minutes an afternoon. It doesn't cost a dime!

Hang Home Office on Wall

Sometimes it's fun to see how little money you can spend in a day or how small a suitcase you can get away with on a trip. Nowadays the suitcase trick is not so much of a lark: You almost have to squeeze everything into a small bag if you want to avoid long lines at the baggage carousel and the prospect of lost luggage. Whether or not minimizing your home office is possible, it sure is appealing to imagine that you could function with this little office!

This particular product - made by a company called Anthro - is called the E-nook Standard. It offers a place to charge your phone too and a small spot for stamps, pencils,or a little calendar. The entire storage assembly closes up like an old-fashioned drop-leaf desk. But this is not your grandmother's desk.

Stand-up computer use likely appeals to a young audience, but older users can charge the laptop before plopping down on the sofa to work it. The idea of hanging your computer station on the wall just like a small piece of art is rather cool. Sadly with the amount of business shrinkage we've all suffered in the past two years the size of this specific home office might be absolutely adequate for far too many people. Entire positions, industries and functions are simply crumbling up and blowing away in a dramatic way. It makes you think of the plaintive images taken by Dorothea Lang during the last Great Depression and Dust Bowl in the middle of America. Our dust is made of the crushed hopes and dreams of millions. We may not be breathing in the grit, but it is affecting our mental and physical health in very serious ways.

We have morphed into a position where many finally have achieved the "paper-less" office that was so talked about in the early 1960s by Herman Miller iconic designers. Offices without walls were the cat's meow and open office planning broke down old stereotypes of how people work together. These days all some high power executives need is a remarkably thin laptop and connection to the Internet. Truly amazing progress unless your office is paper less because your job doesn't exist anymore. Sigh and keep moving ahead.