Let’s celebrate Epiphany with another now and then retrospective, this time focusing on January 6, 2007 when my study deconstruction begins.
Back in 2004, 2005, and 2006 when Susan and I kept circling back to Rosslyn despite repeatedly concluding that purchasing and renovating Rosslyn was altogether too ambitious for us, the room that would become my study / office was a handsome if austere bedroom. Occupying the northeast quadrant of Rosslyn’s second floor, directly above the parlor (a.k.a. “the green room”), a pair of east facing windows offer an optimism kindling sunrise experience in the morning, ferry rhythms and breathtaking Lake Champlain views all day, and alpenglow pastels painted across Vermont’s Green Mountains at dusk.
This room was one of relatively few spaces that didn’t require ambitious renovation, so early on it became my workspace, a sort of semi dust-free command center for managing day-to-day operations.
And those early days inspired me to reimagine this room as my permanent workspace instead of a bedroom. After all, we only needed so many bedrooms since we have no children. And Susan had already laid claim to her future office adjacent to our future bedroom.
By the time we began deconstructing the previous bedroom in order to transform it into my dedicated workspace I already felt quite at home. Plenty of place for my books and files and stacks of drafts and research. Plenty of stretch-flex room and natural light for my creative endeavors. And plenty of privacy to ensure that Susan wouldn’t lament my untidy workspace tendencies…
And so it is that this room with a view became my study from the winter of 2007 through the summer of 2023.
And I loved it!
But, during our spring 2020 quarantine, the icehouse rehabilitation vision resurfaced after many years on ice. And this time we evolved the plan to include my workspace relocating to the outbuilding and returning the space I’d occupied for years into a guest bedroom.
As of the summer of 2023, with historic rehab of the icehouse complete, this beautiful bedroom became, once again, a bedroom. And what a bedroom it is!
[NB: If you’re feeling like recent posts have covered too much too fast, you’re not imagining things. But don’t worry. Sometimes a quick sketch is best for establishing subject and context. Then come the details, the colors, and the story…]
What do you think?