It all started with a birthday gift ...

Well, that's not quite true. It didn't really start with the birthday gift, but that's as good an excuse as any, I think.

Years ago, while I was still a working stiff, John and I talked about building an extension onto the house.

You see, this house is very small. When John designed and built it, he was living alone -- not planning on ever having anyone sharing it with him.

Then along came moi.  And he just couldn't resist cleaning out that proverbial "sock drawer." (I warned him!  Everyone knows what happens once that sock drawer is offered.)

We married less than two years after that, and now -- thirteen years later, the house simply isn't big enough!

But when we talked about enlarging it all those years ago (we even had the builder on board, the plans just shy of finished, and were about to "go"), I pulled the plug on the project because I was afraid of the debt load (I hate owing money!).

Had we done it then, it would have been paid for long ago.

And now, I really need my own space.

John has his own space (lots of it, if you consider the areas of the house to which I daren't venture for fear of what I might find in his "mess" of hunter-related paraphernalia).

We've been sharing the office space -- one side of the room is mine; the other is his.

My computer and two printers (including the fax machine) and extensive genealogical materials occupy the "neat" side of the room.

His two computers and two printers and two scanners and myriad photo equipment occupy the "cluttered" side of the room.

I have developed the habit of doing most of my computing from the living room on my laptop (since we now have wireless internet access throughout the house) because I find that John functions much better if I'm not in the room.

Why?

Because it would seem that as soon as I show up downstairs, he can't seem to do anything on his computer.

The questions come at me in a barrage so fast that I can't do anything that I need to do, so I try to finish as quickly as I can and get on back upstairs to leave him to his own devices.

He manages much better if I'm not there.  Somehow, he finds his way through quite nicely if Bonnie is not there to solve the problems for him -- funny how that works, isn't it?

In a nutshell, as he himself put it when I described the problem, he is "kind of demanding."  He is also quite computer needy and it prevents me from doing what I need to do.

Essentially, I have no space that's mine.

So our discussion turned to that extension that we almost built several years ago.

I'm no longer afraid of the debt-load because in the years since I retired, I've managed to save a significant chunk of change and I've been looking for somewhere to invest it.  (The high-yield GICs in which the money had been placed recently matured, and interest rates aren't high enough to entice me back just yet.)

I've been advised that real estate is a good investment. Soooooooooooo, if I should put my money into real estate, why not put it into my own real estate, where I can personally benefit?

So I broached the topic with John -- I need my own "sanctuary," for lack of a better description.

He keeps nagging me that I should write a book, or many books -- I have so many stories to tell (many of which have already been "written," they just need to be developed and shopped around).

I keep telling him that I need my own space in which to work on projects like that.

And then came the birthday present.

For my birthday, I received a beautiful set of nesting boxes.  The people who gave them to me explained that they thought I could use them in my office.

"What a wonderful idea," I thought.  Problem is, there's simply no room in my current office.

Which led to the discussion about my need for my own space.

Which led to our current plans to go forward with that extension that we didn't build all those years ago.

The new room, which will be approximately 18' x 12', will extend out the back of the house, off the kitchen, and will be accessed through what is now our walk-in pantry (which will have to be altered significantly).  It will contain a proper closet (which this house is sadly lacking) so there will be some juggling of clothing storage, and will be large enough to double as an occasional guest room (something we currently cannot offer to anyone).

We will first have to call in the bulldozer to do some landscaping (take out trees etc, -- our "woods" keeps getting smaller and smaller).

John can't wait for me to move out of the existing office because the space I'm currently occupying will be converted to a studio -- something he's been wanting for a long time (I had no idea I had been so seriously impinging on his dreams all these years!).

We are both quite excited about the project, each for our own reasons.

So I must say a great big thank you to B&FK and K&AK for the very thoughtful birthday gift -- I'm sure they had no idea what they were instigating when they made that choice!