Creative Spaces

  It's been a bit chilly in our sunroom lately, but not as chilly as when I wrote the post below. Two years later, the room is finished, and still my favorite space in the house. The tree stands in the same place, twinkling with either multicolored lights or white lights, depending on who's sitting in the sunroom. (I prefer white lights and my husband prefers multicolored and, sometimes, twinkling).

Oh, and my office? No longer doorless.

Virginia Woolf famously said that “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” 

Those of you who are regular readers know that my favorite "room," is not one of my own but, rather, a screened-in porch at one of the condos we rent at the beach. For a while now, my husband and I have been dreaming of putting a sun porch on the back of our house (we've also been dreaming of a beach house, but that's another story). Though this sun porch wouldn't be at the beach, it would be ours and it would have windows and heating and cooling so we could enjoy it year-round.  

And now we've done it. I'm typing this post from that new space, with our Christmas tree lit up just a few feet away. Friday's post came from this same space, but it was pre-tree, before it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas. There's still work to be done (as you can see from the insulation just behind the angel on the tree) but it's finished enough that we can sit out here to read, talk, dream...

And write. 

This space, at least four times the size of my little office and with a much more expansive view, is a great place for brainstorming. Quiet and uncluttered, it's like the environmental equivalent of a blank sheet of paper, with space for many and varied ideas, even if they don't quite hang together yet. With decor-to-come in quiet grays and serene blues, it's a space of many possibilities.

Though it's not at the beach, it's more accessible and I've already put a few beachy touches in place. A jar of shells rests on the window sill and the beach-themed decorations my husband got for my birthday have found a place of honor as well. And, when it's all finished, a wooden rope-and-flip-flop wall hanging will be the first decoration to grace the walls. 

Some covet hot tubs and swimming pools. I covet screens. And the windows, ceiling fan and HVAC unit that make my screened-in space more than a short-term summer locale. Oh, and a door. (One key component that my little office lacks).

It may not quite live up to the Virginia Woolf quote, but I have no complaints. Between my office and this new space, I have a place to hunker down and work, and a place to dream.

What more could a writer ask for?