the january cure : assignment three.

the assignment:

Find a spot in your home that you rarely (maybe never!) sit in that gives you a view on a room or area that you feel is especially problematic. Take a seat on a chair (or the floor) and just observe for ten minutes. Turn off TV, radio, music and your phone - this is a quiet exercise and is most effective with focus and concentration.

1. Look around the room and try to imagine what it would look like empty. Recall what it was like when you moved in.

2. Once you have done that, focus on whatever part of the room that you feel is the most problematic and imagine removing the "stuff" from that area - furniture, belongings, everything. Now, start rebuilding that area, adding back in only what feels right and looks good in your minds eye.

3. Make note of what changes you envision and move forward with some additional clarity about how you truly want your home to be; what you need and what you can move forward without.

i made james do this with me, and we picked the master bedroom. despite the mess the guest bedroom and office are in, we've discussed at length what we want to do in those rooms, but our own bedroom - not so much. right now it's a boxspring and mattress, two dressers and a short/wide bookshelf, and two temporary nightstands (because we're having a harder time finding and deciding on nightstands than we were with the coffee table).

things we know we want: more closet space, built-in! and a direct entry into the master bathroom (making it an en suite, please). new lighting. a five-panel door. no more yucky carpet. all sort of obvious things we agree on. the problem is, the room itself isn't that big. and what we learned is that neither of us is in any sort of agreement about how to go about getting the things we want into the room.

so in the end, we are in real agreement about nothing, but it's good that we've finally started talking about it.