The Jar Closet

The big project underway this week has been the girls' transformation of the jar closet into a hideout. The jar closet is a Harry Potter-esque closet underneath the basement stairs--fairly spacious, but not tall enough to stand at full height. There are some rudimentary shelves in there, and it's where we store all our jars. To be clear: this is nothing more than a way station for items that should absolutely be in the recycling bin but are, instead, being saved (by me) for potential future use. This is what happens when you live in a very, very large old house. Every nook is assigned some use, and then filled. 

So. The kids have wanted to claim this space for a while, and I'd promised them they could do it during the summer. This week they emptied all the jars out of the closet and then swept and cleaned it. Did we put the jars in the recycling? We did not. We simply boxed them up and put them into the walk-in safe, which is now a safe / jar closet. You might wonder, at this point, if our house is TOO big. The answer is obviously no. It is exactly as big as a quasi-hoarder like me needs it to be. You'd never even know I'm a hoarder because everything is tucked away, perfectly organized. You need a tiny jar? A huge jar? An empty liquor bottle in a cool shape? Some spare canning lids? I got you. It's all perfectly harmless as long as we never move.

ANYHOO. I was in the ER during some of this project, but Andrew took the kids to Home Depot to pick out a paint color, and they've been working on the painting all week. Lucia finished the floor today, so by tomorrow they should be able to start decorating. They have grand plans. 

It's pretty funny that we have a beautifully finished basement, and each girl has a spacious bedroom with her own bathroom, and we have a spectacular library with comfortable places to read, and yet...the space they're most excited about is a closet under the stairs. It's going to be pretty magical, to be honest. Their haunted dolls will be residing there.

It's been a nice weekend--a welcome respite after a pretty unpleasant week. Friday Andrew went to a baseball game and Lucia had three friends over for pizza and hanging out. Saturday we went to Connellsville for the day--first a trip to Gabe's and then the St. Rita's street fair for food and games. Today Andrew and I had brunch with friends in the morning then went to the farmer's market. Greta went to a birthday party and had a friend over for the afternoon--we all went up to the pool for a few hours and hung out with friends there. Throughout, I basked in the happiness and relief of my new job, and Andrew worked on unloading the Pod that came up from Florida with the furniture he wanted from his parents' house. It was a social, busy, fun weekend.