Rolling Barn Doors

This was published as a cheap "do it yourself" barn door treatment.  The reason I like this?  Well, I don't have any flat, tall walls for a design surface in the upstairs sewing room (where I have been intending to move for almost 2 years now) and I had thought that a rolling design wall instead of closet doors would be interesting.  The doors here would be flannel covered wall boards in my room.  Of course, that means a structure for the flannel boards to be attached to.  I like the little wheels at the bottom.  Instead of the many hundreds of dollars the real barn door hardware costs--this was made from stuff in the plumbing department of Home Depot.  Pipe.  Hooks.  I don't think I would need the door handles.  Roller feet.  And I can still get into the closet to choose fabrics.

The ceiling in my future workspace dips south around where the guitar and bookshelf is in this photo.  BUT. The closet continues, behind the drywall, into the dip.  Wasted space.  I think we could open it up and install book shelving there.  Or deeper shelving to hold the big storage containers of fabric.  Dry wall is the one area of construction that G and I have never touched before.  In 44.5 years together.  Another potential hiccup, the deep pile carpet we had installed in this room.  We'd need big enough wheels to roll over the carpet.  I'm thinking only one panel.  Not two.  And the pipe system could extend onto the ceiling.  Because the closet wall ends on the left side of the closet.  As I said.  I have no full walls to work with.  No full ceiling. Lots of windows.  Skylights.  Half walls.  It's an attic room.

I do have tons of natural light, a full bathroom and cable.  The only unfortunate element in this new workspace is the dog.  Riley doesn't like me going upstairs --to stay.  He does like going upstairs to get something and bring it back downstairs.

I am supposed to get my very first Social Security check in a few days.  And yet another edition of my Social Security card.  That makes three.  All this paperwork must keep seniors on their toes.  G had a doctor's appointment this month, before our Advantage Plan takes over in February, so he used his Medicare card for the first time.  No problems.

I thought I would give you a report on our first month of retirement.  All the bills are paid and I have some money left over.  Most of those funds were carryover from G's pay checks.  We have done a number of household projects (the kitchen cabinets, the flooring, the office cleanup) with no expenditures.  G feels he would be better occupied if it was warmer outside, as there are things to do outside.  We eat a large breakfast whenever we get up and then another meal around 4:30 to 6 depending on what we are doing.  I have been doing all the cooking and even though the credit card bill I just paid had five restaurant meals on it, we haven't eaten out in the past three weeks.

 I have calmed down and realize we will be just fine.  We had learned to live on a lot less while G was working as a McD's restaurant manager the past four years.  A lot less.  So the hard part of the transition had already occurred without me noticing.  I had imagined we would have to live on a lot less than we were used to, but that isn't true.  The unknown is often scarier than the actuality.

We aren't getting on each other's nerves.  I haven't gotten much done besides looking for work for the unemployment Work Search.  That's almost a full time job in itself.