Home Renovation, Part 2

The next day, they do their house chores and meet at the dining table, as usual.

Everyone was quiet, and looking down, and feeling fatigued.

Prof. Peter stared at the 20 copies of Prof. Haskell's plan of the house.

He stared, stared, and stared at the drawing. They were very, very bored and tired, and just want to lay somewhere nice and cozy together, formally, like sitting on the dining chair, with their arms under their heads at the dining table. The kids snored, and Prof. Peter realises the kids are asleep.

Just for testing, he pulled off a piece of paper, and just TRY to tear a smaller rectangle out of the piece of paper.

He looked at the main hall in the plan, and the rectangle - he thought of the sofa while he was tearing that rectangle and inevitably, it approximates the size of the sofa in relation to the main hall - so he write on it 'sofa' ... just for testing.

Next, he just put the rectangle on the plan. A nice cozy 'sofa', a very light one too. He moved the 'sofa' everywhere, and just assume this 'sofa' can move like a feather. He began putting the rectangle called 'sofa' at various places, places that he could only dream of, and imagine the sofa is placed there - which the sofa currently sits at the other place.

He began musing at what will happen if he put the sofa there. If he put the sofa at the place where the dining table went, well - of course they are going to have a nice cozy time every meal, but he wondered, no table? No table to hold food? They have to hold the plate, and having food fall on their laps? No way that will happen, muses Prof. Peter.

What if the sofa is at the outside? He wondered that, well the children will enjoy being outside and tend to gardening more instead of the small lawn they have now. Well, the living room becomes empty, and looked like a good spot for dining table and chairs. He do not know what can he think more of it, so he put the sofa outside. The sofa - he can barely slide the structure, with cushions of the sofa removed, made a low screeching noise, that the kids awake.

"Dad?", said Blossom.

"Kids, you awake? I want to see whether the sofa is better placed outside.", said Prof. Peter.

The sofa is almost at the edge of the back door. The kids, carefully walking among the cushions, run outside, and help Prof. Peter with hauling the sofa to where Prof. Peter wants. The sofa - hmm... sounds nice to sit. So, he and the kids sit, overlooking the lawn. The breeze of the wind causes the mood of Prof. Peter to further relax. The fresh air, and the clear yellow-ish white light of day reinvirogates a sensation of the wideness of the breadth of the world and its outer space, compared with the microscopically tiny swarm of plantae, animalia and its environs.

Today, they sit, and feel the breadth of life.

Today, they sit, and feel the breadth of their past whittled down.

Today, they sit, and zoned out, and with the eyes closed, slowly pulling inwards towards the the centre of gravity of their mind, and their bodies.

Today, they sit still.

Today, they won't ever stop sitting still, until their migraines phases off little and little, until their brains says: okay, you can go with peace.

So they went, and so the time went by as it has always been, quietly moving on and on and on until everyone is bored.

So, they slowly stand and walk, and view the hall in a new way, like seeing a just abandoned house of others, with its paints and trimmings still fresh and looked like someone maintained them.

So they moved back to their hall, without the sofa.

Prof. Peter give a copy of Prof. Haskell's drawing to the kids and asked them to hold "... and if you don't have any idea what to do with it, just look and store it until you feel you need to do something to your room."

So they moved back to their bedrooms, and they noticed cardboards sterwn over, so they arranged it back neatly and orderly, with care and consideration.

Prof. Peter sits at the dining chair, pulled off a paper, and began drawing his dream main hall space.

He never did those perspective drawings before, but he MUST do it. Want to draw? Yes. Don't want to draw? Still yes.

So Prof. Peter draw, and draw, and draw. He visualised a nice library, and computer at the front portion of the hall, facing the road. A nice university library, an office pantry. The university library! Banal corporate office?! What a darn good space to relax and read books! Prof. Peter thought.

Less design and more functional, but still, there has got to have a touch of care in the small details. Prof. Peter starts wanting wooden floors, wooden chairs, with the table connected on level to the kitchen counter, steel book racks, a wooden computer table directly tucked in the bookcases, a good sturdy steel stool, and a good sofa. He incorporated them in his drawing. The edges of every furniture, yes, the edges has to be smoothened, or else, it will be smoothened anyway. He draw fillets on every corners of the furniture, and made wooden impression onto every furniture except steel stool and steel bookcases, his sofa, and his kitchen.

The kids are bored, and opened the door while Prof. Peter is drawing.

Prof. Peter continue to draw while they looked behind his shoulder.

Prof. Peter said, "Look! See what I see?"

The kids do see what Prof. Peter meant, and they know that this is also what they want. They only nodded.

However, first, Prof. Peter wondered at them, and said, "You know what to do with your bedroom?"

"No. We don't.", said Blossom.

Prof. Peter then wondered, and said, "Wait for me to finish the plan for the main hall, okay?"

"Okay.", said Blossom.

They looked at Prof. Peter drawing with pencil, the layout of the main hall proposal, while looking at the perspective view of the imagined 'library'. Several tries, and Prof. Peter ended the drawing with a black pen.

He denoted the shapes: steel bookcases, sofa, wooden computer table, movable wooden table, kitchen counter, steel stool, wooden chair.

He forgot the carpet. He put a rectangle around the empty gap in the centre of the main hall, and call it 'medium weight office carpet'.

Then, Prof. Peter looked a while at the plan, and he said, "Finished!".

The kids see between the perspective drawing and the plan. It is evident that Prof. Peter left a few discrepancies between the finished plan and the perspective drawing.

Blossom said, "Where is the carpet in the perspective drawing?"

Buttercup and Bubbles only looked at the drawings, wondering what to say.

Prof. Peter said, "Wait, oh no! Yes, yes, oh God... why I have not noticed that before. Have to rectify that." So, he looked at the perspective drawing. "The more I looked at this, the more errors I see. I'll have to take some time to repair this. Sorry kids.", Prof. Peter said. Obviously, he had moved the furniture around several times while in the transition to the plan. He pulled off the second fresh paper and drew back the perspective drawing. Now the drawing and the perspective match.

"Okay, we'll leave these drawings on this table, we'll go to your room. However, before that, I'll check the time."

The time - yeah... - it took him another 5 hours from will-o-wisps to design. Also, it's getting dark. Dark clouds hanging over the sky.

"Well, that's quite bothersome, but we'll sit in your bedroom anyways."

They sit at the centre of the bedroom, and stare, and stare, and stare, until Prof. Peter wondering about the mound of clothes.

"Kids, we'll make boxes first for your clothes."

So, he takes a measuring tape, some papers, and pencil. He tell the kids to stand as if they are taking their clothes from the imaginary box. He recorded the imaginary box's height, length and width. Next, he chooses the cardboards that approximately fit within imaginary box dimensions within a medium tolerance. Prof. Peter had to get all their clothes first.

"The clothes may have dried. I'll go out and save them.", Prof. Peter said. So, he goes outside and take all the clothes. He took two trips to empty the clothes line. The rain began when Prof. Peter began taking the final set of dried clothes on the clothes line. He put the clothes in his bedroom, where there is space for dried clothes ready.

The rain began.

The kids did the boxes themselves.

Blossom lift up the box, and her clothes fell, as the box is not secured.

Blossom said, "We should glue the bottom of the box."

Bubbles and Buttercup tested with Blossom, and they agreed silently.

So they glued with white glue. The bottom of the box has been glued, albeit messily. They've got glue on their hand.

Blossom tried to put the clothes back. Buttercup said, "Blossom, we should wash our hands and wait for the glue to settle." So they did, and wait. Prof. Peter just come back from the clothes line. "How you're doing, kids? Woah, looks like you did the box yourself! Keep it up!", Prof. Peter said.

Prof. Peter said, "I think we should rest, kids. I have my work to do, so, maybe you want to be in my bedroom, see me work?"

Blossom said, "I'm not so sure about that. Bubbles, Buttercup, you want to be with Dad?"

Bubbles said, "No.", Buttercup said, "No."

Blossom said, "Dad, we just wanted to rest in our bedroom."

Prof. Peter said, "Alright kids, I'll go to my bedroom. If you need my help, please call me in my bedroom. I'll put up a sign at the front of my bedroom door if I'm away."

So they rested for the remainder of the day, and Prof. Peter worked and worked until night, and he prepare to sleep and he slept. The kids - their matresses and their blankets are made of cardboard.

The End.

The euphoria and banality of design, 'make do with what you have', and the art of sitting still from author's personal account.