Home Furnishing

  OK, so all four walls are on, everything's sealed up nice and tight...but what's inside?

  One of the neatest things about climbing out of such a deep, dark hole is that every tiny improvement on the living condition seems HUGE and WONDROUS!  Like, a HARD ROOF!

  Oh, bet I forgot to mention...I got a job, started the first of September 2009, as a baker at a local mom and pop donut shop.  That paid for a lot of the finishing touches...like why the tarps on the front of the house all match!  It also paid for the gas to run back and forth to Columbus, bringing down bits and pieces of our former life.  
 First of all, there are NO interior walls.  A space this small didn't need to be divvied up any further, and after 30 years of marriage, we're not shy around each other.  We started with a donated carpet that we put down in the 'bedroom' third of the structure.  It's a nice hunter green.  One of our country neighbors donated an ancient metal kitchen table (HUGE) that we kept plastic table cloths on, it held my small wooden spice cabinet, dish pans, water jug and various and sundry clutter.  Oh, and we put a full length mirror sideways along the top of the table, and a kerosene lamp.  The mirror reflected the light.
  We have a very old freestanding wooden cupboard that we bought at a second hand store so long ago I don't remember exactly when.  That's where our two burner propane camp stove went, with dishes and canned goods in the cupboard itself.  Dry goods and pots and pans were kept in big 'rubbermaid' type tubs under the table.  We had a cooler we used to keep a very limited amount of cold food cold....hauling ice was problematic sometimes.  So that was it for the kitchen, to begin with.  No wind blowing out the stove burners!!! No rodents all over the table every night!  WOW!
  With that evidence of the tightness of our construction, I bravely let go of the tent.  (we were still sleeping in it, inside the structure, till I knew I wasn't going to have mousies in bed with me)  We took our futon out of the tent, took it outside and used it for storage.  The futon was centered with the 'head' at the east wall.  During the day or for company it could (can) be folded up and covered with a quilt, for a low seat or just to create more floor space.  (it's not on any kind of frame, just the futon on the carpeted floor.)
  One of the first things we brought down was our Mother Earth News magazine collection, and the wooden boxes they live in.  They're about
15" x 15" x 28", and fit nicely under the windows to the south, lying 'long way'.  We brought down my dad's chest of drawers, my grandma's oak bookcase (and the BOOKS that go in it!), and Bob's mom's mudroom wardrobe.  Joy!  Rapture!  no more digging through a duffel bag!  Something to READ!  So the wardrobe and chest go in the bedroom third, the bookcase in the living room third. Oh, we also brought down all the rest of our oil lamp collection, which brought us up to four standard hurricanes and a tiny brown one that we used as a night light.
  About this time my boss recarpeted the restaurant, and gave me the leftover scraps of carpet, a nice speckled dusty blue indoor/outdoor.  It wasn't enough to actually cover the floor, but it was enough to do the open floor area.  Ooo, warmer tootsies!  
  We quickly recognized the need for more storage, and thought about options.  One was to put a second pole across the south at the height of the north wall (roughly seven feet) and run 'rafters' across, then some kind of planks or plywood to support storage.  We got as far as the pole and one rafter, at the bedroom divider point.  Turns out that's all we needed.  Four boards of tongue and groove 'car panel' wood 8' long on the south side created a really large (26 sq. ft) storage area for off season clothes, suitcases, things like that.  Wow, look how much less clutter!  We can move around!  A country neighbor salvaged an apartment full of furniture and said "I want this, this and this, the rest is going on the bonfire next month, take what you want".  I salvaged and repaired a small bookcase, and we were able to liberate a few more of our poor friends stuck in a dark box in a damp basement.  We put up some shelves above the bookshelf in the living room for general storage (read 'clutter').  Brought down another small bookshelf that we use in the bath room to hold medicines, cleaning supplies, denture tablets, things like that.  I made a curtain to cover the front.  The bathroom itself was a bucket for pee, a bedside commode for poop, the end of the kitchen table for washbasins.  No more hiking to the outhouse except to empty the bucket! No more bathing outside!  Sweet!
  We brought down a small oak bedside dresser, used it in the kitchen to store silverware, cooking utensils, wraps and bags, and water bottles.
No more rooting through a plastic box to find a knife!  Excellent!
  We set up a small, corner type wire stand (I guess it was intended to be for potted plants?) in the kitchen, to have a place to put a hot coffee pot or tea kettle, and store the can of coffee and cocoa and creamer and sugar.
  We have a small wire patio table that we had been using in camp, brought it and a couple resin chairs in, covered the table with a round tablecloth, put a lamp in the middle, some cushions in the chairs, bits of new indoor outdoor carpet from my boss...presto!  Someplace to sit in comfort, eat a meal, read a book, do a crossword puzzle!
  It's at about this point that the ancient old Plymouth Voyager finally gave its last gasp.