Quarantine Dreaming

May 25th, 2020

It’s been two and a half months of a quarantine. A really weird, horrible and awful time with so many deaths, people that are sick, tears shed and fear. I watched the news religiously for about a month and then just stopped. I couldn’t take it anymore. How many more people have COVID? What politically incorrect thing was said next by the very people who are in politics that we are supposed to respect? A feeling of anger and sadness and lack of creativity for the very craft I use to make an income took over. I felt like making jewelry for a bit but then all of a sudden I just didn’t feel like making another necklace. I wanted something else to dive into and that’s just what I did. I dove into a cool page on Facebook that I love about living off grid. About having a place to go to that is not big, but rather small and perfect for a getaway. I began to research and found several sites where people buy sheds and convert them into a small living place for a vacation spot. Some would say it’s a tiny house, but not really, it’s a shed, which in itself makes me laugh. I am going to tell a guest, “welcome to my shed!” You buy a shed and convert it into a cool spot to go for a spell. Some live in them. I couldn’t live in such a tiny spot permanently, but I could spend a summer in one.

I wonder if I am a dreamer. My dad didn’t like dreamers. He was practical, but was he? He built his Volkswagens from the ground up. His idea of downtime was working on a project ceaselessly. He loved a project and tried to turn a dream into a reality. He bought a trailer and put it on a 10 acre plot of land hoping to build a house, but that never came to fruition. We went up for several summers and what was he waiting for? He didn’t have the time to build the house that he designed in his head. He only had a month off per year and couldn’t get up to New Hampshire for the time that was needed to build his dream home. Every summer, my mom and I lived in a nice trailer with a huge porch and we utilized that porch to the fullest. The trailer had a full bathroom, a bath and shower, a king size bed and 2 bunkbeds. I loved it. Which then makes me think, my dad might approve of this, not that I need his approval, but I would love to have it because I need his help. I want to buy a plot of land and put a huge wooden shed on it, and you can find some big sheds with lofts and convert them into a space you want. I want to design it and would need someone’s input.

I set up a private page on Facebook with different designs, layouts, grids, things I need to know for a well and what states this works in and interestingly enough, one of the states it works in is New Hampshire. BOOM. Buy an acre, maybe two, but really, all I need is an acre, go into the woods because the lake I love is way too expensive to live near. Maybe near a pond, I could make it happen. One of the sheds I am looking at is $13,000. It is nice. The issue is, I will have to hire someone to do what I want done. I have looked at several people’s shed to cabin homes and asked questions. I love the visions that they put to reality. Full size bathrooms, a loft that they used for their king size bed, a tiny wood burning stove, a deck, some of these places are amazingly nice. The thing that I would most definitely do is build a porch onto it with screens to keep the mosquitoes away. Make that porch a place to dwell in and just stare at the beauty that is the outdoors.

Will I do this? I don’t know. I need to buy a place around here first, but New Hampshire summers are always on my mind and I honestly don’t want my life to be full of what if’s. What if? What if this happens or that happens? Yes, what if it doesn’t work? Well then I will say to myself what my father taught me, “What if it does? You are not a failure unless you don’t try. If you try and fail, you are not a failure, if you don’t try, that is when you fail because fear creates defeat.” Which brings me back to the loft. The loft might not be a good place for a bed for me, but it could be for a guest. I am not getting younger, but the idea of a bed that is next to a nice window that is up above that looks out onto the pond sure does seem serene. And that’s my goal. I grew up in the woods, on a dirt road with a pond that had peepers chirping into the night. “Serenity Now,” will be it’s name. A place I will spend a summer enjoying, working, getting ready for the Annual Craftsmen Fair that I will be a part of for ten days because why not? I could do it. Go big, or go home. I have family nearby that would help and that would be nice. This is me quarantine dreaming. I am deciding where the speakers will go in my 1 or 2 acre getaway with my shed that I turned into a cabin that I will enjoy as I sip my tea and pour some fresh maple syrup onto my gluten free blueberry pancakes while I am looking at the pond where I will live during the summer. Yes, that was a run on sentence that I did on purpose.

Why not? When my Aunt told me last weekend that my cousin turned a caboose into his office in the back of his house, I was like, what? Yes, my cousin has a train caboose that he uses as an office, because he is in advertising, an art I went to Temple U for and he gets his best ideas, best commercial bits while getting away from the house/family in his caboose. Well, alright then. What an awesome idea. While I am at it, why don’t I add more to my quarantine dream…I’ll take a smart single gentleman who is going to help me turn this fun little dream into a reality. We’ll scope it together, go over it together, build it and paint it together and I’ll make us those fresh blueberry pancakes with the maple syrup that happens to be on the one, or two acres of land that “we” own together. That’s more like it. That’s the cherry on top because as much as I could do it alone, honestly, I want the memory of building this dream project with someone special so I can say it’s ours (plural). One is nice, but two is better and I believe this sweet little serene getaway would be better with another together.

You can do a lot of thinking, dreaming, living if given the time. You can decide what you want and what you don’t want and what’s important. I have worn the same clothes this whole time and I am fine with it. I care about the people that are in my life and the memories that are made. And let’s not forget the music that is always playing or being played. Essential living with very little makeup but lots of honest and deep conversation. It’s been about people and places and empty spaces and honestly, I have enjoyed it. Quarantine dreaming, baby. What’s your dream?