Before Margo and I married, we had already contracted with an architect, bought a block of land, and began designing our first house. This would fulfil a shared, lifelong, dream of building our fantasy home. A fresh start. A bold design and a place that we would transform from an empty piece of land into a home that would provide both. the escape from business and become a space to entertain employees, business associates and most of all, family. The overriding element in the design featured two separate guest suites, each with en-suite and a separate room to relax and to look out on the fabulous ever-changing Colorado landscape.
It was an ambitious project that began in March 1999 and where we first took occupancy on July 4, 2000 but had to wait another year for the house to be fully built-out – our master bedroom suite being the last room to be finished. As for the two suites, these were included as we wanted to provide my parents an away-from-Sydney home – they would visit for a month or more each year – and another for Margo’s mother. And that’s where the story took a turn. On visiting the new home, Margo’s mom expressed her dislike. Not just of her suite but of me, as well. “Where’s the public transport? And, he doesn’t even understand Polish poetry.” As my parents got older, and more fragile, eventually they could not commit to visiting us every year, in fact, their last visit dated back to 2004, I recall.
We
entertained the board of the Tandem / Nonstop International Tandem User Group -
ITUG. Unfortunately, it was the weekend, February 1, 2001, of Earnhardt’s fatal
crash on the final lap of the Daytona 500 which quickly became the topic of the
evening. Fast forward a couple of years to where the occasion was entertaining
the board of the IBM User Group - SHARE.
In between, we hosted company functions, including those for partners
both large and small where the outside kitchen came into play. Of course, too,
there was never a month where we didn’t welcome our own folks from the company
Margo then managed, Insession Inc.
Selling both the home of Margo (Saratoga, CA) and mine (Boulder, CO) together with the sale of Insession Inc. to ACI (Omaha, NE), allowed us to dive deeply into our fantasy home but once the build was finally completed, we both realized we had a passion for interior design. Who would have guessed? At this point, our home covered 13,000 square feet with five bedrooms, nine bathrooms plus a steam room, two offices, three kitchen areas (including outside full kitchen) and a theater in the home. Much of this has been described in previous posts.
However, what we were recently reminded of was how only a few items have been with us through the changes of address – a circular rug, that was a piece of art, being the most prominent keepsake of them all. For us, a thing of beauty that was so soft to touch. When it came time to seriously consider downsizing, as our company situations changed dramatically and our circle of business acquaintances shrunk, our home took more than two years to sell as the Boulder, Colorado, housing market preferred homes of a lesser size. When an offer finally came, it included the request for nearly every piece of furniture with only our artwork escaping the sale. The rug was artwork so it came with us, as well as all of our paintings.
Downsizing
takes many forms as priorities dictate certain key elements. Moving from the
city of Niwot to the city of Windsor and from Boulder County to Laramie County
had its challenges. Moving from a vista spanning the Colorado front ranges with
Longs Peak as a focal point for all street-facing windows, to a golf course
development (where neither Margo nor I played golf), gave us an opportunity to
buy into a new development only a matter of months after the first of its planned
buildings began. At first it was pleasant enough, covering 2,500 square feet
with two bedrooms and a study but the upside was that the basement was
unfinished. By the time we completed a build-out of the basement, we had almost
5,000 square feet with covered patios, an outside bar and separate dining room.
Clearly, as we have learnt, downsizing is definitely in the eye of the
beholder.
Once
again, though, we set about furnishing our house, turning it into our home. The
artwork was quickly deployed and, surprising our neighbors, the overall style we
pursued was far removed from the typical Colorado timber dwelling popular among
our neighbors. We were very much focused on a contemporary style and
integrating contemporary, with just a sprinkling of the more traditional
Colorado style, seemed to work out well. In time, here was an almost constant
stream of visits from family, friends and neighbors and where cocktail hour
became an occasion that our close neighbors (who became good friends) knew all
too well.
Of
course, on the main floor, that treasured rug took center stage. Where other
home owners may have been tempted to squeeze in yet another dining space, given
how we already had a dining room adjacent to the kitchen as well as an outside,
covered dining space (heavily used in the summer) we went in a different
direction. No need then for a third space, especially as we had a kitchen bar
where Margo and I ate when we were dining by ourselves. We are very much into
curtains as accent pieces and, for our new Windsor home, there was not a window
not covered and while, for some, curtains don’t become a priority, for Margo
and me, they are perhaps the most important aspect of home decorating.
What is a constant retort, after viewing photos is whether or not we had staged the house for the purposes of photographing rooms. It comes then as a shock to hear that this is how we live, or as I recently acknowledged, this is “how we roll.” Given that both of us cannot tolerate a mess or a glass or plate out of place, it’s fortunate to our family well-being that it is something we both agree upon. No towels lying about and no dishes ever left in the sink. And we can’t recall there ever being a situation where we didn’t clean up before retiring at the end of a night of entertainment.
The travels of that artistic rug are symptomatic of our passage through life. We have worked together for three decades and yet, we still find ourselves working almost shoulder to shoulder even to this day. As I type this post, for the moment I am alone but be assured, as with the editing of all previous posts falls to Margo, she will be reviewing this post and if past experience counts, I am always anxious to see what survives the red editing tool! Long before WFH – work from home – became a thing, we have been doing exactly that for two decades. Leaving the careers we had when we moved into Niwot where we both worked for the same corporation, and going in separate directions meant we ended up working in different cities. Gravitating to a WFH lifestyle just came as a natural outpouring of that change.
There
was another home in between Niwot and Windsor. Five years before we left Niwot
we had bought a “Class A,” diesel-pusher RV – a 38-foot monster measuring
almost 40 feet. For most of its life you would have seen it towing a car
trailer with one car or another in tow. Without any need to pass further
driving tests or to have endorsements added to our driver’s license, with
trailer in tow and being less than 65 feet (we were about 61 feet in total), we
could happily travers the countryside. And we did. Once driving from Santa
Barbara, California to North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
There
was a rug, but being more of a utility living environment, that treasured
artistic rug was never deployed in the RV. Rather, a simple rectangular wool
rug we rolled out onto the RV passageway, was preferred whenever it came time
to set up camp. Why this reference made it into this post is that, underneath
the chair I am sitting while typing this post, is that same rug. Again, the
only item we retained after selling the RV five years after moving into our Windsor
home.
For
three months in 2017 we were essentially homeless, living out of our RV. It was
an adventure already covered in posts of that year. Living in about four
hundred square feet wasn’t challenging it turned out, but it was an eye-opener
of sorts as to just how much space is needed to be truly happy. Living in
America often has folks missing out on the essentials. We were not able to hang
any artwork or take decorative items aboard as we crisscrossed the country.
Just the rug we purchased for the purpose. We viewed our lifestyle as being
close to that of gypsies. We even fell in love with the Jimmy Buffett song,
Gypsies in the Palace, which pretty much summed-up our feelings at the
time.
Our
involvement with industry associations and user groups proved to be a strange
way to find a home. But it happened. The RV long gone, our Windsor home sold as
we both were struggling with the altitude and, for me in particular, the lack
of a water view, we were homeless. We hit the road, as we are wanting to do at
times like this, and headed for vendor user group meetings in Atlanta and Tampa
only to find that both had been cancelled. Atlanta was not a city we wanted to
hang around but Florida? What do you reckon; possible new location?
We
felt let off-the-leash, in a manner of speaking, as, in the interim, we had
bought a condo in Longmont, Boulder County, Colorado. We were very fortunate to
have a family member looking to sell so we stepped in and became the new owners
of a 1,500 square foot, three-level, condo. Looking for something more
permanent and yes, living in Florida comes with a much lower altitude and a
better attitude with no state income tax, could we find ourselves living in the
best of both worlds? The sea and the mountains? Somewhere away from the snow of
Colorado and the Hurricanes of Florida?
It
was on the return trip from those cancelled user meetings that we stopped by
the Florida panhandle where we came across Latitude Margaritaville Water Sound
(LMWS). Seeing a sign pointing to Gypsie Palace Court seemed to be more than a
sign to a place as it was a sign to something new. We build yet another home
from scratch, this time barely 2,500 square feet but it did come with a lanai,
and a pool and spa, all under a protective “birdcage” screen.
And
for the past three months we were back at it, designing the interior. It is now
almost complete and there you will find, in the center of the main living room that
treasured round rug that has been with us through all of our transitions for
almost thirty years. For now, we have shaken a few cocktails with neighbors here
in Florida, and stopped by to chat with some interesting car folks, but the rug
reminds us of just one thing; art should never be too far away and the absence
of beauty, no matter the excuse, is something totally alien for Margo and me.
But
at last, we have a sense that this rug too has come to its last stop and
digging our toes into the softness of its wool finish, is every bit as symbolic
of us, as together with the rug, we are aging gracefully together in spaces we love
to visit in our own home!
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