My, My, Look At The Time!

A whole year has passed and the time was chocked full of cat care, Youtube videos, ballet classes, and major home renovation here. Exactly a year ago, by several acts of God, Paul and I were able to buy the house we had been renting for five years (saving us from another move, thankfully). And the journey/transformation from lifelong renter to homeowner has been profound.

Not only that, but because the house is a grand ol' 104-year-old dame in great shape for her age with many original features, loads of character, and much else to recommend her, she needed a substantial amount of retrofitting, strengthening, and sprucing up.

I became a bit of a general contractor for about 10 different types of crews through the year-long process and have learned a lot about building and finishing.

It's wrapping up now, with me putting the rooms back together and doing last minute touch-ups that were too much detail to ask workmen to do. Halfland readers will not be surprised to hear I went into too much detail.

We added a floor of storage to the top of the building when a secret attic was discovered by a handyman who crawled up into what everyone thought was a crawlspace only to discover it was a pristine antique attic with 9' ceilings and gave us hundreds of square foot of storage for sets and materials. Now the main floor has much needed elbow room.

Our eldest cat, Isabella, passed away this week, so we are now a household with three cats. Her memorial post coming with a tender tribute. She went well in the end.

Even though I could scream and cry over not doing any art of any kind all year and watching the cats use 1/2L set pieces forced to lay on the floor as litterboxes the last few months, I still took the time to take every ballet class from my master teacher to take advantage of his being alive and giving so much to students at every level, in how to dance and how to live well as a developed person.

I realize that in order to dance well, better than I could before, I have to set aside the me that I know and move into an alternate approach toward the movement. It's like wearing my teacher's larger ego in my mind rather than my own.

I have video of the ridiculously cluttered crammed chaos we've been living in for the year during construction as well as after shots of spaces put back together in order and elevated.

Ready to go back into Halfland filming with determination, clarity, and greater strength, fam.

What have you been doing???