The Craftiest Workshop

I am spending a couple weeks at my parent’s house. For the last few years, when I have visited, I have tried to do a few tasks that are getting harder for them to manage.

My younger brother showed up for a surprise visit so we decided to tackle a larger project. We wanted to move a queen sized bed out and a double bed in to the room where my dad sleeps. He needs more room to get out of bed and walk around it to get out of the room. The extra space will also help my mom when she is assisting him to get dressed.

As we were moving furniture, we thought we should take the opportunity and tear out the rug at the same time. This rug has been in their room at least fifty years and it was an off white rug. When we pulled up the rug, the foam backing cracked and some turned into powder. Some of the black foam backing stuck to the oak(?) hardwood underneath but we were able to gently scrape it off with a putty knife. There were a few spots with water damage from over the years but overall the floor was in good shape after fifty years under a rug.

With the double bed in and the larger dresser/vanity moved out, there is more room to move around. The floors really brighten up the room.

The rug and crumbling backing went into an old fitted sheet to more easily carry it out of the house. My brother took it home as they had garbage pick up the next day.

Another task my mom and I tackled was going through the things in the closet in dad’s bedroom. We sorted through all the clothes in the closet. He definitely doesn’t need ten turtlenecks anymore. He is pretty much just staying home now so he just needs comfortable warm clothing There were six suit jackets all in really good shape; my favourite a vintage brown plaid likely from the 1970’s. My brother Greg likes to wear jacket and tie to work as a teacher so he might claim the jackets for his wardrobe.

At the top of the closet was a box of hunting stuff. Dad used to go hunting for moose when we were growing up. There was also this unopened can of military food rations circa 1950’s in there.

We found this lovely bowler hat that I wish I could convince Chris to wear. There was also this hat for the Senior Center choir made out of foam; it may get sent to the town museum.

My dad had worked on the CNR for years and had kept much of the union paperwork, pay stubs and manuals from the many years he worked for them. Some of the older things we will show my niece’s husband who currently works for CN; he might find them interesting.

We also found two photographs from the late 1950’s of two women. Perhaps they were old girlfriends as it was before my dad met my mom. Dad seemed to have no recollection of who was in the photo even with the name on the back of one.

There was a large envelope with a family history booklet in it that a distant relative had put together in 2002. I had never seen this version before. The ancestry went back a couple more generations than I knew about and had more first hand stories added in. It was an interesting read.

Just that one closet told me quite a bit about my dad and the things he treasured years ago.

The last bigger job I tackled was moving income tax boxes to a lower shelf and sorting through the boxes to make sure that the labels matched what was inside. I found some tax papers from the 1980’s and 90’s as well as some utility bills from the early 1980’s. The monthly water bill was only $23 and we had eight people living in the house then!

Sorting and organizing is one job that I enjoy doing so I was happy to help.
Getting the closet and tax boxes sorted are two tasks off my mom’s list of things she wanted done.