An unplanned addition

 When we talked about moving, I started sending Mike random pictures of cool reading nooks built in to different houses, saying I wanted a house with one. He kept telling me that he could/would build me one wherever we moved.

Then we bought this old house and just couldn't see a good place to put one, so I was kind-of bummed. 

Most of our projects slowed down or came to a halt through the winter as a lot of time and energy went into cutting, splitting, and stacking firewood, then keeping enough inside by the fireplace, and then keeping a good fire going. We were far more prepared this winter than last, but it's still a lot of physical work to try to keep the house heated with mostly firewood. Plus it's cold outside and gets dark so early. 

So as we started to see signs of spring, Mike came home from a job with a few extra supplies left over or taken out of different jobs he was working on to start building a pantry in the kitchen. He started to put up the wall for the pantry, and then we got to thinking about the other side of the wall. Rather than just put up some drywall, we started thinking about shelves, maybe for coffee cups, decorations, or even books. Then we started envisioning a little reading nook, and the rest is history. We put the pantry on hold while the design Mike saw in his head took shape over the next several days. It still needs a few finishing touches, but he ran out of materials and I ran out of patience to fill it up. He'll finish it up when we have enough materials to finish the pantry on the other side of the wall. Could be a few more weeks, maybe more. But I'm super happy with how my new little reading nook turned out, how it changed the look of the house, and how it just seems to be a perfect fit. It's my official prayer corner and will make a great place to sit and watch the sunrise this summer through the window across the room.

As I watched Mike spend his whole weekend and then his evenings after work making this come together, it made me realize how much I appreciate his craftsmanship, his creativity, and his talent. Sure, there are still a lot of things to be done around the house, but I need to take the time to appreciate his time and effort on this one. He knew it was the one unique thing I really wanted in my house, and he found a way to make it work. Plus it added extra storage space, so now we have the perfect place to store toys for when my nephews or my friends' kids come over.