I do my best work in the bathroom

One thing I've learned after reading all of these books about "not so big" houses and well-designed houses is that with a little bit of creativity you can often repurpose your existing spaces to make them suit your needs. Sometimes that means adding a wall of desk and bookshelves to a dining room and turning it into a dining room/library. Sometimes that means putting curtains around beds in rooms where kids share to give each child some private space. In my house, it means turning the bathroom into an office.

It sounds totally insane, I know. But I have this big long built-in vanity in the master bathroom, and it's empty. I'm not much of a makeup girl (and Maren's current obsession with lipstick means that any makeup I do have does not go in the vanity), but it's got great lighting, a stool to sit on, and enough room for my laptop, a drink, a stack of books, two toothbrushes, a contact lens case, my wedding rings, a bottle of saline, and some deodorant. If I don't turn the water on, I can even spread out a bunch of papers.

The best part of working in the bathroom is that it's blissfully quiet-- far enough away from the yelling in the playroom and the sound of football games blaring in the family room and the banging on the piano in the living room to actually think and get some work done. Another thing I've learned from reading all of those books about houses and floor plans is that I want a slightly less open plan than we currently have-- because the dueling banjos of the tv and the piano are just too much for my ears most of the time. As long as Bryce continues to play "Song of the Volga Boatmen" eight hundred times a day, the room with our piano in it really needs to have a door.

Anyway, when Virginia Woolf talked about how a woman needed a room of her own to be able to tap into her creativity, I doubt she was thinking of a bathroom. In my next house, I hope to have a room with a door, a desk and a comfy chair where I can spread out-- but I guess the bathroom will do for now.

1. quiet bathrooms
2. finding chocolate cake in the freezer
3. our bedtime competition seems to be working!