Tuesday, February 26

After Josiah was healthy enough to move out and be on his own again (following his motorcycle accident), we decided to upgrade his recovery room to a den. Our biggest purchase was a new sofa from La-Z-Boy, which arrived on Tuesday, February 26.

1. When we built this house and moved here in 1967, the room was a playroom for Jeff and Diane (age 3 & 2).
2. In 1969, after Jere was born, it became the boy’s room.
3. When they were teenagers, we needed an office, so made a bedroom for them in the basement. This room became my office – the reason you see a lot of shelves and countertops. I used it mostly for TFC work when I volunteered for the Lancaster Chapter and eventually the Northeast Region. Also, during that time Cerwin and Wendell Boyle prepared a half-hour radio program for TFC in the room.
4. When Cerwin became director for the northeast region in 1990, and both boys got married, we moved the office to the basement and turned the room into our reading and TV room.
5. As grandchildren came along, and we babysat and had cousin’s weeks, we turned it over to them and moved our reading/TV room to the living room.
6. When the grandchildren grew up, we encouraged them to keep visiting by turning it into a mancave because we wanted a place where they could have a safe/welcoming room to bring their friends. During this time, the room was quite busy – especially during winter when they came to watch sports. The grandsons kind of took over it but the girls used it too.
7. By the time Josiah had his motorcycle accident last September, the need for a mancave was waning as grandchildren were getting married or had their own places. So it became a recovery room for three months.
8. The other week it was transformed into a den/sitting room to go with our guest room. That means when we have overnight guests, they have two rooms – a bedroom and a place to read or watch TV. It can also be a guest room for one person when necessary – and it can still be a place for grandchildren if they want to visit or bring friends.

No other room in our house has been repurposed so many times.

This is what it looks like today – with a chase and sofa.

The baskets are filled with children’s toys – no longer for grandchildren – but for great-grandchildren.

I also took the opportunity to rearrange the photos that I had stitched (counted cross stitch) of our 17 grandchildren.

There are still two TVs – one for playing Xbox and the other for watching TV. Twelve of the grandchildren’s pictures are in this area: Elizabeth, Josiah, Diana, Lydia, Abigail, Elijah, Jenna, Jordan, Nate, Jana, Gloria, and Josh.

Ian, Hezekiah and Hannah are on the north/west wall. The framed dress is what Cerwin wore when he was a baby. I stitched the baby in a hammock for a shop just after Hannah was born, so used it as her birth announcement.

Jared and Jesse got their own special place on the south/east wall.

I also took many of my books to Jubilee and rearranged some of our old dishes. The one on the left is probably one of our most treasured because it used to belong to Cerwin’s great-great-great-grandma Shirk.

This shelf includes some items from Cerwin’s youth.

These are some newer things. I bought the nest to go with two birdhouses that were at my birthday party the other week.

The little cars were a souvenir from our trip to Germany.

I treasure these old, mostly Grace Livingston Hill books, because they belonged to my mother.

I love this room!