Inklings: Upstairs, downstairs | Columnists | Summerville Journal Scene

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Inklings: Upstairs, downstairs

Published Thursday, October 01, 2009 11:54 AM

By Barbara Lynch Hill
Summerville Journal Scene ®

This title is not a plea to have the excellent British telecast on ETV brought back – although that’s a good idea. I particularly miss Hudson. I could use a butler these days, to go both upstairs and downstairs.

This is a lament for poor souls like me heading into our dotage who live in two-story houses. We built this house when Jim and I were both in our primes. We combined two bedrooms so our girls could share when our collegian was home for the weekend or during holidays. We expanded the attic immediately and added a bedroom and bath for our high school son. Jim paneled the second upstairs bedroom and it became my study and a guest bedroom combo. I went up and down a lot then, cleaning house and writing.

Then things shifted. One graduated college, got married and moved out. The next child went to college and the youngest lolled around solo in a huge bedroom. Then she went off to college; big brother came back to live for awhile between grad school and the military. Then big sister came back to stay for awhile amid changing locations and jobs. I still went up and down stairs a lot cleaning house and writing.

Then our youngest was back before moving to another city for another job. Then we were alone; empty nesters. We moved into the double bedroom. The master became a study for Jim and we had a whole upstairs bedroom for guests.

Then my mother moved in. Oh, we invited her! We made the second floor a sort of get-away for her with a sitting room, bedroom and bath. We lived in this mode for several years until she passed. We finished the room over the garage to have a guest room (with another set of stairs) as our kids kept coming home with husbands and a wife and then, of course, children.

In none of these transitions have I figured out how to avoid going up and down stairs a lot, cleaning house and writing. Much of this upping and downing is from my poor memory, forgetting to transfer something to the other floor or leaving a second floor item on the first floor when I need it up upstairs, and visa versa.

I tried one of those stair-stepper baskets which look so chic in the home design magazines and are built to hide stuff you mean to take upstairs the next time you go. But if you’re planning to transfer much more than a toothbrush, it couldn’t be hidden.

We’re not going to move to a one story house. There is too much of us here. We’ve stained, painted, landscaped and renovated for more than three decades.It’s home. And I’ve said many times in the past couple of years, they are not getting me out here without my new kitchen. Thirty years later, I’m still going up and down, cleaning house and writing.

Alas, this means having to keep active. Exercising and eating right so we can stay in this domestic castle we honed for ourselves, and keep counting 25 steps up and 25 steps down divided between two staircases.

But if I could have my druthers – I’d still opt for that butler!

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