The Cupboard Under The Stairs

Moving house on the eve of Coronavirus, with a fractured leg and no-one to help move things around has meant getting things how I like it has been a glacial process. Especially when Excluded with no income for two years. It took over a year before I was able to even get a door that closed, never mind locked and that was due to a gift from a stranger.

Due to the house needing a lot of work and it being 200 years old, isn’t exactly laid out in a fashion that makes sense to most people today resulted in my having my office and writing desk upstairs in the box-room.

It fitted well enough and I worked that was for 2.5 years or more but it always bugged me as it was just one of the things that was out of place and given it is such a small house, it had a big domino effect. If I were able to move it then I could move 3 or other items that were also out of place as well as freeing up a lot of space.

I had my eye on the unloved bit of space under the stairs. Quite a big area in a small house but due to the layout of the house, not easy to use unless turning it into storage as a few other neighbours have done with theirs.

Having measured things up, I knew that theoretically everything should fit but the hard bit would be getting the desk downstairs. Even my small landing is on 3 levels, the Georgian era stairs are very steep, narrow and with a 90 degree bend on them and unlike when I moved in, there were now bannisters and railings to bring things up to 21st or even 20th century safety standards.

I knew it was going to be difficult as previously I had attempted to move something else downstairs and had to give up after an hour or two. Even after removing the drawers and even one of the legs from the table, I didn’t quite envision what a mission impossible situation it might be having to pivot the table 5 or 6 times on every axis and even then I got some ceiling plaster stuck in my hair!

It being too difficult and deflating to go back, long past the stage some might have given up, I finally got it downstairs and re-assembled and wonderfully it fits just perfectly.

A little bit dark in the mornings during the autumn and winter I am sure but very snug in a rather Harry Potter-esque fashion. It will be a little warmer to work in the winter and much cooler in the summer plus rather than being isolated in the smallest room in the house, I am right by the kitchen, closer to the garden and no more running and doing some spectacular falls down the stairs when a delivery arrives at the front door.

It has created much more space upstairs as now I have a dedicated if small second bedroom and I’ve been able to move around furniture and beds upstairs which makes everything that much more spacious and homely even if I might have to accept that one or two things will never move until I next move house.

So now I have a nice cosy place to start writing my next book!