Space.

Well, I’ve already narrowed it down to two wallpaper options from Ferm Living for the guitar wall.

It might sound strange, but one of the biggest challenges I’ve had to deal with since we bought our house is exactly how to deal with all this SPACE. Door Sixteen measures about 1800 square feet, which is “small” by overall 2007 American standards, but positively enormous as far as I’m concerned. I grew up in small, old houses, and before moving to Newburgh, I had a series of small apartments in Brooklyn. Space has always been at a premium for me, and I’ve long prided myself in being a master of space conservation.

So what happens when someone like me winds up with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, a dining room, a big hallway…and a kitchen? Honestly, it’s hard to know how to handle it. I don’t want to waste space, but I also don’t want to wind up with three empty rooms (or three rooms with no purpose or function). It’s stressful. I don’t want to screw up.

There’s a small bedroom (probably intended to be a nursery) adjoining our bedroom, and we’re currently using it as a dressing room. Given all the empty space in our enormous bedroom, this seems like a ridiculous waste. It feels unnecessarily luxurious, something that makes me feel uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, Evan has a very large comic book collection, as well as a bunch of amps and guitars and other geeky boy stuff. It’s all just in limbo now, getting pushed into corners and in-laws’ basements, hanging over our heads and making us feel like this gigantic house is somehow too small for two people and their 10 pound dog.

I’m thinking the dressing room needs to be converted to a comic book/music room. We don’t have a ton of clothes, and there’s really no reason why we can’t relocate what we do have to the bedroom closet (though it might need some modification for maximum efficiency). So a needless luxury will be replaced with a practical luxury. I feel good about this.