Put a Hobby Room in your Condo Building

A cozy spot for weary hobbyists to sit.

It can be a great relief to give up all the unpleasant responsibilities that come along with owning a house: shoveling, raking, painting, getting ice dams off your roof, calling the exterminators to rid you of the bats who have made your attic their home - I could go on. Sitting in your condo easy chair watching as the snow piles up, knowing you will not be out shoveling, is a luxury, to say the least. You just sit and wait until the streets are plowed then descend to your underground heated garage and make your exit. 

Condo living simplifies many things but it comes with its own set of new challenges.  I know our next president, Hillary, taught us that 'it takes a village" but sometimes, the villagers you are forced to deal with in your building can be a real pain in the neck.  I owned a city house for over 25 years before committing to the condo life and I was never one who felt a need to know all the neighbors on my street.  Owning a home allows you the autonomy to choose how close you wish to be to your neighbors.  A smile and a wave was usually enough for me, although two families who lived on my block are still close friends after nearly forty years.  In a condo building with a common garage, elevators, corridors and other common spaces, "up close and personal" gains new meaning.  It's very uncomfortable not to at least know the name of the person you have ridden the elevator with at least 20 times.

Tables for all sizes of quilting/hobby projects

Residents in our building like to gossip about each other and fight about the common spaces: the party room, the patio, the corridors, the lobby, the exercise room, the garage and the hobby room.  Many residents, the majority being 55 plus types, seem to have one and only one understandable life goal: Thou Shalt Not Raise our Dues!  This is indeed a worthy goal but other worthwhile goals relating to our common spaces sometimes find themselves in direct conflict with this mantra.  The board members we elected tend to get carried away with their wish to micro-manage the lives of resident owners with regard to our public spaces.  

Case in point: very few people regularly used the hobby room in our building. The Hobby Room is relatively large space that the builders fitted out with a few low budget woodworking machines and nothing else. Harry and I loved the space and used it often, even though it was not very utilitarian.  I have made quilts in the room for our grand-girls in St. Louis and Harry has done a variety of woodworking projects including making them a dollhouse.  

The manly side of the room with a picture framer at work.

The full blown attack by some board members on the small number of hobbyists who use the room began while Harry was in England last September.  Harry's mother was dying and Harry forwarded me a hostile email sent by the board.  Things got really nasty, and looking back, we now think the board had other plans for the hobby room space.  What exactly they had in mind we may never know.  It seemed as though there were a group of people who believed they didn't use the space so no-one else should either. The aggressive campaign to make the hobby room look like no one ever used it escalated and I decided to fight back by forming a Hobby Room Committee.

The process of forming a committee, taking a building survey, designing the improvements, getting the funding approved for the improvements, buying, building, transporting, installing the improvements, fighting the nay-sayers, organizing an open house, took over six months.  I stepped up to lead the charge for both my own personal agenda and for others who I believed, if the room were improved, would use it.  Married people know that sometimes you need to get away from your beloved spouse, which can be hard when you live in a small condo. You can't escape to your attic or basement but you could go to the hobby room.  Single women, the majority of our residents, might enjoy a little social time as they work on a quilt or a scrapbook. The board is still at odds with the five member committee who had a vision for the hobby room, but we have held our ground and made our dream a reality.  Realtors now make a point of showing off the room to potential buyers. 

Hobby Room committee members will soon be teaching classes in the room: a beginners" quilting class and a "how to use the woodworking machines without cutting off you hand" class, as well as perhaps a framing class. As for me ... you will find me in the lovely new space busily quilting crib blankets for my grandson, Simon, my grand-niece, Olivia and for Archer's twin sisters.

Lastly I must give a special shout out to Hillary.  She would be proud to know the board and the Hobby Room Committee have signed a truce and we hope to live as a peaceful village.  I am pretty sure the treasurer and a couple others on the board are Republicans and the committee members are not so there may be future battles to blog about.  Better yet, I should someday write a blog about the wonderful new friends I have made in our building.        

Sea Otters as Pets

Teachers who don't retire when they should run the risk of getting a little crazy.  I should know.         

It all started innocently enough when, a few months back, I found myself browsing in a children's bookstore.  I caught sight of an adorable otter puppet on the shelf next to two books on otters.  Sea otters became one of my favorite animals when I saw them in action at the Monterrey Sea Aquarium years ago, and we have a poster from the aquarium on our bathroom wall.  I could not resist buying the puppet and the books.  I should have resisted.  

An old teacher needs her bag of tricks, her pink bag of tricks in this case.  I stuffed "Otto" into my bag one morning on my way to work.  The group of Kinder students I was teaching were getting a little noisy and I found myself saying, "Listen you guys, do you hear that noise coming from my pink school bag?" Suddenly they were all quiet, listening for the noise. 

I step out of my shower at home to be greeted by this. 

"Oh no!  I said, as I walked over to my bag and looked in. "Look who jumped into my school bag at home today when I wasn't looking, my pet otter, Otto."  I pulled Otto out of the bag, but not before I had put him on my hand. I told the kids Otto was very sensitive to noise and they must have woken him up. Otters, I told the adorable kinders, speak very quietly and Otto whispers in my ear, so I would have to tell them what he was saying.

After this "fun" had gone on for a few minutes one of the kinders called out:  "He's not real, Mrs. Baxter."  My response was to just roll my eyes as if the statement was absurd.  Then a true believer- type child called out: "He is too real, right, Mrs. Baxter?"  To that comment I just smiled and batted my eyes with approval.

This was just the beginning! Otto began jumping into my bag everyday, and not just on the days when I taught kindergarden.  Now, as I am going down the hallways at the Spanish Immersion School where I spend most of my subbing days, the kids call out, Mrs. Baxter, is Otto here today?"  The fifth grade classes told me last week that they wanted to know why Otto did not come to their classes?  I said I had no idea that they felt left out and I brought him they next time I subbed in 5th grade. The fifth graders lined up to give Otto a high five as they left for the day. 


One of Otto's books tells the story of the California sea otters' battle for survival.  One day a first grader asked if it was Otto and his mother on the cover of the non-fiction book.  That was all I needed.  I said yes, and that Otto's mother met her demise from the pollution, and that is why I now have Otto living at my house. I told the students Otto loves it when I put bath salts in my bath tub for him.  

So far I have not been fired. 

Even little children who visit and take naps at our house like to have Otto close by.