The Return of the Bean

Celine Bean, my furnyture-building sister, is coming home. First, she was just coming for the summer, and then maybe she was coming forever but leaving stuff behind to retrieve later, and now she's definitely coming for good. It's a happy time.

The Bean hasn't lived here for about six or seven years, and I miss her. She's my best sister. Okay, she's my only sister.

So the plan is that Beans will come and live with us (we are now kitty-free, remember), and start building Saskatcheeewan furniture and cabinets, and timberframes with our pal Johann. Last week the plan got all ramped up.

Now she's decided to build a workshop in our backyard as soon as she gets back.

Everyone knows that Jim and I love a project, and Spring is traditional project time around here. Funny thing is that this year we were going to take a break and spend our summer holidays lounging on the new deck that we built last year. Well that's a dream gone with the wind now, but at the same time Jim is positively vibrating with excitement. He's been dreaming about a shop in the backyard for years.

Not that you can actually get Jim to tell you what he'd be working on in the shop. Somehow that's never clear.

I know what I'd do if there were a shop: I'd start making stained glass again. I can't wait. And if there's not enough room out there for me, then I'll make my glass in the basement and traipse out to the shop occasionally to do the toxic soldering.

Now, we're excited about the advent of the Beans, and we're excited about the workshop too. Last week we were consulting about concrete pads, and today we've got someone investigating in-floor radiant heat. It's too much fun. Thanks for the project, Beans.