The back living room

The back living room

For many years, Alan and I owned a 9 foot Peter Vitalie modern right angle square legged red felt pool table that became art – lightly used, pretty to look at – and it sat in The Back Living Room. I enjoyed playing pool in college and when I met Alan we both loved going to pool halls to play. Thus, we thought, why not own one? However, our interest quickly waned and the pool table became a place to fold our clothes or stage our vacations. Interestingly, our friends did not play pool when they came over. Perhaps because its owners lost interest? A friend recently asked if we missed the pool table and both of us answered strongly and affirmatively, “No.”

Last year, we sold the pool table to a man who decided to upgrade and put it in his double wide trailer. At $3000 used – what we paid, not what we sold it for – a passionate pool playing man bought, at a gimme price, an artful piece of furniture for his double wide in Hutto; most definitely, he loved a good deal and wanted a 9 foot table. After selling the pool table, we moved the sectional sofa into The Back Living Room.

Quickly, we discovered that we do not use The Back Living Room. Thus, I feel that the process of moving to a smaller home – less than half the size of our current home – has been a process over many years. We loved the sectional sofa when it was in The Front Living Room, but we do not use it in The Back Living Room. The conclusion, thus, is that The Back Living Room is extra space and not needed except for parties. How often do we have parties and do they warrant having a bigger space? Hmmm…We know the answer. We will have cozier parties!

The sectional sofa has served its purpose well. Our friends’ kids even got to jump on it one evening. I loved that party and photographing each child as he/she moved from section to section. Children can find wonder in the small stuff. We should all try to return to a child-like state on occasion or often, if we are not currently parenting (ha, ha).

The new house that we are considering has a small living room. It will be able to accommodate the two of us comfortably to watch TV. When we have parties, we have learned we do not watch TV and friends mostly stand, even if we have the space for them to sit. We are selling the sectional sofa, but it is a beautiful piece of furniture. Leather is easy to clean with dogs and as Alan said, “Copenhagen makes quality stuff.” And I add, “Artful stuff.”

The most recent memory I have in The Back Living Room is playing Kinect for Xbox360 with a couple of our friends and laughing a lot. Kinect for Xbox 360 is a fun gaming system and we will have plenty of space for playing it at the new place under consideration right now.