Um...so I don't know what everyone else does when something lame happens in their lives, but I'm not a particularly inspired person after something lame happens to me. And nothing that lame has ever really happened to me. But if something really lame were to ever happen to me, I hope that I'd do something really fantastic and end up like this lady, who lives in Seattle and who was profiled by the NY Times last week.
She's a visual and performance artist who, after a divorce several years ago, bought this garage and the house in front of it, decided to rent out the house for steady income, and turned this little 250-square-foot garage into her home. And why hire a general contractor when you can do that job yourself, right? Pretty logical.
She raised the frame four feet to fit the loft, added a bathroom and installed a newly cleaned wood-burning stove. All of the other aspects in the house are just as unassuming. The ladder...from a ship, an actual ocean-sailing ship. The silver lockers...from a United Airlines maintenance building. She basically just explored the salvage yards around Seattle to furnish the place. “The garage and the elements in it are all defunct, unwanted things that were reclaimed and given new life,” she said. “Given where I was coming from, building it was a deeply redemptive experience.” Kind of symbolic, don't you think?
So, since she had acquired a lot of new antiquated metal things, and since she's an artist, it sort of makes sense that she became so fascinated with metal that she decided to take welding classes to learn how to build furniture and welded her own shelves, art pieces and other stuff. What woman knows how to weld? What man knows how to weld?
She cooks on a camping stove, bathes in an old bathtub and grows vegetables in her vegetable garden. Go figure. And look, she even has a bookcase full of books. She reminds me of the Boxcar Children.
Oh, but the story isn't over. A few years ago, she went to Home Depot to buy some planters for her garden. Guess who she met? A bassist who performs in concerts around Seattle and who also was a contractor. Her water heater needed fixing and he knew a thing or two about that so...he fixed it, they fell in love, got married and moved into the real house. But don't worry, her garage home still exists and it's where she goes to hide out.
One day, I hope to do things that're as cool as what Michelle de la Vega did. For now, I'll settle for finishing finals.
For the full story and more pictures, go to http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/garden/22garage.html.
She raised the frame four feet to fit the loft, added a bathroom and installed a newly cleaned wood-burning stove. All of the other aspects in the house are just as unassuming. The ladder...from a ship, an actual ocean-sailing ship. The silver lockers...from a United Airlines maintenance building. She basically just explored the salvage yards around Seattle to furnish the place. “The garage and the elements in it are all defunct, unwanted things that were reclaimed and given new life,” she said. “Given where I was coming from, building it was a deeply redemptive experience.” Kind of symbolic, don't you think?So, since she had acquired a lot of new antiquated metal things, and since she's an artist, it sort of makes sense that she became so fascinated with metal that she decided to take welding classes to learn how to build furniture and welded her own shelves, art pieces and other stuff. What woman knows how to weld? What man knows how to weld?She cooks on a camping stove, bathes in an old bathtub and grows vegetables in her vegetable garden. Go figure. And look, she even has a bookcase full of books. She reminds me of the Boxcar Children.Oh, but the story isn't over. A few years ago, she went to Home Depot to buy some planters for her garden. Guess who she met? A bassist who performs in concerts around Seattle and who also was a contractor. Her water heater needed fixing and he knew a thing or two about that so...he fixed it, they fell in love, got married and moved into the real house. But don't worry, her garage home still exists and it's where she goes to hide out.One day, I hope to do things that're as cool as what Michelle de la Vega did. For now, I'll settle for finishing finals.
For the full story and more pictures, go to http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/garden/22garage.html.
