After much procrastination, I finally started working on a corner at the end of the hall, between the bathroom and old kitchen doors.

There is a dresser in a little nook there, surrounded by a couple of big mirrors, and with some sort of little memorial shrine or something on top.  It ended up being a catchall place for things, both our own and stuff from when we were cleaning the bathroom out.

I finally started to pack it up.

After finding places for our own stuff, I started boxing what was on top of the dresser, then moved out the mirror that was sitting on top of the dresser, leaning against the wall.

That’s when I noticed this.

Has that gap always been there?  I have no memory of it, but as a child, it’s not something I would have noticed.

This area is where the add on that the old kitchen is part of is attached to the log portion of the house.  So the wall on the left with the opening is log – which is why it’s as wide as it is – while the rest is more modern materials.  You can see more of the log portion of the opening in the mirror, up to the wall the stairs are against.

After moving the mirror that is in the photo, I finished packing up the contents of the dresser.  It turned out to be an odd mix of things.  The top drawer had all kinds of gloves – painters gloves, I think – paint brushes, stir sticks, a couple of wooden crosses that looked like they used to be mounted on the top of something, a Canadian flag, an envelope of flower seeds, a couple of children’s sweaters… ???

The other drawers seemed to be used to store old towels and fabric pieces.  The towels in the bottom drawer where hiding a whole bunch of mouse poop.

Which actually reminded me of when this dresser was my own.

When I was a kid, what is now my office was my bedroom.  My bed was in the corner my desk is now in, and the dresser was against the bit of wall between the door and the closet.  The closet itself had no door back then.  I don’t think it even had a curtain, yet.

Above the side of my bed was an outlet, where I had a nightlight with its own switch.  I also had vanity with a mirror – which I now have in the master bedroom – against another wall.

One night, I was awakened by the sound of something falling off my vanity.  Turning on my nightlight, I looked around, but never did find out what got knocked over.

Going back to bed and turning out the light, I lay awake for a while.

That’s when I started to hear the noises.

By the vanity.  The dresser.  The closet.

Rustling.  Scritching.

I turned on my nightlight.

The noises stopped.

I turned it off and waited.

The noises started.

It was mostly around the dresser.  In the dresser.

This time, when I turned the light on, I pulled one of the dresser drawers out a couple of inches.

Then I got back in bed, leaving the night light on, and waited.

After a few minutes, the noises started again.  Then I began to see them.

Mice.

They had been climbing somewhere up the back of the dresser, and with the drawer open, I would see a head pop up and look around every now and then.  I heard them scurrying between the dresser and the closet, and then I saw a mouse start to climb up my clothes!

I think I saw about 6 mice different mice that night.

The next day, I found one of the friendlier barn cats and brought it into the house for the night.

The cat was okay with it, for the most part.

Then, during the night, I rolled over and my head landed on something soft and furry.  The cat had curled up on the pillow beside me.  I don’t know which of us was more startled; me, or the cat!  I felt so bad for spooking it.

I don’t know how successful the cat was in hunting, but I didn’t see mice in my room again after that.  Perhaps the cat caught them, or the cat’s presence scared them away.

Either way, they were gone.

Over the years, that dresser was used by my grandmother when she moved in with my parents – my room became hers – before passing away, and then by my father, as he started using my old bedroom because it was so much warmer (and closer to the bathroom. :-D ).  I don’t know when or why it was moved out to where it is now, replaced by a different dresser.  Maybe my dad was starting to have troubles opening and closing the drawers.

Once we get the dresser out of that corner, along with the other large mirror, which is just leaning between the wall and the dresser on top of a piece of wood, and the framed copy of the Mona Lisa, that corner will be the permanent spot for the cat litter box.

I was really hoping to have had that done by now, but the dresser is too big to add to the rest of the items stacked in the dining room, waiting to go into the shed for storage.

I’m not looking forward to dealing with the cobwebs. :-D

The Re-Farmer