22. Pew

I have two church pews. Part of the 90% of the furniture in my house that has been scrounged--either given to me by friends or relatives, or picked up used and cheaply, or in the case of one my church pews, carried out of my parish church.

I did have permission.

One church pew is protestant--there is a shelf underneath the seat for a hymnal but no evidence of a kneeler. It sits in my front hall and is the catch-all for everything that walks in the door: groceries, mail, bookbags, dance and tae kwon do paraphernalia, mittens, coats, baby shoes, anything and everything. It is the girls' job, but usually this girl does it, to clean it off every evening. It fits perfectly in front of the landing of my stairs, right as you come in.

The other church pew is from my parish, like I said. It is longer, although it is one of the short pews from church, a side one that ends in a pillar, so there's a little curve out of the seat to account for the location. It wound up taken out a decade or more ago, when the parish opened up the back of church as a greeting area (and because we didn't have enough people to really need them). Many of these extra pews wound up in the basement lining the walls. I know one wound up on Joey's front porch where it weathered badly and I hated her for that--she also had a house of old furniture but it was all purchased from auctions and high end antique shops and so her church pew wasn't anything she cared about. I love mine. Eye of the beholder.

The parish one is in my dining room. I would love for it to fit in my front hall but it doesn't. There is no other logical place for it, unless I moved it to the attic to take up space there. I just don't have enough walls in this house, designed for air flow between high-ceiling rooms. This isn't a big deal right now--it sits in front of the old fireplace in the dining room, which has no hearth or mantel. Mighty beat up, you might call it. It is extra seating for parties and girl scout meetings. It does fine.

But in a few years, or sooner if we can swing it, Jake and I would like to put a wood burning stove in the dining room--for heat as well as just simply that I've always wanted one. St. Louis has improved its electric grid but I really want a back up plan in case of bad weather in the wintertime. I watched Astrid freeze out of her house 4 years ago and I don't want to wind up in that position. This will involve lining the chimney, which is pricey and can't be done ourselves. That's the hold up--after we do that, in goes the stove.

And out will go the pew. I look around the room and I can't see what to do, unless I get rid of the bulky unattractive vestment cabinet from SLU and put the pew along that wall (opposite the fireplace wall). The piano could stay on the north wall, the table in the middle, the cabinet I swear I will finish this spring in the same corner where it is. That could work.

And that vestment cabinet, while well-designed with wide, shallow drawers, is really not a good fit in my dining room. Maybe the time is coming, soon, to empty it and move it on to a new home. Because even though it is impractical in many ways, the church pew wins.