Mark's been promising to add a window to my office ever since we moved to Ohio. But I didn't take him up on it because I couldn't quite visualize what I wanted. Then, in November, a burst of inspiration consumed me. Of course! I wanted a window seat!

Since I'm not a clothes horse, my closet was half empty. That made it easy to move those clothes elsewhere and reinvision my closet as a cozy little nook overlooking the forest. Once I dreamed it up, Mark made it happen.

First step was cutting a hole in the wall. Since the weather was nippy, Mark did this in two stages. Initially, he took out all of the inner layers, leaving the metal in place. This required lots of different kinds of saws.

Then he framed up the window, lifting the window in and out a few times until he had it just right. Now it was time to cut away the metal on the outside of the trailer with an angle grinder. A bit of touchup and a lot of caulk had me sealed back in.

The window seat itself was framed up out of leftover lumber. I used this two-part cushion to give myself some padding. Throw on some trim inside and the project was done in record time.

Since then, it's been hard to tear myself away from the window seat. I sit there with a book or a notebook, relaxing or researching while watching the birds. Half the time, I end up with the window open, hanging halfway out with my camera so I can snap wildlife shots.

Which is a long way of saying --- while I've barely been posting here, you can see lots of nature photos if you follow me on my new instagram page. Hope to see you over there!