Château Du Pré

22 January 2026

Among my New Year’s projects has been the reclaiming of my Mud Room/Laundry Room from Jolene, Jolene Du Pré, to be specific.

This room became the Pup Room when she entered my life (my world) in early September 2023, and she’s immensely enjoyed having full run of the space.  She doesn’t spend as much time in there, now that she has full run of the entire house and the acreage surrounding it.

I therefore thought that I could set up this interior real-estate to accomplish some painting and drawing.  I checked out a drafting table for purchase, similar to one that I owned eons ago, and parted from, most unwillingly, as I moved into House #2 in Suburbia.

I then got to thinking that the sight of that table, even with the top desk/plane verticalized for space-saving, every day, as I went into the room, for various reasons, would kill the creative impulse, outright.  For me, there is nothing worse than the physical reminder that I MUST do something, especially in the creative domain.

Free Will is a biggie with me.

I recall the spare kitchen chair in my bachelorette apartment, where I kept the pile of ironing, until the chair could no longer support the stack of freshly-washed clothes.  I am sure the clothes were still clean by the time that I hauled out the ironing board and iron, but I tended to give short shrift to the domestic tasks when I was a salaried and single working-girl.

My ironing board is now stored behind the door of the Laundry Room; the iron is safely tucked away in the cabinet under the sink, and I do the ironing, expeditiously, as it comes out of the dryer!

Upon vetoing that piece of furniture in that room, I decided to re-locate a large vintage square “ottoman”, purchased from a thrift store in 2019, into the corner of the room.

I’m fairly certain this piece of furniture is from one of those ghastly sectional-couch arrangements that used to rule Domestic Life in 1970s/1980s America.  That Archaic Living Room Monstrosity is currently pitched as “Modern Modular Sectional Sofa”, and it’s most atrociously en vogue.

All of that marketing verbiage is another way of re-inventing trends of the past that I passionately want to forget!

The Square, as I call it, is now Jolene’s Tuffet.

She enjoys jumping on it, staying a while, and then jumping off in search of other horizontal surfaces to conquer.  It’s a classic beagle trait, conquest of the horizontal surface, so I wasn’t at all surprised to find that this 2-1/2 year-old hound had made very quick work of occupying the indoor couches and chairs, as well as the outdoor logs and rocks.

What I didn’t expect from Jolene Du Pré was the rather quiet, but certain, expectation that she have a water bowl in each room of the house.  The demand for water wasn’t announced in the way that the lovely Bridget would noisily communicate that the Water Bowl is empty:

vigorously, but rhythmically, scratch with her little paws, in a fierce digging motion, the dry bottom of the ceramic bowl.  My Baby Love was a very auditory animal!

Jolene was very thirsty during this past Christmas season of rain, rain, fog, rain, rain, fog.  We all were dry-mouthed, what with the use of the heaters to dry out the domicile.  She took it upon herself to go to the bowl-like Christmas Tree Stand/Holder and drink, quaff, some of the toxic fluid.

After about the third time of dealing with the inevitable consequence of a very upset doggie-stomach, Dear Husband put a bowl of water next to the Christmas Tree.  That water bowl has since been moved into the kitchen.  There is also a water bowl in the Master Bathroom because Jolene recently decided in the middle of the night, one dark and stormy night, that the moisture on the tile floor of the shower stall would meet her parched-throat needs.

The Mud Room/Laundry Room had been the location of the ONLY water bowl in the house.  I mean, how many water bowls can a beagle need?  We are finding out.

Along with reclaiming the Mud Room/Laundry Room, I decided to buy a new wooden sign to post in front of our house, which I dubbed Larkhaven in 2020.  The hand-crafted creation comes from an online artisan in South Carolina, and it’s a beauty.  When I placed the order, Dear Husband joked that the former Pup Room needs a sign, Château Du Pré.

Yes, I went with it!

So many of my crucial, last-minute creative touches are added by Dear Husband that he doesn’t get nearly the credit he deserves for my artistic realizations.  He’s content to be in the background, but with This Original Thought, I’m giving him full up-front credit!

Welcome to Château Du Pré!

There’s less water surrounding this locale than Château d’If, and this room has less historic provenance than does Château Vallon, but it’s got the biggest water bowl in the house!