Someone I barely knew bequeathed to me a mansion. The architecture was typical of South Florida. There were many rooms, and for a moment during the dream I felt as if I'd dreamed about the house before. It was deja vu during a dream which is a very odd sensation. There were grand bathrooms and large bedrooms, Tile floors and vaulted ceilings. Two things stood out to me above everything else and took up the majority of the dream.
The first was the library. Although it wasn't nearly as big as a public library, it was significantly larger than any library I've seen inside a home. The floors were white marble with tan veins, and there were roman columns throughout the room. It looked like an ancient library out of a movie. The walls were at least two stories high with bookshelves lining them almost to the ceiling. Every shelf was completely stocked with books. To my amazement, there were also four aisles of bookshelves in the middle of the room, stretching out at least 40 feet each. These shelves were lined on both sides with books and were about 8 feet high. I could not see over them while standing. There were no chairs in this room, indicating that the reader was encouraged to take the book of choice elsewhere to read in comfort.
As I gazed in wonder at what I'd been given I knew immediately that I would never be able to read all of the books in my lifetime. I also knew that I had many beloved books at home that I would want to store in this room after my family moved into the house to occupy it. I sent out notices to many of my homeschooler friends and told them of my fortune. I asked everyone to please come and look at my library and take whatever books they wanted. These would be gifts to them, and not to be returned to me.
Soon there were many homeschool moms perusing the titles of my library, carrying out stacks of books with my blessing. As they looked I decided to see what else was in the house. I stepped through the grand double door entrance to the library and found myself in the second place that stood out to me.
I found myself in a room that was obviously supposed to be the main living room. It wasn't nearly as large as the library, but was much larger than any living room I'd ever seen. There were about a half dozen seating areas arranged. Most of the furniture was antique, camelback sofas, and wingchairs flanked by occaisional tables with slender curved legs.
The thing that stood out to me the most about this room was not the volume of funiture, but the exterior walls. The room was situated on a corner of the house, and both of the exterior wall were completely missing. They had been lowered into the ground and the top edges of the wall were like concrete tiles leading onto a large patio. The location of the longest wall was also about 10 feet from a sidewalk where anyone could simply step over the small edging of grass, cross the brick pavers of the patio, and enter the room at will.
Unlike the library, I did not wish to give away any of the furniture, though I had plenty to spare. I was concerned about protecting my privacy, not wishing anyone to enter the room uninvited. I looked for a way to raise the walls back up, so the room (and thus the house) would not be open to intruders. I looked forward to inviting guests to visit, but I did not want strangers stealing anything. I was also concerned about the weather typical to south florida and the inherent moisture damage that could occur in such an open environment. I wondered how long the walls had been down, and noted that the furniture was still in excellent condition despite the exposure to the elements.
My husband found a way to raise the walls and as they were going up, I awoke and the dream was ended. Before I was fully awake I saw that the walls had several large windows in them and I was glad that there was such a large amount of natural light pouring into the room.
