Losing My Nerve in the Office of my Dreams

When we first bought our house, a three story 1890s rowhome (skinny and tall, flanked by identical sisters on either side), I would come up to the third floor, a sprawling attic space with vaulted ceilings on all sides and a sky-blue painted patchwork floor, and sit on the floor with my face in the sun.

The attic space had three windows, but two of them…