The Living Room Gets An Update

I know that there are still a few rooms in the house that I haven't showed you at all but you are going to have to wait. It was only last week that you got your first glimpse of that couched-up-room. Our living room is getting lots of attention these days and it is about to get another update or 2. So, the time has come for living room update numero uno.

Here is the to-do list that I was left with after a tiny bit of post move organization:

• paint
• curtains
• hang artwork
• get a rug
• new entertainment center
• change out the black side table
• move desk (temporary entertainment center) to the left of the couch and paint it turquoise
• get rid of the random chair
• change a couple of accessories
• try to figure out a way to hide Scott'e subwoofer
• maybe put some sort of book ledge above the couch and below the 3 high windows

Those crossed-through items are the ones that I am going to show you today!

Last week, the living room I showed you looked like this:

The first step was getting rid of the way-too-small Ikea Lack table. Luckily, I had a perfect piece of furniture just waiting for its turn to shine. This table had previously been used as a side table in our old guest bedroom and it was just being thrown from room to room looking for its Green Card.

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Here is the Ikea Lindved side table in its permanent residence:

The random chair that never quite fit made its way up to the master bedroom and an easel that Cora's "Gram" gave her for her birthday took its place. The easel is called the Mala Easel from Ikea. I realize that this photo isn't going to impress anyone but it is the only photo I have of it in that stage. The stuff underneath is a towel that I put under it while in use and Cora's smock.

You may be starting to notice a little trend in where I do the majority of my shopping. You will not be disappointed to know that the entertainment center we ended up with came from there as well. I spent WAY too much time deciding on an entertainment center. I had originally planned to build a "faudenza" like the photo below but changed my mind at the last minute and opted for something a little easier.

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Instead of making a floating entertainment center like the one above I went to my usual spot, Ikea, and bought 2 Besta bookshelves, a bottom frame for them, and four doors. Eventually, I plan to add some wood around the outside like the photo above. No hurry at all though.

I apologize again for the not so impressive photo- with speakers and paintings thrown around willy-nilly. I promise that the next Living Room chapter will be a bit more polished.

The chevron desk from our old master bedroom had been our temporary entertainment center. It took its temporary home next to the couch. The update that I am currently working on has since sent Mrs. Chevron packing to the garage.

This is my favorite update: a lovely yellow rug! I cannot get enough of yellow and turquoise together. I didn't mean for our living room to turn out that way. I had no idea what the colors were going to be. I just started throwing pillows, paintings, and accessories that I already owned into the room and that is what I ended up with. I was really impressed with the deal I got on the rug from RugsUSA. I got the Chalet Herringbone Cotton Flatwoven Ming Yellow rug and I have to say that I am pretty in love with it. I am no expert on rugs and was surprised that most of the ones I came across were at least $400. I believe that I ended up buying this one and a nice rug pad for less than $200 total. I am calling that a deal!

Here is where we are now:

I can't wait to share part one of the next update with you. Hopefully, I will be back next week with a peak at it!

The Front Porch Comes Together!

I gave you my thoughts on what was on the agenda for our front porch months ago. And I pretty much stuck to my plans. I did not plan on seeing the furniture for the first time in 5 years and it looking like it had been buried along with King Tut for the past 3,000 years. Woooo Wheeee! At our old house we stored those bad boys in our crawl space that was fit for a dinosaur (it was probably 20 feet tall) for a little over 5 years. When they reappeared they were just a smudge (or 3,000 smudges messy).

Here are some close-ups in case you don't believe me.

As usual, the photos do not do it justice.

Cora likes to try to be a helped so I gave her some paper towels and she got to work.

Somehow I talked Scott into helping too!

A few days later, the porch swing was hung and we were in business. 

If these photos had sounds you would hear the creakiest King Tut creaks that you have ever heard coming from the ancient chain on the porch swing. We have plans to take care of that soon enough.

Happy Birthday, Angus!!! This photo is devoted to making the impossible POSSIBLE!

(This is in reference to Angela livin' her dream!!) If you need a little laughter please click that link. It is impossible for me to read Angela's writing without laughing hard enough that tears stream.

source for the magical black horse, white mane art

ps I made this amazingly Photshopped portrait a year ago and have been counting the days until Angus had another birthday so I could show it off. 

pps This photo also marks the end of my birthday shout outs. It would be impossible to top this photo so I'm not going to even try.

Here Comes The Living Room!

The title of this post is supposed to be sung like the Will Smith song, "Here come the men in black." I still don't think I have seen the first two Men In Black movies but I am here to tell you that #3 was pretty darn good. Go ahead and get your DVD on.

Back to the subject at hand... The living room. I am finally getting around to sharing some house photos with you. I am sorry that we have been here for a month and a half and you have only seen a couple of rooms. Progress is being made every day. In fact, I am only showing you photos of the progress that we made soon after we moved in. I will catch you up to everything else soon enough.

Here is what the living room looked like before we moved in:

Here it is after the moving day Tasmanian Devil:
I took a much-needed break from moving to run around and snap a few photos. Scott ate some pizza and checked the internet during his even more needed break.

And Kelly caught up on a little bit of work during her break!

And here we are after we cleaned it up and organized a bit for Cora's first viewing:
Once again, I snapped some photos when I found a couple of free minutes and Scott took to the computer for his few spare minutes.

One of Cora's favorite toys around the time we moved was a puppet that we named Matilda and she calls Tilda. Somehow Tilda ended up in storage. Cora asked about her constantly and could not wait to get to the new house so Tilda would finally be back in her life. Here is a photo of their reunion:

She was also extremely happy to see a random bucket of her old toys: 

Things got a little bit cleaner in preparation for Cora's second birthday party. That is the reason for the banners and balloons.

I don't want you to think that this room comes list-free. It certainly does not. 
The to-do list on this sucka includes:

• paint
• curtains
• hang artwork
• get a rug
• new entertainment center
• change out the black side table
• move desk (temporary entertainment center) to the left of the couch and paint it teal
• get rid of the random chair
• change a couple of accessories
• try to figure out a way to hide Scott'e subwoofer
• maybe put some sort of book ledge above the couch and below the 3 high windows

I'm going to let you in on a little secret... a few of the items on this list have already been checked off and I can't wait to share them with you!

The Dining Room Set-Up: New Table & Chairs And A Play Area

It is dining room time! As I have told you, we downsized a lot with our new house. In our old house we had a formal (not so much though) dining room and a large eat-in kitchen. This house has a so-so sized eat-in kitchen and no formal dining room. Scott and I spend a lot of time in our kitchen (him cooking and me cleaning) so we knew that we wanted to have a play area for Cora nearby. The trick was finding a dining room table that was big enough to accommodate a family of 4 plus guests and small enough to be stuffed into a space that also contained a play area, a couple of stools, and a big chair. I did my homework (aka stalked the dimensions of every single table that Ikea offered and spent a bit of time perusing Craigslist) and finally found the solution. 

Before I show you what we came up with let's take a look at the space before moving day hit:

The moving day tornado came through and left us here:

The first step was to get a bit more settled.

Then we picked up the Ikea Docksta Table and four Preben chairs.

Tada! Here is where it took us:

I know that the box collection is still in full swing and things are still not in good "after photo form" but these days the boxes are actually gone and big progress has been made! I will update as soon as I can. 

Everyone keeps American flags randomly on their dinner table, right? 

Here is one more view. I think you've got it now. 

Here is the play are that I came up with:

I took the old Expedit bookshelf that we used here in the old house and put Cora's doll house and doll house paraphernalia on it. The girl is in heaven playing at it. It is just the right height for her. She could happily spend the entire day there having conversations between her dolls that go something like this:"Hi Ernie. I'm Bert."

(Make voice really high) "Ohh hi! It's nice to meet you. Come on in."

In Cora's voice to her mom doll: "Mom it is time for you to take a nap."

(High voice is back) "Ok yeah. Yeah it is time for a nap."

"Thank you. Yes thank you very much."

The conversations change constantly. Yesterday, I heard her say, "Dora, I love you. My mom and daddy love you. Come on over and we will have a birthday party for you in the bathtub." I'm not quite sure what all of that was about but she sure does like those doll house conversations.

Here is a shot of the dining room looking a bit cleaner. This was the set up for Cora's second birthday party. Scott made fruit and vegetable trays out of a few Sesame Street character's faces. I hope to share those with you soon! 

We have made some more progress since I took these photos. Updates will come soon!