Category: At Home

In All Of Its Glory

Well, when we got the new couch I had already covered it up with blankets so we could begin to use it while saving up to replace the cushions altogether. All this happened immediately, before I could document it for my blog.

Unfortunately, this ordeal has taken much longer than I had hoped, but we’re finally ready to start pursuing options as far as cushions are concerned. The website I requested some fabric samples from–weeks ago–hasn’t contacted me back so I called a man from our church who does tailoring to ask him for a recommendation. He let me know about someone from the next town over that I’m going to get a quote from. Full disclosure here, the price range we found for custom cushions online was about $300. So, we’ll see what this guy estimates for us. Even if it’s $100 more, I’m glad it will be local–I have no idea what the online guys would charge for shipping and handling, anyway. So if it’s $400-$500 we’re going to go ahead and do it. A new couch is closer to a grand, anyway, so I still think we’re saving money.

Since I had to strip the old gal down and take pictures to e-mail for my quote, I figured I’d show them with you all. Watch out. it’s kind of a hot mess.

We’re going to get all-new foam and try to get a color in the dark charcoal grey range. Gotta get a durable fabric due to Mosey’s sharp little nails. Unfortunately since we’re currently using such dilapidated cushions, it put a lot of extra stress on the support straps underneath, which broke, as you can see… and I’m going to get a quote on those, too.

Here’s a piece of the decision that hasn’t been made yet… should we get three cushions on the bottom and three on the back, as it is currently? I was toying with the idea of three on the bottom (so we can rotate them for more even wear–the middle seat is the most frequently sat-upon) and one long one across the back. Your input is welcome!

New House (With Pictures!)

This post is extremely long. I feel like Sherry from YHL! Get comfortable!

The moment has arrived. Photos of the new house. The interior, at least. It’s been dark out while we’ve been over there working, so I couldn’t get any shots of the exterior. Those will go up next week after I take some more pictures this weekend! All of these photos were taken after mopping the floors (didn’t want to majorly gross you out).

When you enter the front door, you step into the living room, with non-functioning fire place, which you can kind of see here. I can’t wait to paint everything a lighter shade and liven up the inside of the fire place with a glossy pop of color! The reason the front room light isn’t on is so you can get a better view of what lies beyond the arched doorway… the dining room, kitchen (you can see the cabinets) and small strange off-kitchen nook. The nook has a window with a high bar counter. I can envision eating breakfast there.

 

Here’s the living room from another angle. On the right of this picture you can see the doorway leading into the dining room, and the front door is out-of-frame on the left. What I stupidly didn’t take a picture of is the view as if you were standing by the fireplace. There are 5 windows in this room! The two on the front wall are really tall, and the 3 on the other walls are “normal” sized. Whatever normal is.

Here’s another view of the small off-kitchen and bar area, taken from the middle of the dining room. In the following photo you can see….

My doggy! And… one of our many doors for exit (we have 3). This one was painted shut and Doug had to use all of his manliest strength to open it from the outside. One of the first things to do is get our glass guy (we have a friend who does glass for a living; I love saying “our glass guy,” I hope someday I can be somebody’s “something guy” or gal) to replace that missing window. Due to the nastiness around it I assume a window AC unit used to be there. Note the breakfast bar area on the left. Getting your bearings?

Here is the kitchen. The room isn’t small but the counter space is surely limited. Is it sad that this is an upgrade from our current apartment? I assume the refrigerator is going to go on the blank wall next to the window. There’s no other spot for it!It will be SO nice to have a double sink. The drawers are tough to open and close so we are toying with the idea of turning them in to shelves (with cabinet doors). Out-of-frame, on the left side, the wall comes back and there is a door to the basement.

Now for the second half of the house!

First, I’ll show you the hallway. This is taken from the front bedroom. If you go through the doorway next to the fireplace (scroll up and picture it) and make a left, you are in the front bedroom. As you look down the hallway on the left you have a small closet, and the bathroom, and at the end you have the back bedroom. On the right you have two doorways. The first leads to the living room and the second leads to the dining room. This hallway is navy blue (even the ceiling!) and absolutely abysmal.

This is the view into the front bedroom. The window that goes all the way to the floor makes me hesitant about making this the master bedroom–harder to arrange furniture– although this room is slightly bigger

Eek! The bathroom. Look at that paint job. This room will be brightened up. I kind of hate the arch over the tub but we’ll see how it is once it’s repainted.

Lastly, here is the back bedroom. In my mind, this will be the master. I feel like the back of the house is safer than the front and the size of these windows lend to more interesting furniture setup (as opposed to the floor-length mirror in the front bedroom). However, this room is 11×11 as opposed to 13×11 so we shall see what we end up with.

In summary:

I am so excited over the floors in this house. So easy to keep clean. The wood is actually in quite nice shape. The smallness of the bedrooms is going to be interesting after going from our more loft-style apartment to this little hacienda-style bungalow. (You’ll see the exterior soon enough). I also have big plans for this place and I’m really excited about it.

First Things First

Moving into a new house.
Yes, you heard that right.
We’re going to be moving MUCH sooner than anticipated! We got the keys from our landlords (cough, cough, my in-laws) yesterday! Instead of late October, as our last news had indicated. The sign is out of the yard and the keys are in my hand.

Now, we’re not going to cart all of our junk into the house just yet. There is a LOT to do before establishing residency in our new abode. In fact, we are planning on staying in our current place well into September. Side note: the word “abode” looks like “adobe.” Which is ironic because the new house looks like adobe. You’ll see pictures tomorrow, I promise.

  • Take out all remaining nails (left over from hanging items on the wall)
  • Spackle all holes left by said nails
  • Wipe down all the walls with a wet (very slightly soapy) sponge
  • Scrub all the baseboards with a Mr. Clean magic eraser (be careful; the magic eraser can and will remove many kinds of paint. We plan on paining all the walls and trim so we aren’t worried about damaging the existing paint)
  • Sweep all the floors (there’s no carpet in this house, just tile and wood). After being vacant for a while, there are lots of cobwebs and dead bugs. Gotta take care of that before my lil’ pupster starts running around free in there.
  • Scrub the floors. Hardcore. I don’t know who or what was living in this house before it went on the market, but they were slobs. The floors are reeeeeally icky! Icky floors, meet Mr. Pine Sol. And Mr Elbow Grease.
  • The yard: I have left this one up to Doug and his family because I’ve never done a day of yard work in my life. They’ll trim some tree branches, Dig up some soil. etc.
  • Call the exterminator. Before moving all of our stuff in, I’d like to make sure it’s a bug-free zone. Especially the basement.
Other things on the “before move-in” to-do list but not imminent are:
  • Paint every available surface (you’ll see once I post pictures)
  • Plant some pretty plants in the dead-grass-patch in the front of the house
  • Replace the garage door (my in-laws are taking care of this–it is their property)
  • Take inventory of all the stuff previous inhabitants left behind, decide what to keep, what to trash, and what to donate to charity. (Free Christmas tree for us!)
The slip of paper we found on the kitchen floor, from a long-since eaten fortune cookie said, “All things are hard before they are easy.” Ain’t it the truth!
The next post will be less list-y and more picture-y. Get pumped, y’all; this blog is going to get exciting again!