searching for the perfect couch

Our big blue couches. One of our very first purchases together back when we were still living in a townhouse with friends. They were second hand and we got both pieces for $550. Best money we ever spent!! They've lasted us 9yrs and while the large sofa is looking a bit tired, the love seat is still in great condition!!

The above big sofa, will be replaced with the below longer sofa!

it's super comfy and will wear well with our semi-active house :-)

here's the blue love seat. It's not enough seating for the basement.

so it will be replaced with the below sectional!

same sofa as above, just made into a sectional

The grey (bottom swatch) will go in the living room,

the brown (top swatch) will go in the basement.

So excited to have them picked out and ordered! Now all we have to do is wait 4-6 weeks for them to be available and delivered. Makes me wish we had started looking sooner!

Saturday Fun

 new haircut! 

 easier for growing out my bangs and working out!

 we moved the love seat back down to the basement

pulled Matt's desk out of storage

 media wall waiting for delivery (again)

bookshelves have more books! the games will go into the media center

and the shelves will go on the back wall....

Did I forget to mention....?

Our 2 new rugs? They arrived just before the crazy holidays and I love them! :-)

Above you can see what we used to have: a woven jute, rubber backed, black cotton-bound rug that I purchased from Building 19 back in......oh geez! our first townhouse apt! so that would be 2005? It sat just inside our front door but was long enough for boots/shoes too! I've always loved it :-)

It was gently worn but still going strong until Reese got sick in November. I just couldn't get it clean afterwards (a downside to woven rugs!) so we decided that it had lived a good life and I could replace it. (And, it kinda always bugged me that it didn't fill the doorway... it fell short by a good 6 inches on the left side. I know, I'm OCD)

 Here is our new rug from Overstock.com: a big longer (it fills the doorway!), a bit wider (great for wet doggie paws!) and has a grey border instead of black. I love the larger size as it gives more protection to our hardwood floors in a very well-loved-and-used area of the first floor. I didn't even take me a day to love it!

 This rug did not bite the dust but has always been a bit short. 

So I bought another of the same pattern - just longer. I kept the shorter one. 

Might come in handy someday to have 2 matching runners.

Matt isn't convinced, but I love that it runs almost the length of the entire hallway now!

Basement Construction Completed!

Before the crazy snow storm started on Saturday, the electrician came by to finish up a few odds and ends and give us the all-clear! YAY!!!

So while the snow started coming down fast, I started moving stuff back to the basement from the garage. It was a great stair work-out :-)

The current great debate is whether Matt's desk will go on this wall, with shelves above, or if just the shelves will go there and his desk will sit in the middle of the floor. I'm all for the desk under the shelves ;-)

Start of the fitness area!

And on the opposite wall from Matt's desk area, I moved the two bookcases and filing cabinets in for storage. It makes a great use for this little corner as well as hiding one of our funny bumpouts in the corner! :)

I love that our media center will hold all movies and games, so these bookcases can go back to holding books! I'm still carrying/unpacking more and filling up the shelves.

Sooo..... 9 inches of snow later..... media center delivery was canceled....

sad day

So we hung out inside instead, catching up on movies (Netflix!), enjoying that the amaryllis bulb looks like its going to flower soon, and cozying up for an afternoon nap... Reese is a great napping buddy :-D

I hope you all are staying warm in this crazy weather and I'll be back as soon as there are more updates in the basement!

Case of the Mondays?

Something fun to do on an otherwise stressful Monday! 

A quiz on Interior Design Terminology!
http://projects.wsj.com/quiz/?uid=ODquiz0111&type=flat


PS - CrossFit is totally kicking my butt - I have not had a day since we started (Matt and I joined a local CrossFit gym) that I'm not sore in new places! We've gone four times and I only kicked butt once - the other times were a struggle - but each struggle pushes me to be better next time around so we'll see how I fair tonight! 

What have you all been up to?

To-Do List for 2014

Now that it's January of 2014, I thought it would be good to do a quick look-back on what we got done in 2013 and what's ahead of us for this year:

To-Do List for 2013:
finish basement shell- waterproofing and insulation, walls, ceiling and lights, heated tile floor, internet and electrical
IF we can get all that done and still have time/money left, we will also do the shed in the backyard

Well, we did get the basement finished (yes, it sort of crossed over to 2014, but I'm calling it 2013), while the shed in the yard didn't happen. We did however, get gutters up on the front of the house, put in another flower bed around the tiny oak tree in the side yard and started the living hedge in the backyard. We also traded in both our cars, so while we may have car payments added back into the budget (ick), crazy random repairs and the worry of a dead-on-the-side-of-the-road car is no more! (yay!)

leaving other long-term projects for 2014 like:outdoor patio around bottom of deck stairs (grill moves off the deck)walkway from driveway around lilacs to outdoor patioboxwood border along far-side of yard and down drivewayplant flowering shrubs on inside of yard edgeback-up generator for entire house
new sofa for living room 
seal metal bar supports and possibly re-level kitchen barair-exchange unit for house


Hmmm... The above list for 2014 has been revised to look more like:

1. whole house water filter - we have an artisan well and while we love it, we're starting to see some serious mineral build-up in sink faucets, shower heads and appliances.
2. new bulkhead - finishing the basement showed us how truly leaky and unsealed the current bulkhead is and since we've just finished the basement, we want to protect it!
3. fix the granite bar - it has been shifting down for the last few years and is no longer level. We had it looked at to make sure it won't fall off - that would be awful! - but it needs to be fixed.
4. furniture: new living room couch (current couch will be going into the basement) and ottoman, coffee table and media center (with new TV) for the basement.
5. yard: fill in raised beds in back with big plants (hydrangeas or butterfly bushes), fill-in oak tree flower bed and continue living hedge. 
6. go on vacation! - we've been very bad at this in recent years but 2013 summer with weekend adventures and camping showed us how much we love to travel and how much we NEED that downtime!

Nothing hugely exciting, more maintenance to keep the house going. We'll also address anything else that comes up over the course of the year but this is the basic plan of action :-)

Basement Day...? plus 3

OMGOSH! we have carpet!

Yes, I still need to finish painting :-)

ceiling! 

ceiling and carpet finished!

the double doors enclose the water tank

yes, Reese, boring, I know

small closet it next to it that will hold Christmas 'Stuff'

double doors means

double the closet space! wahoo!

this will hold pantry/kitchen items

and the giant closet under the stairs will be camping/suitcases

That's a blurry Reese back there showing you how deep the closet is :-)

We did a punch list with Jeff tonight that includes door knobs, final electrical plates on the walls, additional support in the double closet for the extra deep shelves and removing the weather stripping from the utility room door since it doesn't swing over the carpet well and it's technically no longer needed now that the basement is finished and heated!

 Study/Office space

 Media Center wall/family room space

Work Out Space

Stay tuned as we start to move furniture back into the space and finish painting! 

Basement Day....? plus 2

I feel like I should start counting down the days until completion, but since things keep being bumped out a day I'm hesitant to do that.
Carpet has been started! Baseboard heating is now working! wahoo! and thank goodness! considering the temp outside doesn't like to get above 20 the past few days. Polar Vortex......Brrr!

 I really need to finish painting! :-/

I'm so glad I still like the color! To be honest, I was a bit nervous - I've never chosen wall to wall carpet before - always area rugs, which are much easier to change-out and/or return!

Basement Day...? plus 1

The electrician was here! We have LIGHTS!

you can also see the softness of the paint color better now too

oh, but how I love lights!

and new sprinkler heads! See the white circle against the missing

ceiling tile? New pop-down sprinkler heads! In addition to looking

better, they also give us a few more inches of head space which is always a plus!

thermostat for baseboard heat and dimmer switches! wahoo!

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I really can!

Basement Day...?

Happy New Year!! Yes, I know, a bit late :-) We'll say I was delayed by SNOW!

 Weekend spent celebrating my cousins birthday with shopping (I wore my new necklace! Gift from Kel) at The Natick Collection, learning how to tie bow-ties and eating the most delish spinach salad ever! I will happily confess that I stuffed my face :-) There was also make your own pizzas, lots of laughing and some incredible pictures that my aunt has taken and turned into a portfolio or amazing-ness! We even got to bring one home! I will share as soon as we figure out where it will go.

 But this was supposed to be about the basement right? HA! well, the SNOW has slowed everything down a bit, but the wrong doors were switched out for the right ones, the baseboard heating has gone in - thank goodness! - and the sprinkler heads have been updated.

So what is left? electrician for the down lights, putting in the rest of the ceiling panels, hooking up wires for the surround sound (that's why Matt has a tape measure out in the above pic - he was marking where they should go) and carpet! And yes, I do need to finish painting. We'll see how far we get before the weekend!!!

But in the meantime, Happy 12th Night! Happy Epiphany!