The Living Room (Coming Together) . . .

The poor living room aka "the staging area" is probably the most neglected room in the house.  The number of times we move the furniture around in a weekend is almost nuts.  To make up for our rough use . . . I've been trying to give it some little "presents".  The first presents actually came from my mom - new Pottery Barn Pillows -- I just love the coral one in particular, its great for napping. 

The second present was slip covers for our old college sofas.  The sofas were really getting run down -sun faded - needing TLC badly.  Unfortunately, we hope to replace the sofa soon with a hide-a-bed model and so I didn't feel like spending oodles of money on the cover.  Jump in IKEA & my favorite sewing project friend/master Laurel.  We tackled adjusting a newer IKEA slip cover to the sofa and the loveseat.  Needless to say, the loveseat went according to plan . . . the sofa not so much. 

The funnest obstacle to overcome was my oversite on the number of cushions our sofa has vs the slip cover (I blame it all on baby sleep deprivation).  The existing sofa had 2 cushions, the slip cover 3.  Ala the web, I found that you could cut upholestry foam with an electric carving knife.  Having convienced Gary of the project, I blatently used his measuring skills and confidence to forge ahead on cutting my sofa apart.  It worked like magic . . . the electric carving knife just went through the foam like butter.  Now I only need to figure out how to let the lower seams out a bit.  Its a bit tight - kinda like my jeans right now. 

The third and final present to date is a fun, funky bar stool.  I just love the power of paint, especially aqua paint.  It transformed an ordinary, beat up Goodwill find into a thing of beauty . . . just look

How do you do the things you do?

Okay, again another corny post title . . . however we often do get asked the question:



How do you do the things you do . . . with Kids?

The truth of the matter is that we have awesome kids . . . who are use to W.A.P.P. (Wildly Ambitious Parent Projects).  In reality, our ability to get house projects done is based on 3 principles:

1.  The absurd notion that we can actually tackle these projects with 3 small ones!!!

2. The divide and conquer principle -- one parent works, the other herds kids.

3. The play hard and work hard principle-- by scheduling a good healthy dose of play each day, the girls seem to let us alone during projects.  (Okay, so we are more prone to reminding them about the playtime vs worktime segments without guilt).

Here is a good picture example of our work & kids philosphies:

Girls playing with dollhouse --pretty normal huh?

Expanded view shows the truth - playing near Daddy's  ladder while he tackles a lighting problem. 

You Gotta Wear Shades . . .

Yes, I know its a corny title, but it's fitting.  After a sunshine filled August, September and oh yes  October, we decided that high on our list of projects were window coverings.  Gary really spearheaded this effort . . .  I merely made color choices. 

We decided on blinds for the bedrooms, the really thick kind that look like wood, but are more budget friendly.  The goal was a nice "cottage" look with the ability to decrease light from passing cars.  While the product looks nice, we would probably not go with this choice again . . . the slates don't close all the way and hence let in light & the number of strings per blind is outrageous.  (In future purchases I think we might go for light blocking honeycombs). 

Crooked, but nice look

See how you still see the light - hmmm

In the living room, however, the choice of roller shades is a HUGE hit!!! They are unobtrusive, allow some light in while blocking out the direct sun rays that blind people, and still allow you to appreciate the view.  Our floors and furniture are also very happy to not be glared at on a regular basis (hah hah)!

With and without -- lovely

Nice and unobtrusive -- melds into the background!!