busy

Last Friday I got some awesome news... that we are NOT going to be moving after all. Or rather I am not going to be moving. It was possible that I was going to have to move without E because of work obligations, which would have been very, very horrible. And not only do I not have to move, but I get to continue my training at the same institution, without having to take a gap year and losing time. Basically, things could not have worked out any more smoothly.

Because I knew we weren't moving, and because I had a bit of cabin fever after not leaving the house for a few days, I decided it was time for some changes. Like most younger people, we have a good amount of furniture that was stuff our parents didn't want. It was not necessarily our style, and it was not very efficient in layout (most of it was bought for suburbs-size houses, not post-war 950 square feet houses). So I did some obsessive-compulsive planning and then took Ethan to Ikea with me on Super Bowl Sunday. Which was the best Ikea trip we've ever had, because hardly anyone was there. (as an aside, may I say how grateful I am that the only sport E cares about is F1 racing? I will gladly watch that once a week for four or five months a year if it saves me from ever having to pretend to care about any other pro sport)

I can't show you pictures of it yet because not everything is assembled and Salvation army has not been by yet to do their pickup of our old stuff, so it's a big mess. but here are the ingredients:

1. 5x5 Expedit bookcase with two desks attached, one after the other.


We still have to get the bookcase because it wouldn't fit in my hatch after putting in 2 desks, 2 dressers, a bed, pillows, a fake plant, and a live cactus.

2. 2 Malm 4-drawer chests. I am using one to store guest linens in the drawers, and the other will probably hold yarn and fabric. I have a thrift store mirror that I'm making over to put above these (more about that later), along with my framed Italian Column prints.

3. Fjellse bed, hacked

Think of this as a before picture. I have already sawed off the headboard to make it into a wooden platform daybed. I think I am going to upholster the frame in a charcoal gray finish eventually, as well as making matching gray covers for the daybed mattresses and the back pillows. I have already done a poor-man's version of this by using matching gray fitted sheets on the mattresses and making a long back pillow cover out of a coordinating sheet... but when I'm feeling really crafty (and can get to a fabric store again) I'll do it right.

So between putting together ikea furniture (which takes a pretty long ass time and is only fun for about an hour, max) and going to work, I've been pretty dang busy. I'll post some more personal and fun pictures once our house doesn't look like a bomb went off in the furniture for sale section of the craigslist ads.