Weekend warrior (hopefully)

Well, it's Friday again (hurrah!). It seemed like a short week -- probably because I'm used to working 6 day weeks the last little while. Big plans are afoot here for the next two days, with reno-mania-mania setting in. My plans are to hop on a very high ladder and attempt to clean the siding of the house and gutters (we'll see about how high I really get, confidence is brimming at this point...), and Trevor is going to finish the bathroom in the basement and put up the railing for the stairs. (And maybe even start on the laundry room? hint...hint...)

I figure it makes sense to tackle the outside jobs here while the weather is nice and not scorching hot. Painting inside a 'schweaty' house is never fun, nor a good idea (paint that dries way too fast).

We've also been pondering a dining room table (our house lacks one after ridding it of a horrific wicker and fabric hand-me-down) and our choices are now:

From Pier 1:

From Crate + Barrel (with customs charges...worth it? I don't know.):

I'm leaning towards the Pier 1 choice, it's got a darker stain and a nice wood grain on the table top, and it has an extra leaf that can extend it out for 6 people to sit at. We would keep it as a square though, as our dining area is teenie. (Trevor's vote might go towards this one as well, because the square shape 'defines his eating space'...LOL!)

Now to find chairs...

Sponge chair

There's something very funky about the combination of squashy sliced sponges against the slick chrome of this chair. Kind of makes me want to grab it and squeeeeeze it. (And I wonder how handy this chair would be for spills...)
Via Freshome

Alessandro Beda Chair

Does anyone remember those pin decorations/toys they sold in crappy 'San Francisco' stores (no, not in the actual city, but the stores in the malls) that you could push your face and hand into and get an impression? It was a neat idea then, and it's pretty cool to have a chair like that now - except I suppose you're making impressions of your bum instead! (via Freshome)

Searching for a new office chair

I know what I want, but finding it so that I can try it out a bit is a challenge. I'm tempted to ignore the comfort of my bum taking them for a test drive and just buy one of these Eames-inspired (or ripped off!) chairs:I think I like the first one better. The little round knobby controls on the second one bother me. But the first chair is only sold in packs of 2. Why????

Shoppin'

Here's the two new stools I've bought for the office. I looked everywhere for something similar, but I had to order these online. 7-10 business days and I'm going to park my bum on one of these!

I'm thinking I'd like to get this for my new desk chair, it's from Urban Barn. Could it be in store now? I will have to check.

Snowy weekend

It snowed like crazy here this weekend. We got a foot of snow to shovel (ahem, Trevor to shovel). My job is to go outside with a broom and smack the bushes and trees that are getting too weighed down by the snow. Our power stayed on (flickered a little bit), but for the most part it was really pretty to see the snowflakes falling outside the window while we were putting up the tree and doing some Christmas decorating. Trés festive!!!

Evidence of snow accumulation:
Even more came the next day:
And you know it's getting closer to Christmas when you see this on TV:(is it just me or is the log a little bit too early? I guess not if I'm watching it!)

We also spent most of the weekend cleaning (or clearing) the living room for the couch placement and tree area. It was a lot of work, but well worth it in the end (and not to mention, makes the house seem civil for once, no crap in that room!). We didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but hey, at least we made a difference.

Mike and Cynthia came over on Friday night for dinner and a bad-ass game of Skip-Bo (none of us have ever played it). Cynthia cleaned up with winning the game, and the two of them had to go because Cynthia was driving home and her 'L' status doesn't let her drive past midnight. But, we did keep on playing, just the two of us, to see who would have been the loser, lol! Mike came in second, I came in third, and Trevor drowned in his cards and came last...I mean, was the loser. HAHAHA. (Note: We played last night and he did manage to win.)

And now today, I am in panic mode, but also a bit (well a lot) bummed out about something that happened today. I'll put that in a separate post.

The trade-off

Well, we had our new couch delivered yesterday. It's Trevor's 'man couch' -- the model that he selected so he could lounge and watch the tv in manly bliss. But it was not to be. The couch doesn't FIT. It fits in the room, but it's the getting to the room part that's not so good. The stairs to the basement make a 180-degree turn that's a furniture killer (or wall and ceiling killer). So we took the loveseat from the living room upstairs and brought it down to the man room, and shuffled some furniture around. It worked out well in a way, the living room is looking nice, and I now have some bookcases in my office that I really needed.

Things are still in disarray around here, and even more so now that we had to move things around like crazy. Fingers crossed that we'll be able to put the tree up on Saturday and have the mega Christmas explosion of interior decor. And then we just have to pack... (scary).

Holding pattern

Well the cruise tickets never made it into our hots little hands (she forgot to stop by, whoops!), but they will be dropped off tonight. Yay! I'll have to remember what cabin we got...I know we wanted a balcony (for the first time EVER) and it was a good price but we hummed and haa-ed and missed out on the price. So back to the inside cabin, oh well...we still get a bed and a bathroom, what else do you need (a view??? hahaha!)

We've also been trying to get started on some Christmas shopping and managed to make our way to Costco last night, only to be told that Trevor had to go back out to Chilliwack to secure the building because there was something wrong with the alarm there. Normally this wouldn't be such a big deal, but since we had already been out there LAST NIGHT for the same thing I was big time ticked off. Kind of ruins an evening when you have to drop all your plans and drive out there (especially when there's people who live closer who haven't been called or who have been but won't go, but that's a whole other story) and once you get back home it's straight up to bed. Boo. So we are attempting AGAIN tonight to go out and shop a bit. And if that phone rings, I swear you might just see a little mushroom cloud form over Langley.

Okay, venting over.

Oh! And our new couch is arriving November 28th! At least there's some good news. Super-speed finishing reno's, coming up!

Le sectional

Here's a photo of the sectional (well, couch version in the photo) that should arrive before Christmas. Many movie nights will be spent here!

The couch has arrived!

It's official! We can now seat 5 people in our family room. I came home early from work yesterday around 1pm and it was a good thing too, as the delivery guys called about 5 minutes later saying they were early. We had to do some serious prep work with moving the moulding to make sure the couch could be brought in.

Isn't that a nice dining/living room?

But it finally made it in!

Waiting for the couch...

Well, we've taken the leap from loveseat zone to couch territory. After a long search for the perfect piece of furniture to work our ass grooves into (not to mention how long it took us to decide on fabric), we've picked out the Brewster sofa from Urban Barn.

We both ended up really liking the high arms and back on it, good to lean on and settle down for some extreme TV watching. Plus it doesn't have annoying fussy pillows that you have to fluff everytime you sit down and get up.

And we didn't get it in that horrible ultrasuede fabric that shows your bum prints (and that Trevor writes dirty messages on).

At least it won't look like this:

Next Monday between 2-4pm we'll be welcoming the new addition!