The Wall Couch

Over the past several years, Jason and I have slowly been working toward having a grown-up looking living room.  This is challenging, though not impossible, when all of your furniture is used, and some of it is free.  When we lived in New York, we had one couch that we bought for $99 from Cort Furniture.  About two years later, we obtained a second couch for free from a friend.  The first couch was purple; the second couch was navy blue.  They didn't really match, but we didn't care.

When we moved across the country, we gave away the blue couch, and "donated" the purple couch to the curb outside our apartment building (our cat had pretty much destroyed it - there was stuffing spilling from the arms).  My mom helped us buy a "new" used couch and recliner for our living room here.  They were both in the brown family, and looked almost like they went together.  However, any hope of having a grown up looking living room was dashed by our rolling kitchen cart that served as our TV stand.  It was pretty college.  

However, once Cy hit about 5 months we realized that he would soon be mobile and that the TV stand just wouldn't cut it anymore - it would only take one time of him pulling himself up on it for the TV to come crashing down on his head.  That's bad parenting, people.  So we searched craigslist until we found a nice entertainment center for $25.  Ahh, our living room was fast approaching grown-up status!

Look at that lovely, grown-up entertainment center!  There are even doors that can slide in front of the TV - you don't get more grown-up than a hidden TV!

Unfortunately, our semi-matching couch and recliner had become increasingly more uncomfortable, and we found ourselves favoring the floor over the furniture - even when Cy was in bed!  Buying new furniture just wasn't in the cards for us, so when someone from church offered a green leather couch, love seat, and recliner set for free, we jumped at the opportunity.  We figured we would keep the couch and recliner and put the love seat upstairs for the upstairs renters. (That reminds me, I'm not sure I've shared much about our current living situation - we live in the basement and rent the three bedrooms upstairs to college students - more about that in another post).  

The furniture is well-worn.  It is seventeen years old and has been well used and loved, but is still in excellent condition, all things considered.  (Although it does smell strangely of a taqueria...) Plus, the couch and love seat each have two recliners built in - sweet!  And, all the pieces are clearly part of a set.  (Don't worry, this is going somewhere, I promise).

We get the furniture to our house, move our old couch upstairs and move in the new couch and recliner.  The living room looks lovely, and, might I add, quite grown up.  The downside is that the love seat is slightly more comfortable than the couch because it was used less.  However, our living room is just too small to accommodate two couches on two separate walls.   And then, Jason gets what he deems a brilliant idea.  

Jason: Let's move the love seat in and line it up next to the couch!

Me: But then it will take up the entire wall!

Jason:  I know!  It will be a wall couch. 

Me:...

Jason: And, we could have five recliners in our living room!  Five!

Yes, every man's dream.  A room full of recliners.  I see my grown-up living room slipping away, with a college frat house taking its place.   So I tell him that he can try it out, but he has to do it himself - I will have no part in creating the "wall couch".  Giddy as a school girl, Jason moves the furniture around and creates his wall couch.  I figure that he can have his fun, and then I'll tell him I hate it, and the love seat will be gone. 

That, my friends, is a "wall couch"...

But here's the problem.  I don't hate it.  Not like I thought I would.  And, it is actually quite functional.  We each have a couch on which to lie - at the same time!  And, you know, at least they all match.  

So here's my question:  Does the fact that all of the couches match outweigh the fact that we have a line of couches in our living room?  Have I achieved a grown-up looking living room?  Or have I regressed to college frat house?  And, if I have regressed, should I care, or should I just enjoy the functionality, and novelty, of having a line of couches and five recliners in my living room?

Five recliners, in all their glory.  

Baby Boy's Nursery Part 2

After our marathon nursery set up, we had to wait a while to complete the design. Our friends and family were very generous at our baby shower, and we got all of the remaining elements to complete the look. This is definitely the cutest, most decorated room in our house. In fact, we often hang out in there in the evenings because it is so nice!

This is one of my favorite parts of the room. These are all gifts given to Jason when he was first born. His mom couldn't make it to our shower, but she sent a box of these items for me to open. They include homemade gifts from Jason's grandmother and great-grandmother, the star that stayed with him while he was in the NICU, and gifts from his grandparents' friends.

I have to admit that I am really proud of this dresser. I am not a crafty person, but I managed to paint this dresser and make it look pretty nice. I have had this dresser since I was 12, and it has been many, many different colors over the years. My mom never took the time to sand it, so I am sure that there are layers and layers of paint on it. The best part was that the nobs had been painted on, so in order to paint them brown, I had to do some serious precision work! Not bad, if I do say so myself!

The painting above the crib was done by my step-mom. She is far more talented than I, and I am so impressed by how well it matches!

The nursery kind of doubles as a guest room - hence the twin bed. And, it has come in handy in the last months of pregnancy as I now take up our entire queen bed, and Jason has been relegated to the baby's room. Fortunately, he's a good sport about it!

Baby Boy's Nursery Part 1

I never thought I would be one of those moms who cared about the nursery. I always figured that our baby needed a place to sleep and a place for clothes, and that was about it. We rarely put a lot of energy into decorating any other part of our house, and have always sported "craigslist shic" furniture. I don't know if it was the nesting urge, or the fact that we are finally living in a place where we can paint the walls, but I became mildly obsessed with the nursery. I wanted cute bedding, and matching crib and dresser, paint on the walls, and some kind of decorating scheme. Luckily, places like Babys R Us cater to the decorating challenged like me and have whole sets of coordinating nursery pieces, of which I took full advantage. However, the perfectionist and the cheapskate in me still came out and I agonized first over bedding patterns, then over cribs, and then over paint colors. We finally settled on what I think is cute bedding - fit for a baby but not pastels (not a fan of pastels), and we got our crib and changing table on major clearance, plus a 20% coupon!

Once we finally got the details sorted out, Jason and I kind of went on a marathon nursery weekend. We bought the paint Friday night, and finished the first coat at 2am...

The next day, Jason put on a second coat while I painted an old dresser. For some reason, we couldn't just leave assembling the changing table and crib for the next day, so we did those Saturday night...we finally finished at 3am!

As is usually the case, I am the designated directions reader and parts separator. If left to his own devices, Jason usually just goes for the gusto and ends up putting things together wrong and/or getting frustrated.

While putting together the crib at 2:00 in the morning, we both had the thought that maybe we shouldn't be putting something so necessary for our baby's safety together while in an exhausted and semi-loopy state of mind...however, neither of us said anything until the next day! I think it all turned out all right!