It's been a while

That's becoming a pretty standard title around this blog unfortunately. I really do have good intentions of keeping you all up to date on what's going on around here, but it's really been the same old same old lately. Basement Renovations!

But we're getting sooooo close to being done. And again, I say we as if I have played a major role. I painted the first coat in the office and family room, and a few walls got a second coat done by me, but other than that painting, my involvement has consisted of helping move a few heavy things and wandering down stairs every so often and pointing out little flaws in Chris's work. I really am a horrible wife. But he did tell me that it doesn't bother him that I have not done much when it comes to the major work of this reno, and in fact he much prefers it if I stay away!

This blog entry is going to be mostly pictures. I don't have time to post all of them, so for now you get to see the family room and area and our new couch. I mean sectional. No, I mean monster couch sectional. It's crazy huge.

We went furniture shopping last week...on a whim. We knew we were going to need new furniture, but we had not decided for sure what we were looking for. We had two options:

1. Move the furniture from upstairs to downstairs and get smaller stuff for the upstairs living room or

2. Buy something new for the basement family room and move stuff around upstairs.

The set we have in the living room now is quite a large leather set. It takes up a lot of space. We love it, but it's big. That set and our wide screen tv made my upstairs living room seem very crowded and small to me. I was leaning towards option 1. We also had plans to get a smaller tv for the upstairs living room.

So back to furniture shopping. We found this very cute, reasonably priced leather set. It was much smaller than what we had and was designed for condo spaces. Perfect! It was comfy too. We asked about it and found it could not be delivered until July. That was okay, we could survive. We decided to look around a bit more, but we were pretty sure it was the one. Fast forward about 40 couch sets, all of which we had to sit on, and the kids had to attempt to jump on, and put their dirty shoes on (note to self....floor models may look clean, but they are obviously very, very dirty). We're still thinking of the first set...until....we see a sectional. We never even considered a section. You pretty much have to have the right space for one, and we never really have, until now. This sectional was gorgeous. It had a huge ottoman that all the girls could lay on, at the same time, and not be falling off. And only Katie's toes hung over the edge a bit. If you pushed the ottoman right into the corner of the sectional, it basically made a double bed, perfect for company.

We thought about it for a while and then decided what the heck! The salesman went to check on delivery etc. and it turned out we could get one piece of the sectional and the ottoman right away and the other piece in July. Sure, why not. While he went to right up the order, we went to look at tv's. Then we saw another sectional, in front of this huge tv (which in hindsight probably helped make the sectional look much smaller than it really was). We all had a seat. There were two reclining chairs. One had a vibrating function. And there was a phone in it. Built right in the arm rest of the chair was a phone. A real life, I am so lazy I am sitting in my vibrating recliner chair, not lifting a finger, calling you on the phone kind of phone. The couch also had a hide-a-bed. Bonus. They are heavier than heck, but if our future goes as planned, we will always have movers, so not our problem, lol.

You probably guessed that when the salesman got back and told us this sectional was on sale for $500 off the ticketed price, we were pretty much sold. Chris later told me he didn't really like the first sectional, but that he could tell I really did, so he figured it would be fine. This one, he really likes and I really like, so that's good. It was delivered yesterday and it is huge! It really makes the tv area of our new family room small and cozy, but it's turned into exactly the space I wanted. We're a tv family, I won't deny that. We all live to sit around in the evening and watch a show or a movie together. This space is exactly that. Yay!

Unfortunately though, our new fireplace is not going to fit in that space. We could put it behind the sectional, but that is going to become a kids play area, so I don't really want it there. We've decided it will come upstairs to the living room. Not quite what we had envisioned when we bought it, but it will still be in space where it can be used quite often. And if we buy the right tv for the living room, it will fit right on top of the fireplace (remember, we're a tv family).

So without further ado....our new furniture.

And hidden in one of the armrests of the middle chair is the phone...seriously, can you believe that? Do you think we'll actually use it much?

And this is a shot of the family room from near the basement stairs.

And a shot of what will be the kids area behind the couch eventually. That china cabinet will be moved into the office when the cabinet in the office gets moved to someone else's house. The Universal Gym will also be gone (know anyone who wants to buy a gym...cheap?), so that leaves a nice sized kids play area. It's good though because next fall I will have two 5 yr olds every other day when they are not in kindergarten (one is my own), two 2 or almost 2 yr olds, and one 6 mos old in my dayhome.