Batten down the hatches!

Can you believe I blogged 3 days in a row? And then didn't blog for 3 days in a row? I'm sure you can believe the second one more easily than the first, but they're both true.



Crawling. Oh, crawling!
Put away your fine china and laptop cords people! Batten down the hatches! Where are the gates?! Where is that durn pack 'n play?

There's nothing like a freshly crawling baby to make you realize the house you previously thought to be an acceptable level of clean is actually, really, incredibly dirty. And what's the fascination with the rug the dog lays on? And my shoes, really?

Also, (random) why can't houses be like cars, so you can just trade yours in when you want a new one?

Excuse me while I go vacuum behind the entertainment center.

The book situation

We have a book situation, or maybe a book storage situation.

We finally got a big rug for the living room (this is related, trust me). The main reason I wanted a rug is so that Will can play on the floor. Even with a thick blanket, I don't like the idea of him bumping his head on the tile, so the only rooms he's played on the floor in are our bedrooms. A rug in the living room will hopefully make it easier for us to do things while he plays and still keep an eye on him.

The rug is going to go in front of the couches, but the coffee table is there now so I have to move the coffee table. But before moving the coffee table, which I'm actually going to relocate to the empty kitchen/breakfast nooky (that doesn't sound right) area, I have to clean it off. (Since Will was born the coffee table has become a major pile collector and has made me question the existence of it, but I love it. But, wow, does it look awkward in it's new location). So, I started cleaning it off last night when I was met with the book situation.

There are books on the coffee table, on the bottom shelf of the coffee table, and on the floor beside the coffee table. I checked the bookshelves and there is only room for 1 more book! I hate laying books across the tops of others on the shelf, so I refuse to do that. I looked over the titles to see if I could get rid of any but I don't want to do that either.



I would really like to have two "built-in" type bookcases, one on each side of the wood stove but that's only going to happen if we buy this house. For now I think I'll have to settle for creating another shelf by using a bookend on the top of this bookcase. And by "bookend" I mean stuff that's already there, like a photobox.



Really, I feel like the whole wood stove part of the room seems awkward (and now the coffee table in the breakfast area makes for matching awkwardness). It needs something on both sides to look right. Built-ins, like I mentioned would be perfect. Sigh.

Oh, and here's the rug, if you'd like to see. Bonus cute baby.



So now we have a coffee table problem, it looks odd where it is and I don't really want to part with it. I should have taken a photo of it so you can understand my love for it. I probably should just get rid of it though, I know it's not safe for Will once he starts pulling up on things, since it has wheels. The other half of the coffee table problem is that now we don't have a place to sit drinks or prop our feet in front of the TV. Husband wants to sit his drink on the floor, to me that's just asking for a mess.

While it won't solve the place-to-put-your-drink portion of the problem, I do hope to make an ottoman. I say hope because who knows when I'll have the time. Like how I keep thinking about getting my own sewing machine so I can sew things, but when would I even have time to sew? Silly. Anyway, I would make an ottoman using these instructions (though about half that size) out of a wood pallet.

Are you dealing with any silly home decorating situations? Want to buy a coffee table?

You can comment on this page, I won't bite.

House or home?

Last year we tried to buy a house, we even had a contract on one but it fell through. Then we found out we couldn't get a loan anyway because Shawn already owns a place. Well, we could get a loan but we'd have to pay 20% down. So we ended up renting.

The owners of the house we live in had wanted to sell. Last month Shawn briefly talked to our landlord about owner financing so we could buy the house, nothing has come from that.

I keep thinking, do I really want to buy this house? Of course I've already brought up a million ideas for things I would like to do with it if we were to buy it. Like paint that terrible mauve wall for starters, then every other wall. However, it's definitely not a forever house, and it's definitely not my dream house. But a good starter house? Perhaps.

There are many things I don't like about it, but of all the places we looked at in our price range, it was the best. It was the only one that didn't have something that I really hated (except that mauve wall, it's done the opposite of 'grown on me').

So, what's wrong with it, you say?
I think my main issue is size, but that's not quite right. It's a good size house, it's 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, it has a nice sized kitchen, a small dining room and a nice back porch. Will's room is pretty small in my opinion, but to Shawn it's a good sized room, since his own childhood room was smaller. I guess it's more of a layout issue.

The master bedroom is actually quite large, it used to be two bedrooms, but two bedrooms that were across the hall from each other, so it's long and awkward. I don't quite know what to do with the half of the room that our bed is not in. Our bathroom is kinda tiny and I would want to replace the stall shower with tub. (While I was pregnant, I used the hall bath, which has a tub, so I could shave without losing my balance. Yes, I shaved my legs throughout my entire pregnancy).

There's also the issue of the third bedroom. The third bedroom is kind of useless to me. It's in part of what used to be a garage, there's a door separating it from the rest of the house, it's not heated or cooled; it just feels completely disconnected from the rest of the house. It works as a guestroom, but I can't see using it as a child's room (in a couple years people!).

Sure, we could turn the master bedroom back into two rooms, but they would be two small rooms.

Then there's the living room. The living room is odd. It also, used to be two separate rooms, which means there is a wall that is now gone. So instead of two small rooms with plenty of useable wall space, we have one room with hardly any useable wall space. Two walls have windows and doors, one wall has a fireplace and the opening to the hallway, and the other has two large openings leading to the kitchen and dining room. This makes furniture arrangement very limited. Basically, we could never have a couch against a wall, unless we wanted to block a window. I was going to make a little floor-plan diagram, but I can't find an online tool that will work and I don't feel like making it in photoshop. Also: tile. I'm thinking about making a whole 'nother post about carpet vs tile, I've had both and I would prefer carpet for a living room. Even with kids? You ask. Especially with kids.

So what do I like about this place? What makes me still kind of want to buy it, or at least not be so sure that I'd want to leave it?
This:



This is our backyard. Not even half of it.

Oliver loves it here and I'm sure, one day, Will would too.