Piano Bench

Two weeks ago was a big shopping weekend for Jared and I. We found a print that we both liked (shocker) to put above the couch in the family room. Unfortunately since it was so large, 27 x 39 inches, we had to pay to have it custom framed (or put it in a cheap plastic poster frame. . .not really an option, we are trying to get away from dorm room decor). We also finally got around to reupholstering the piano bench.

I was a little torn about what to do with the bench at first. After all it's pretty much just a flat board. I've seen people on Trading Spaces put batting and fabric on a wood board a bunch of times for a padded bench, it didn't look too hard. All you need is fabric and a staple gun right? Well, in the end I wasn't so sure and I didn't want to ruin the bench and then have to buy a whole new one. Jared and I unscrewed the lid from the bench and took it to a professional reupholstering shop in Orland. It ended up being about 60 bucks (fabric included) which I thought was a little expensive, but not ridiculous. Actually, I'm going to be honest with you here, I have no idea if that's a good deal or not. Turns out there aren't that many reupholstering shops in the area and I didn't want to drag the bench lid around for quotes. So if you think we got ripped off, please leave a comment. :D

Two weeks go by and I drive back to pick up the lid. I wanted to have it all put back together on the bench by the time Jared got home from work to surprise him. The lid was screwed to the bench in 3 places, 2 hinges and a stop bar to keep the lid from opening more than 90 degrees. I put the lid on the bench and the stop bar is on the opposite side of the lid from where it originally was and the hinges are too close together and wouldn't line up. Oh. . .I was pretty ticked. Mainly because we paid good money so it wouldn't get messed up, and two because I didn't want to make 2 extra trips out to Orland to drop and pick it up again.

Long story short my mother was nice enough to come to the house on a Thursday when the shop came to pick up the lid and the bench (the only day they would do it), and it was ready 2 days later. . . but we had to go pick it up.

Apparently the new hole in the bench for the stop bar had to be on the opposite side because they couldn't screw it back into the old one after it was reupholstered. They said the hole was too big. I guess they thought that was ok to put it on the opposite side? They never called to ask. They also never explained why the hinges got messed up, I guess because they are dumb. Who knows. When they took the bench back to fix it I told them I didn't want any holes showing, and as few new holes screwed into the bench as possible. In the end they came through, and the upholstering job is great. What a pain though! Here is the finished product.

New Blog Title

Just a little side note. . .

I changed the title of the blog because I thought it was more appropriate. It's not just about the first time home buyer experience any more, but more of us, our family, and turning this house into our home. (in Greek accent) There you go!

Cats or Dogs?

I would like to just start out this post by saying I'm a dog person. For my fifth birthday my Mom asked me if I wanted a birthday party or a puppy. . . it was not a hard decision. Wicket (my first dog named after an Ewok from Star Wars) was so tolerant of the torturous "only child" that I was. I would dress her up in my baby doll clothes, shove her into my doll bunk beds, pull and play with her floppy ears; she would put up with everything. She always loved me. When I would cry I would wipe my tears on her floppy ears and she'd make me feel better. In my mind nothing could compare to the unconditional love of a dog.

Jared is an all around animal lover, but if I had to classify him I'd call him a cat person because that was the pet he grew up with. I never thought I'd get a cat, but it turns out that I'm pretty much an all around animal lover too and I'd rather have some pet then no pet at all. At the point in our lives that we decided to get a pet I couldn't justify getting a dog because I just didn't have the time to sink into training one. At the time Daniela and Greg were fostering a cute tabby kitten so we decided to adopt her. While I've always thought she was cute, I didn't really bond with her for the first few years we had her. I was SO annoyed at the shedding (my dogs didn't shed growing up), she rubs her face on everything (so much that in our last apartment she rubbed through the paint and some of the dry wall in one corner), she'd track cat litter every where, and she would never come cuddle with me when I wanted her to.

It's been five years now that we've had her, and I think I can honestly say that she loves me and I actually love her. Don't get me wrong the shedding still annoys the crap out of me, but we bought an amazing vacuum so that really helps. She still rubs her face on stuff, but the only corner she's really abusing in the new house is upstairs so most people don't see it. The litter box is now in the basement so no more litter in the house. Finally with her older cat age she's becoming a cuddler. She cuddles up next to me on the couch when I read, and she's even started sitting in my lap when I'm at the computer reading everybody's blogs. She's always at the door meowing to greet me when I get home from work. And the reason that prompted me to write this blog was a week or so ago when I was upset and crying she walked up to me meowing and kept rubbing on my legs. I guess cats aren't just snobby poop touchers (that nick name is a whole other story).

I still wouldn't call myself a cat person, and to be honest I don't think I'll ever get another cat. . . .but the Boo has definitely wormed herself into my heart.
Daniela told me she looks evil in the first picture, but I think she looks like she's smiling for the camera. :)



I put in this last picture because it's funny, and you can also see the corner in the apartment that she's started to destroy. It starts as this dirty gray area and then went down hill from there.

Is this week over yet?

My roommate freshman year in college had a great phrase she'd use a lot. (Hi Laura if you read this!) Bla-di-bla-di-bla. . . .sums up my week perfectly so far. Is it Friday yet?

Hunt for End Tables

It's that time again boys and girls, time to buy some more new furniture! The first set of furniture was relatively fun to buy. Jared and I had disagreements about the couches, but the table and wine server we totally agreed on (miracle!). Now we're looking for mission style end tables, a coffee table, entertainment center, and sofa table to finish off the kitchen/dining/family room.

Well I found a set that I liked and an entertainment center at the last place we bought at, Darvin Furniture. Problem was that the table set was not on display, we could only see the entertainment center. So we went to the store and took a drawer from our wine server and it matched the entertainment center perfectly! After that we spoke to a sales guy and told him we wanted the entertainment center and were interested in what the deal was buying something that was on the web site but not on display. My big concern was finish of the wood, and what would happen if we got the tables to our house and we didn't like them. I know you can never get things to always match perfectly (and everything matching is not always the best look), but I wanted something in the same realm. The guy at Darvin told us if we didn't like the furniture we were stuck with it, no store credit, no restocking fees. . .just screwed. Yeah, that didn't go over so well with me. All I wanted was at least store credit. We have a whole house to furnish, I can always get something else.

Long story short I called around to a ton of furniture stores and NOBODY had them on display, so I found another private furniture company that was willing to do 100% store credit if we didn't like the tables. We drove to the store and it happened that the guy found a wood sample of the pieces that we wanted to order and it was horrible! A light honey color which is nothing like the medium brown with a hint of red tables that we have. We ended up ordering a similar set, which the guy had another wood sample of. It's darker then the table and wine server, but I think a little darker will look better then too light. Plus the end table we have now is a super dark finish, and I don't think it looks out of place.

Here's what it looks like. http://www.darvin.com/Img/products/Peters_Revington/color/Lake%20Placid_2806-22-b2.jpg

Here is the first set we wanted to buy that ended up being a light honey color. Now when I look at this picture it matches our current furniture pretty well. http://www.darvin.com/Img/Products/Peters_Revington/Color/5721-B.jpg

Buying wood furniture is a pain in the butt, I can never see the big picture in my head. I think when we decide to furnish the living room it's going to be a buy everything at once deal.

Shoveling the Drive

Shoveling the drive way is a chore I don't really mind. I like being outside, even if it's cold, and it's good exercise. Well, now I want to buy a snow blower instead of a coffee table that was next on our big purchase list. I say this because the piles on the side of the drive way are now up to my hip in height. Shoveling and tossing the snow is no big deal, but when you have to heave and throw it higher then your waste it starts becoming really hard to do! Anyway, I just wanted to rant because I just finished shoveling the drive and it wasn't fun like it usually is. I also think that the mail man didn't deliver our mail because of the huge pile of snow surrounding our mail box. I had to shovel into the piles of snow to make a little path for him (our mailbox is at the end of the drive). I'll post some pictures later today. I think I'm ready for a break from snow.

Snow Pictures

I finally made it outside to take pictures of all the snow we've been getting!

Christmas/New Years

Things got pretty crazy the past couple weeks with the holiday, so I'm finally sitting down to update the blog.

I think one of the biggest things for me this year was cooking my first traditional Christmas dinner for my side of the family. My family is very very small (just Jared, me, Mom, Dad and Grandpa), but I was still nervous about cooking because my mother is an excellent cook. Well everything turned out great, and even Grandpa complimented me on the meal. The only thing that we didn't cook was the kuglis (potato and bacon casserole). The potatoes have to be hand grated; it's notorious for skinning knuckles in the process of making it (also the secret ingredient? lol). Mom brought that one over for us, next year I think we will try and cook the entire meal.
It's funny how when you finally cook a formal-ish meal you discover all the things that you are lacking in the kitchen. I bought my first set of linen napkins and napkin holders on after Christmas sale, it will make the place setting look a lot nicer next year. This was also the first time I've used Grandma's china. It was a lot of fun.

We hosted our first New Years Eve party this year! I don't think we've ever had that many people over at one time before, AND we served a pot luck dinner. I was freaking out at first that we were going to serve a messy meal and we can only fit about 8 people at our kitchen table (and 11 were coming), but I had a stroke of genius and we brought the old kitchen table up from the basement and set it in the family room so we had enough eating space. It was a great night of games and Rock Band. I stayed up until 3:30 in the morning! I don't remember the last time I stayed up that late. . . I think I'm getting old. :)