front door and decisions, decisions

Oh, hello.

I recently ordered this decal for my front door from an etsy shop called Lighthouse Decals. Something fun; a bit of whimsy. Something we all need these days. 

I've been spending a lot of time online looking for certain needed things for our home: patio cushions and pillows, a rug and chair for Brian's office, a welcome mat for the front porch, an odd-sized frame for a print, a bench or banquette for the kitchen table. It's not pleasant ~ at least not for me. There's too many choices and I end up falling down that internet rabbit hole. Other times, I've bookmarked things I've liked but I'm not completely sure on, or I want to show Brian first. And when I go back to them, they're out-of-stock.

One thing I will not order online is a sofa. Or couch. (Whatever you want to call it.) Too risky. I have to see it in person and sit on it and even lie down on it. When you're spending that much money and it's something non-returnable, no way. We'd looked in person for a sofa at several furniture stores in the past year. We never found anything we were 100% sure about, so we didn't buy. But now that I'm stuck in the house and I stare at our old sofa more than I used to, it's really bothering me.  Side note: excuse the small plate of berries and almonds; I was eating breakfast and thinking about a blog post and got up to take a photo. No staging, just real life.

This sofa is 14 years old. It is worn out. The cushions sink all the way down when you sit on them. There is no support. I can't sit on this sofa for more than 10 minutes without my back killing me. Not to mention, it's permanently discolored despite being professionally cleaned. 

And, my cats used to use the arms of the couch as a scratching post. I have a post by this arm of the sofa now and that's really helped. But the damage is done. We obviously can't go to stores now and sofa shop, so here's what I'm wavering on...

We have an IKEA sofa in the basement family room. It's about eight years old, but hardly used. As empty nesters, Brian and I never use this space in the basement. We have a ranch-style house so everything we need is on the first floor ~ kitchen, living room, bedrooms and bathrooms.

Going down the stairs into the basement, you can see how we have the sofa facing the TV. Which we never watch. Unless we're under a tornado warning and are camped out in the basement, or I'm on the treadmill. Both not frequent events. 😉

One reason we chose this IKEA sofa for the basement was because it came in pieces in a box. There was no way a regular sofa would fit around a corner and through a doorway going down into our basement. So we were able to assemble the sofa from the box right there in the basement.

Can you see where I'm going with this? I was thinking...

We could disassemble this sofa and bring upstairs to put in the living room to temporarily replace the ugly, old tan sofa. After all, even though this sofa is a cheap one, it certainly looks a lot better than what we have in the living room right now. 

But here's the cons: 

• I'd have to have Brian and our next door neighbor move the living room sofa to....where? Out by the curb and hope that someone picks it up with a day or two? What if they don't? We'd have to put the sofa in the garage and leave my car out on the driveway. For a long time.

• The disassembling and reassembling of the IKEA sofa is going to be a real pain-in-the-tush.

• That leaves us without a sofa in the basement and it's going to look weird down there without one. (I know, I know...we don't use this space. It's just an aesthetics thing to me.) And then once we are finally able to furniture shop again and do find a sofa for the living room, the IKEA sofa would once again have to be disassembled, carried back down to the family room, and reassembled.
  
  
  Whaddya think? Would you go for it? Or just leave things be until you could finally go sofa shopping in person again?

summer, unfolding

With the cooler, less humid weather we've been having lately, a lot of our time has been spent outdoors. The patio is the perfect summer spot for morning coffee, sitting and chatting with family and friends, and dinners el fresco. Flowers are lush this time of year, with phlox, lamb's ear and hydrangea now blooming, and purple coneflower, black-eyed susan and joe pye weed all about to burst into bloom. We had a two-day visit with Tim and that was filled with local dining on the river, movies, card games and errands. Hard to believe he'll be moving back home in under four weeks!

Brian painted our front door a cheery yellow and the side panel a crisp white. I did my part by picking out the paint colors, scraping the stray paint off the glass, and doing the touch-up paint work. We're a pretty good team. It's amazing how a little paint can transform a space. The brighter colors go well with the light gray siding and brighten up the entire front of the house. The door and side panel were originally a dark stain. I remember when we first had this door installed and the contractor asked what color I had in mind. I told him I really liked painted doors instead of stained, and that front doors looked best with colors that added a punch of color. He looked at me like I was crazy and said that a dark stain would look best against the light gray siding. I thought that because he was a contractor he knew best, so I let him go ahead and stain the door and side panel. I did like it at first, but eventually I realized it was too dark and formal-looking for our house. Goes to show it's best to trust your gut. Go with what you think is best.

This weekend was also a good time for a relaxing day trip, slow-walking up and down the flower-laden streets, popping into interesting shops, and more outdoor dining. 

Not all was fun and games this weekend though ~ on Sunday, we worked for five hours straight in the basement, cleaning out a huge space and reorganizing the things we kept. We bagged up all the unneeded and unwanted stuff, packed the back seat and trunk of our car to the hilt, drove to the Goodwill donation center, and dropped it all off. Now this cleared-out space is ready for Tim to drag all his stuff home in a few weeks. 

Life is busy ~ and good.

inspiration for a lace curtain and gratitude

My front door has a decorative glass window that brings needed light into my darkish living room. Even though the glass is beveled with metalwork in it, I always worried a bit about the privacy factor. You can't see into the house from the street during the day, but at night when the lights are on in the living room, it's a little spooky knowing someone can somewhat see into the house. I also didn't like knowing that a stranger could walk right up to the front door and look straight into my house. A bit creepy, right?

Then I saw Alice's entryway and front door. I loved how she had a lace panel hung up across the glass window in her door and wanted to do that with mine. I asked my mom if she had a lace panel that she wasn't using and yep, she did. Mom joined us last night for dinner and brought me the lace panel. Using the inspiration from Alice, I hung the lace across a couple of 3M hooks, tied it in the middle with some twine and am really happy with the results. Of course, the lace panel isn't totally fool-proof and there's still the small side window if someone really wanted to look into my house, but it's an improvement. Plus, it looks pretty!

The curtain added some needed softness to this part of the living room, too.

Tim's been home from school since Thursday as he's on Spring Break. It's been a whirlwind of taking his car to the mechanic for some brake work, his phone with a broken screen to a repair shop, shopping for jeans and shoes, extra cooking, cleaning and laundry ~ but I'm enjoying every moment while I can. We visited our favorite coffee shop this afternoon and indulged in iced mochas. As we drove home with the sun roof open to the glorious, sunny sky, the radio blasting The Doors, and groaning to each other how our tummies ached from the chocolately caffeinated goodness, my mama heart was filled with gratitude. Tomorrow morning I will make my "famous" breakfast casserole and then Tim will be packing up his stuff to head back to school. And I will be heading to a bread-making class. I'll tell you all about that in my next post. In the meantime, I hope your weekend has been filled with inspiration and gratefulness, too.