Changes Have Happened - The Elves are Working

At some point, I realized that I have yet to post a pic of the front of the house!  This was taken from the auditor's website, and it is from July of 2010, but it really shows the house at its best when all the plants have their best blooms on:

The biggest news I have today is that the painter-elves have been working, and we believe they’ve finished painting the garage! 

Here are some before pics:

As you can see, it wasn’t horrible, but it did need a little help.  So here are some “after” pics:

We plan to use the area on the right, under that big shelf (which is very sturdy) to store things that we are going to move over from the storage unit.  That metal shelf unit was actually screwed in to those 2 parallel boards on the wall, but the shelf unit isn't in very good shape, so we will probably replace that at some point.  

As far as the interior goes... mainly they've just taken down the ugly brown doors (one of which may become Hubby's workbench in the garage), and started patching curtain rod holes.  The painters also cut out the carpet edges so they can get right down to the floor.  Evidently, there are no vacuum-elves that follow the painter-elves around, because they left a trail of carpet boogers everywhere.

Today’s big adventure was a visit to Value City Furniture where we think we found our living room furniture, and also our bedroom furniture.  Let me give you some samples:  

Choice #1 is a sectional called the "Adrian".  There was a time when we thought we wanted a sectional.  This one is 8' each direction, and it would definitely fit in the room along the left wall and under the window.  However, the more we look at sectionals, the less we like them.   This particular sectional is not very versatile - it just comes in this configuration, and that's it.   The color of this one in real life wasn't this orange.  It is microfiber.  Anyway, here is the sectional from Value City:

Option #2 was a traditional couch, loveseat, chair grouping called the "Calypso", and we would get the red color shown here on the ottoman:  (This is also microfiber)

Option 2 also has a small recliner (on the right below), which I liked:

I think I liked this set better than Hubs did.  One thing neither of us like is the fact that both the seat and back cushions are attached, so you can’t flip them. 

However, once we found set #3 (the "Palmer") we both decided this is our top choice as of now.  There is a 72" loveseat and then 2 couches - a 2-cushion one that is 82" and a 3-cushion one that is 92".  There is also a small chair in contrasting fabric.  We liked the style, the fabric and the color better on this set than anything else we've found.  We would probably get the 92" for the left wall, and the 72" for under the window and then put the chair under the half-wall.  These separate pieces give us more flexibility than a sectional does.  We also like the fact that this is not microfiber and the cushions can be flipped.  The size of these 3 pieces also fit us both very well - they aren't so deep that we get lost.  

Ok – now, about the bed…  We already have a bed on order from Ashley Furniture, but we saw one today at Value City that we like better, so we are seriously considering cancelling the Ashley bed.   Here is a pic of the Ashley bed called "Martini" (we are getting a Queen):

The Value City bed is called “Plantation Cove” – it is also a Queen, but as you can see, the style is very different:  

It is hard to see the detail on the head and footboard, but it is the same shutter design that is on this dresser:  We both think this fits our style better than the Martini.   The plan is to make curtains for the bed with curtain rods inside the X detail at the top.

All of you faithful readers are welcome to give your opinions on these furniture choices yet.  We’ve still got a month before we can move anything in anyway.  Let us know what YOU think!