It's been brought to my attention that I have not yet posted a picture of the now-finished master shower enclosure. So, here it is. :) I'm really happy with it. The original design included a LOT more framing. (Why? I don't know. That was cheapest; I guess that was the appeal.) So far, it's a big pain to keep clean. We put Rain-X on the inside, but it's not really helping it stay clean. I'm trying to use the squeegee (sp?) after each shower, but there are still streaks and water spots on the inside, plus regular cleaning streaks on the outside. So, I'm not sure how this is going to work out long-term. (Note also the beautiful temporary bath mat. I'm trying to decide what color to get. Also, thanks to some fine strategic placement of the floor vent, getting a good-sized bath mat is going to be quite the challenge.
Trees
We always knew we wanted to put some trees along the front property line. Home Depot had fruit trees on sale, so we figured we'd just go for it. The best part was that Dennis got to dig 7 giant holes in the yard. (outside + digging + dirt = happy Dennis) We have 2 apple trees, 2 peach trees, 2 pear trees, and a crabapple tree. We think we did a pretty good job digging the holes, watering, fertilizing, mulching, and protecting them from all of the wildlife around here. To top it off, we had a big thunderstorm last night, so they got even more water. Here's hoping they all live and we end up with some great fruit in the years to come!New Sofa
We knew long ago that we were in need of a new sofa. But we held off until the move for various reasons (get a good sense of the new space, avoid moving things twice, etc.). Over the last month or so, one or both of us has been to Room & Board, Rothman, Weekends Only, Macy's, La-Z-Boy, Ashley Furniture, Peerless Furniture, Peerless Leather, and Bassett. And that's on top of extensive online shopping. Everything we found was either too soft or too hard, too expensive or too big, etc.I'd found a potential sofa online at Crate & Barrel, and we were going to go try to look at it on Sunday. But, at $1800, it was still pretty pricey, so we wanted to double-check a few inexpensive places first. Weekends Only rotates their stock often, and our "requirements" had changed quite a bit as we continued shopping and realized more and more that we were not going to find what we really wanted.
So, we went back to Weekends Only. We found this sofa (a floor model) for $825 and just jumped on it. It's not our "forever" sofa. We really wanted the chaise on the other side. We really wanted real leather (this is "durahide," which is a fancy word for "vinyl). We wanted a slightly more contemporary look. But hey, no one was willing to put up the extra $3200 for the one we really wanted at Bassett, so we got this one instead. Hey - it's easy to clean, the sections hook together, and there is plenty of room for people to sit down.
Next up: ottoman and side tables for the living room, desk for the office, dresser for the baby's room, barstools and breakfast table/chairs for the kitchen. I'm almost glad we can't buy rugs for a while - I'm quite furniture-shopped out!
