I DO Knit Occasionally...

...I just have nothing to show for it yet. A couple of dishcloths is about it. No Giftmas Knitting for me this year. Besides—I'm infatuated with crochet right now and the cold weather has me finishing afghans I started 10 years ago. There are three on deck: Damknit's Hexagonal afghan (OK, that's new); a ripple afghan, and... I dunno, some other thing.

What I will show you, maybe this week, is my living room. Remember the mess? The mess that later translated to complete chaos thanks to unloading a 10x12 storage unit into my home this summer?

It's clearing up.

Yes, there is still a tower of boxes and tubs to sort through. BUT they are lined up neatly against one wall rather than haphazardly blocking the picture window (and giving the neighbors something to wonder about as they walk the dog). I've consolidated some stuff, moved all the boxes of "papers to sort" into the third room (my... guest room/"library"/where Dad's desk lives) which is where the filing cabinet is, and I've sorted four tubs of HANGERS into nice neat groups contained with a zip tie and carefully packed into ONE box destined for Goodwill. (There are that many extra hangers. OMG. And that's after keeping the good wooden ones and the skirt hangers to use to hold boots.)

I had to take a break, though, because the dust was getting to me. OMG, do I ever vacuum? Apparently not. *cough cough* And I'm sore. And my cleaning lady hair, OMG. I took a photo. I can't decide if I'm daring enough to put it out there in public.

Well, I've procrastinated long enough by checking email, getting the real mail (both mostly junk), and reading all my blogs... what's left is to move a few more things off the rug, vacuum it, and then... I get to rearrange the furniture.

That's actually what inspired me to finally do this. I had taken the laptop to the couch so I could sit back and work on a project, and I realized that for the past 48 going on 49 years, the couch in the living room has ALWAYS been in EXACTLY THE SAME SPOT. The couch itself has changed, but the POSITION never has!

For some reason, that bothered me! At my old house, I moved stuff around like five times before I got it the way I wanted it (then of course I moved). I decided I don't want it flat up against the center of the wall with an end table on either side and a chair on either side of that and the view straight out into the yard.

I want it at an angle.

I want to be able to choose whether to look outside OR look at the fireplace. Which hasn't been used in probably five years and I have no idea how to build a fire (on purpose) OR if it's even safe after being dormant OR who to call about it OR how much that might cost—BUT I want to be able to LOOK at it for a change.

I figure the cherry drop leaf table can go in behind it kind of like a sofa table for now. (I'm not even sure I'm keeping it. It's lovely, but... from what I recall, we never used it anyway! My parents picked it out, so it's not an heirloom like Grandma's dining table. It's the table I was never allowed to touch, had to be careful of, and that we never used. Why did we have it?)

The end tables? Mersman. They're OK. Not my style. I much prefer the really cool retro 70s modular table I also inherited. It's blonde. It goes with my blonde stacking tables. The chairs are OK—they can form a conversation area off to the side. The long narrow glass-topped bamboo coffee table will fit, too. I think this will all work.

I hope so.

Then maybe I'll go buy that metallic turquoise paint I've been thinking of putting around the fireplace...

The thing about inherited furniture is... if it's your style, great; if it's not, you feel guilty about passing it to someone else or selling it. But what are you supposed to do, just hold onto it anyway? Cherry—not my thing. Cherry, Early American. Echh. I prefer Mission, I still like Southwestern colors (though with an update), and I like light wood. The bamboo stuff works, though. It's organic.

OK. I'm getting cold now, so I must be rested.

Thanks for stopping by, see ya later.

Labels: boring household crap

posted by Jeanne @ 6:11 PM