Our built-ins have arrived!

Though they aren't anywhere near done. Our friend Zane brought over the built-ins and placed them into their spot, but they are not yet bolted in or trimmed out yet.


Tyler is downstairs right now priming the ends of the bookshelves that you'll be able to see once bolted in, but will be difficult to get to (making priming/painting a big challenge). Once he's done with that Zane will be back to bolt everything in and put all the final trim on as well as doors, hardware, and do a final sand. Then we'll prime and paint the rest BM Decorators White (the same paint that is on the brick).

My plan is to have the shelves filled with CDs (we have more than we could ever know what to do with -- this would actually be just the tip of the proverbial iceberg) and then have baskets in the bench cabinets so that we can toss toys in there in an attempt to be tidy.

Once the built-ins are complete we'll be able to finally make sense of the mess that has taken over the rest of the room. Someone is coming to pick up our futon tomorrow - yay!

Baby's first horse.

No, we haven't gotten our unborn child a pony just yet.

You may or may not know that I'm a lifelong equestrian. I think my first words might have been "riding lessons?" Will our little one be afflicted with the same case of horse fever?

Here I am with a former mount, Hank, enjoying a lovely fall day.

I'm not sure baby's grandparents know what they might be encouraging with the following gift: a gorgeous rocking horse! We didn't expect it and it is a wonderful addition to our home.

It is nice to have baby stuff that is aesthetically pleasing.

Someone isn't so sure about these changes.

Painting forever.

Here's another painting-in-progress shot. Tyler applies BM Gray Wisp to the eastern wall of our family room.


You can get an idea of what we're dealing with in this basement -- electrical and pipes everywhere. The bungalow is made out of "tile-blox" construction. In other words, it is made out of huge chunks of concrete. (There is pebble-dash stucco all over the exterior.) When one of the previous owners "finished" the basement in the early 1950s, they left it pretty bare bones. It was turned into a one bedroom/one bathroom apartment complete with kitchen, but as you can see, it is still very much a basement. Because of the concrete walls, all the plumbing and electrical is run on top of the walls. We just don't have the budget to completely drywall everything, so we're working with what we have.

I wish I could take some prettier pictures, but right now everything is shoved to the middle of the room and it looks like hell. It is definitely a case of "it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better." So here's hoping that it gets a whole lot better. We're very excited for the built-ins which should arrive soon, but we'll have to prime/paint them before they are installed.

Family room, in progress.

I'm slow in posting Tyler's painting progress because he's actually done more than these photos show, but here is the one wall he did last weekend. New shiny white paint on the brick (it was dull, matte off-white before) and Benjamin Moore Night Train on the walls.


The other walls will soon be the lighter BM Gray Wisp.


We keep having to move all of our furniture around the room and it is getting pretty annoying, especially because I'm so useless as a pregnant person -- useless at painting and useless at lifting heavy objects.

Lately I've been fretting over the couch that we'll be getting for our improved family room. We currently have a shabby old futon down there as well as a very well-worn loveseat. My requirements for a couch are these: 1) needs to be a sleeper, 2) needs to have a slipcover, 3) needs to be relatively cheap. It will come as no surprise that these requirements lead me straight to IKEA. Unfortunately, our closest IKEA is about 8 hours away. (At least until they open IKEA Denver which will be in... oh... a couple of years. Too long to wait to buy this couch, though what a happy day it will be.)

These days I'm leaning towards the Karlstad sofa bed in Sivik dark gray. I'm hoping it will go well with the grays that we've got going on in the room. We'll have to have them ship it to us, unfortunately, and that will cost a bundle.
I am liking those clean lines.