A Weekend of Mishaps and One Exchange

When you move into a new house it doesn't take long to figure out things you want to change right away, things you may want to change over time, and the things you want to stay the same. Together, Tim and I have a list and each week or two we prioritize what moves to the top and is urgent to us. The list before moving into the house was like this:

1. Have a new doorway knocked out from kitchen to dinning room.
2. Build chicken coop.
3. Buy patio furniture.
4. Buy a queen sized bed.
5. Make the book nook.
6. Etc, Etc, Etc....

The list, as you may have guessed, changed after the big move. The patio area is where we like to spend a lot of time with friends and family, so making it a livable space became top priority. Getting my books out of boxes and put away was surprisingly at the top of Tim's list, so the nook also made its way to the top. Adjusting to a kitchen with very few drawers made a new kitchen island move its way into the top five. The new queen sized bed also crawled its way up. Here is the list now.

1. Patio Furniture. Done.
2. Paint book nook, buy bookshelves, and put room together. Done.
3. Buy kitchen island with built in drawers. Done.
4. Queen sized bed. Done.
5. Chicken coop.
6. Have a new doorway knocked out from kitchen to dinning room.
7. Etc, etc, etc.

Acquiring the patio furniture went smoothly. We found a great deal on some super comfortable swivel chairs that we love. Then the search was on for the right table. That took a little longer but was well worth the wait. After that there was no looking back. We absolutely love our patio and spend a good amount of time out there.
Putting together the book nook was a little more stressful. Choosing colors, painting, building the bookshelves, and finally getting the books on the shelves all added up to a lot of time and even a little bickering (yes, that is right, Tim and I can occasionally bicker and we even consider it healthy in small doses.) The end result is a room that we enjoy and even the neighbors come over to borrow books.
We thought the next project was going to be a new doorway, but after trying to get our kitchen settled we decided to get the new kitchen island. Having our silverware divide up into little drawers just wasn't working, not to mention the lack of storage. This weekend we made a trip to Ikea and picked up the chosen island. It looks very similar to the old one (which is now my project room table...woo hoo....it was nice to kill to birds with one stone.) Putting the island together was a different story. We made a MAJOR mistake and put holes where none should be. Lucky for us, Ikea swapped the parts out. It helped that the instructions weren't very clear at that point. Yikes.
We also picked up a queen bed and were so excited to put it in our downstairs bedroom. I guess we didn't learn our lesson when we initially moved in. Let me explain.
We have a matching couch and loveseat. The loveseat went easily into the basement. Then we tried to take the couch down. After removing three doors and one banister it was inches from fitting....INCHES. It now sits in the living room upstairs. We plan to give it one more try, but have to take a door off a shower first. It might be a lot harder than it sounds, so we are feeling a little intimidated by that project.
After several weeks we must have forgotten how awful it was to try and squeeze furniture down the stairs. So we bought our new bed, brought it home all happy and cheerful, then tried to squeeze the box spring down the stairs. Now the new bed is upstairs and we are still sleeping on our old bed downstairs until the nights get a little cooler.
I also took Tim to meet our chickens this weekend. He is even more excited to get the coop built after getting to know his new gals. Looks like we have a weekend of building coming soon.
So at the end of each day we have big lists and little lists of things to do. And yet at the end of each day I feel happy and content, knowing that our house is slowly metamorphosing into our home.