Searching for the living room love seat has been secondary to finding the all important, and yet oh so elusive sleeper sofa and love seat for the den. Why? Because while it would be nice to have the living room more furnished than it currently is, we’ve already had a few guests sleep over on my rattan sofa and on an inflatable mattress and I’m a bit embarrassed about our lack of hospitality.
It turns out needing something seems to put it just out of reach. Not needing something allows it to just show up and say hello. Such was the case yesterday when we strolled into a Haverty’s to see what they had, with no expectation of finding anything we might want or need. We looked at every sofa/love seat they had in stock and with each one, we managed to find something wrong — no solids, only striped fabric, nail heads on everything, weird arm styles, etc.
As we were about to leave the store, Tim spied a very mid-century modern sofa – cool looking, but not really right for our house. We went to gawk at it anyway and there, just behind it was a hidden gem. It was hiding — in plain sight! — in the front of the store.
The good news: It is the “just right” love seat for our living room that we weren’t expecting to find. (Right size, right color, comfy cushions, in stock and available almost immediately! )The even better news: We’ll have it in time for the holidays. To the above left is a color corrected picture of our new love seat from the Haverty’s web site.
by Carollynn on 15 December 2007 
The big renovation projects are close to complete, so now its time to start looking for furniture. The living room has 2 nice green chenille slipper chairs, but that’s not really enough to make it usable. In the den, my “antique” rattan sofa and love seat have new slipcovers, padding and look renewed, but somehow just don’t cut it as guest room furniture. So the great furniture search has begun, I am looking for leather furniture so a friend recommended me to visit Wellington’s Fine Leather Furniture. Who knew that shopping for a sleeper sofa and matching love seat would be such a trying and fruitless experience.
In the last month or so we’ve trekked all over central Maryland. Either we find a style of sofa that we really like, but the sleeper option is so horrid I wouldn’t ask my worst enemy to sleep on the thing or the sleeper mattress is divine, but the sofa styles are so frumpy that I wouldn’t allow it in my house for fear of its frumpiness rubbing off on me and all who see it. Other things that get in the way of our purchase have been not the right style, size, lack of style, decent fabric, missing matching love seat or prohibitive prices. Which means we’re still looking.
I can recall saying to a friend in the not so distant past that once I finished my bachelor’s degree that I was done.
And then along came a spider called project management masters certificate from George Washington University and later possibly an actual masters degree and I’m salivating to go back to school. Beginning some time in late January – early February that is exactly what I will do. Start the first of seven PM classes that will run over the course of 9 months.
Am I nuts or what?
To steal a phrase from my little neighbor Anna: Look at me! Look at me! I’m presenting a talk at the DC Metro Chapter of the Usability Professionals Association on October 12th with a colleague.
Our presentation (Incorporating Information Architecture Activities into the Redesign of the US Census Bureau’s Web Site) is one of the last of the day, but pretty exciting to be among those selected to speak!
So far no jitters, but I’m sure the butterflies will take off soon. Cross your fingers that I do well.
by Carollynn on 26 August 2007 Sigh, summer is almost over. Next weekend is Labor Day and the decadent dessert party. I can already feel the pounds just piling on. And then its fall – autumnal equinox is not until Sept. 23 at 5:51 A.M. EDT, but Labor Day weekend signals the end of summer fun and back to school.
We went to Florida in July to visit my closest friends, mid August was the annual Filemyr family get together in the Deep Creek Lake area of western Maryland. This year was doubly special as Tim’s daughter Lisa and her boyfriend David joined us at Tim’s mother’s, thus breaking the previous record from Christmas of 16 people, 3 cats and 1 dog to 18 people, 2 cats and 1 dog under one roof. Speaking of the roof, if you plan to renovate your house and you’re wondering how long does a roof last in Florida, find the answer here at reroofingflorida.com You can also check out palm springs roofing for more information related on this article.
Below are some photos from Marilyn’s birthday party at Cornish Manor.
All 18 of us - sans the pets!
Marilyn and her children
Amy, Tim, Lois and Steve
Tim, Amy, Marilyn, Lois and Steve
The in laws and Marilyn (Christina, Doug, Marilyn, Rick, Me )
Tim & me
by Carollynn on 2 August 2007 Yeah, well, um, that was the plan. But you know, plans sometimes change, especially with older houses. What started out as just painting the downstairs bathroom has turned into:
- Removing the old and ugly medicine cabinet and replacing it with a large 2′ by 3′ vintage mirror
- Removing the old, ugly and inefficient lighting fixture and 2 hanging new light fixtures.
- Removing the ugly and useless wall soap dish and installing an electrical outlet so one could conceivably use a hair dryer or other such personal electrical devices like tablets or computers that sometimes can get too heat, that’s why the use of temperature recorders are necessary when using this kind of products.
- Moving the light switch closer to the bathroom door
- And finally, painting the walls a dreamy orangy sunset color
And this doesn’t address the need for a cabinet over the toilet to replace the lost medicine cabinet, a new, larger bathroom sink and cabinet, nor the need for real tiles on the floor instead of linoleum that looks like tile. No, that’s scheduled for sometime next year….
