anniversary part 5 - the dead of winter

OMG, I am banging these posts out like someone working to a deadline! This one is a wrap up of all of the indoor stuff that happened over last winter. Some of these are a little out of order - the year in review posts are as disorganized as the actual year in review was!

breakfast room

I got this room together in late fall to get ready for my parents visit. It's really a 3 season room, but it has a pellet stove so really can be used whenever if you light the stove. It faces east and has beautiful morning light, so we call it the breakfast room. This room was almost entirely furnished with things we already had. The only things I bought were two sets of twin sheets from Amazon, and the foam to make the banquette cushions! Naturally I have lots of ideas of ways to make this room even better and really old lady it up (chinoiserie ceiling mural anyone?), but it's low on the priorities list.

The photo from the listing.

This table and hutch belonged to my grandmother and were in our kitchen when I was a child.

theater

I do feel weird about making these posts about the house and this one seems to be making me feel extra weird. I just want to say that we have worked really hard and also been really lucky, and we also live in an area with pretty affordable housing. As a kid, growing up with 4 people in a house the size of a big hotel room (not a suite, like one with a couch) with one phone and one bathroom, I dreamed of SPACE, and all my life I've been working toward just having as much space as I want. Now I have it and I feel like I have to apologize for it. EYE. ROLL.

Here are the listing photos of the theater space.

During the after Christmas sales, giant TVs were really cheap, so we thought it was a good time to buy one for our home theater.

So big it didn't lay flat in the truck bed!!

Chris did look into projectors, which would have been easier to transport and bigger, but they were a lot of money and since we are more likely to watch the BBC's Pride and Prejudice than Marvel Comic Universe, 85" seemed big enough. To clarify, Chris doesn't ever ask to watch the Pride and Prejudice miniseries and I would never force him, but we just usually watch low action movies with dialog and plots. Snooty, right?

The plan was to watch this big TV while sitting on this giant couch that we bought in like 2010 that is looking a little beat, but is so comfortable, and then at some point down the line we would buy theater seating. Then we discovered the reason that the previous owners only had small pieces of furniture in that room... the couch would not go up the stairs! My beautiful plan... RUINED (dramatic weeping).

Then we had this big TV and honestly, I wanted to watch it! Like all beautiful couches, the couches in our family room are NOT comfortable and I just wanted somewhere to relax and watch my favorite period drama. Finally I had had enough and bought some theater seats on 0% interest so I could relax right away, without saving any money!

We got enough for us and all of our friends.. plus a couple extra - we are very unpopular.

Once we got the theater chairs, it made it sad that this other area was empty and I felt compelled to furnish it. I imagined that this would be a good place to enjoy the view, or for Chris to hang out with his musician friends when they come over to jam, and also if we ever had a big movie night (and made some new friends), we could move some of these chairs over. I spent hours scouring the inter web for chairs that were cute, comfortable, and cheap and these were the winners! We bought them with the rebate card from the new refrigerator, so they were free, right?

OK, we were ready to watch movies, right? WRONG! We needed a snack bar obviously! At first we survived with this rudimentary snack bar on a folding table.

https://videopress.com/v/E0NxslbY?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

But then my pottery teacher and his lovely wife were downsizing and gave us a trailer load of furniture treasures including this snack bar! OK, I mean, they called it a buffet, but I don't think they appreciated it for its true purpose.

The top had some damage, so I repaired the veneer like I did for the ballroom fireplace and then I used my advanced contact paper skills to cover it! This contact paper only came in big rolls, so expect to see it again. Looks pretty good, right?

The finished snack bar! The microscope lamp was a housewarming gift, I haven't tried to do sheep fecal analysis with it yet...

This dog, the baby of our family, Uly, is devoted to the popcorn machine like in the children's book, "Are you my Mother?". There is a little gap around the door and when it's popping, popcorn kernels escape for him to catch. If we can't find him, he's usually sitting in front of it waiting for the magic to happen.

Barring any other forgotten winter projects, I think this brings us to early spring / mud season, so only like 10 more posts to capture our progress in my long winded, rambling style. Honestly, if anyone makes it through these, I should owe them a dinner or something. See you next time!