Baby meet IKEA...

All parents and parents-to-be can probably relate to how kid's stuff tends to take OVER. If not, I envy you. I feel like - actually, I'm well aware - we're losing the battle I'm not quite sure it's possible to win anyway and she's not even here yet. Since Chris started painting the nursery all the things that were stored in there plus all the baby stuff we have been acquiring are now consuming our bedroom and office...driving me a bit crazy. Not a far drive some days but that's another matter. 

Solution to our storage problem? One word. HEMNES. Don't speak IKEA? Let me translate. HEMNES is the traditional looking furniture line from the great Swedish store. A couple months ago, Chris and I got two white HEMNES 8 drawer dressers for our bedroom and love them...someday I might blog about them.  Continuing the theme, my parents bought us (really, the baby) a white HEMNES dresser for the nursery as an early baby gift along with baby's crib from IKEA.

After picking up the dresser and the crib yesterday morning with the help of Chris' family's van and muscles, I begged Chris to put the dresser together...after he was in class all day. Knowing he's still got a lot of painting to do in there, we decided the dresser could just move to the center of the room while  painting was being wrapped up. And it can hold most of the smaller baby things and clothes at the same time. 


If you didn't know, most of IKEA furniture comes "flat-pack" which means you can get it home easily but have to put it together at home. Just think of it like a "big-kid" lego project. Pretty fun. Chris seemed to enjoy himself...and I enjoyed watching and taking pictures.

Step 1. Open box, read instructions and sort pieces...all while smiling. 

Step 2. Start assembling dresser frame.

Step 3. Continue smiling while assembling frame, wonder when your wife is going to stop taking your picture.

Step 4. Frame mostly assembled, consult instructions.

Step 5. Assemble dresser top.

Step 6. Nail backing on dresser, avoid thumbs.

Step 7. Put drawers together, end is in sight.

Step 8. Finished. Assembled. Happy.

*Optional* Step 9. Add organizers to hold baby's little things.

The dresser is going to have a changing pad on top so we can skip the traditional changing table. Bonus for us tall folk? Upon putting it together, we discovered that it's higher than some of the other changing tables/dressers. Nice. 

We decided to wait to put the crib together until the painting is actually done so Chris will have room to move while working in the nursery. Guess I'll actually have to start sewing the quilt now...

A bit o' green...

Call me inspired. This recent bout of nice weather has got me hooked. I think I'm ready to embrace Spring and things green...including some decoration modification. 

I try (try being the operative word) to buy versatile linens, pillows, etc that I can mix and match. The intent is that I can change things up without having to buy a lot of new items or store a bunch of linens in non-existent closets. I usually stick to changing textures and avoid patterns but I picked up this duvet set at IKEA (big surprise) for about $19. Score. Color and patterns, colored-patterns, a big out of the ole' comfort box for me. But, the pattern reminds me of tulips which just so happen to be my favorite flowers (must be Dutch or granddaughter to a bonafide Pella Tulip Queen). Double score. 

Let's see what else I can Spring-ify this weekend...

Housewarming Party!!

Last Saturday morning, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut-off...giving half-intelligible directions of what to clean, where to chuck/hide masses of things, etc to Chris, my parents and my grandma. Why? It was H-day...Housewarming party day. And, thirty or so friends and family would soon be knocking to come in and take a gander at all of our work on our *new* home. 

And they did! We had a great time getting to show people the house and changes and catch up with some friends we hadn't seen in a while! Our realtor, Jackie, stopped by too and got to see all the changes since she'd last seen the house in August...a lot. I think everybody had a pretty good time too...I was told of a few meatball-induced food comas following the bash.

To be very honest, there is not a chance that Chris and I would have pulled off such a party without some major help from both our parents and Grandma Versluys. Nope, not a chance. We are very thankful for all their help! Unfortunately, I didn't get any picture evidence of their work. Actually, I didn't get any pics of during the party, guests, etc. Here are a few pics that I got before the party...

 

Dining room bookcases (finally *pretty-ified*)

 
 

First floor *guest* room 

 
 

Living room area (which is now crawling, 7 month old-approved)

 

A tidier landing/shelf (above the front door, 

we think the stairs were moved to their current spot) 

Office upstairs sporting the vintage wallpaper...which was fairly popular with guests!

 

Tada...Master bedroom. 

(We spent so many hours in the 3-4 weeks prior to the party on this that it is deserving of it's own post...soon. )

Fast forward to this beautiful, sunny Saturday morning...I am slowly sipping my coffee in my pajamas, listening to country music on Pandora and blogging from the comfort of the EXTORP. And...thoroughly enjoying it. 

We've been constantly working on the house since we moved in in August...and now we are going to take a little sanity-induced break from major projects (organization and decorating are still fair game) for a month or so. We need a little time to regroup and enjoy all the love and sweat equity we've doused the house with so far. And, maybe I can catch up on blogging some of the improvements in more depth, future ideas and life in general in this vintage home-sweet-work-in-progress.

Knock, knock, Who's there? IKEA furniture delivery....

This is officially the first blog post being written....drum roll...from our new couch. For the past few months, I've been watching IKEA's stock of the particular sofa we want, EXTORP (yes, I speak IKEA), online. Knowing this week there was a sale (get a free white slipcover), I figured they'd sell out quick so I headed to IKEA while Chris was at work yesterday. 

Since there's no way to pack a couch in a Focus (even an IKEA couch), I was planning on having them deliver. What I did not realize was that I still had to get the couch from the warehouse (I flagged down an IKEA guy for that), push it on my "cart" through the checkout lane, pay for it and then steer it over to the "Home Delivery" counter. I was quite a sight...all by myself. I had picked up a few other items, including wine glasses (read: fragile) and other oddly shaped items and had to manuever them on top of the sofa along with the slipcovers. People were staring...probably wondering how long it would take me to drop something. Amazingly, I didn't drop anything...or run anybody over. 

Fast-forward to today. At approximately 9:45am, three friendly IKEA personnel arrived with our new couch. After a near wipeout in the kitchen (wet shoes from snow), the couch was in place. Chris and I unpacked the couch and threw on the SVANBY Beige (again, yes I speak IKEA) slipcover and...tada!! It is so nice and clean that I have to admit I've been paranoid to sit on it all day.

Fun fact to know and yell: the EXTORP sofa has been around for 30 years. Another fun fact: It does not currently come flat-packed like the majority of IKEA furniture. However, I found out from the guys in the sofa department that a flat-packed version is in the works to be rolled out next April. Yet, another fun fact: the EXTORP is slipcovered (the easiest slipcover I've ever had to deal with) so it is washable...for all of you who think we are crazy for getting a light-colored couch. 

P.S. I am aware the walls look bare...I am taking my sweet time to figure out the perfect place to hang things since we worked so so hard on making the walls look so nice and smooth.  

Ikea...where dreams are made

Today, I traveled to Ikea with my neighbors, Jena and Finn. According to Jena, I've inspired her to love her house again...which meant an Ikea trip. Some may say I'm obsessed, but I do happen to love Ikea and have their catalog pretty much memorized. I can spot a "new" product in a display with relative accuracy. What can I say? I am a very visual learner! Jena told me "You haven't really been to Ikea until you've been there with (me)" which made me chuckle. 

After spending most of the afternoon perusing all that Ikea has a offer, we left with some great finds and dreams of possibilities...which may require a second Ikea trip. Actually, I will need to make a second trip... of course the day I go (in a truck) to pick up the couch Chris and I want, it is out of stock. I was really impressed with how well Finn did shopping all afternoon! We declared him our renovation mascot and Jena nicknamed him "Rehab."

He is teething so he was chewing on everything, tape measure included. Such a "oofba" (translation = goofball).