Being Moody, Brainstorming and an IDEA!

My astrological sign is Cancer. It's ruled by the moon. I even once had this big picture book of the signs with Cancer and Leo in the middle with gorgeous art since they are ruled by the Moon and the Sun.  Now I'm not sure I buy into the whole horoscope jazz.  Now and then I'll look at it, but I figure it's all hooey.  That's why I don't *really* think the so-called Supermoon tonight has anything to do with my mood... but who knows.

I'm not exactly depressed.  I feel very blessed with my home and my family and where we've finally made it in life. It's just little things really that are kind of starting to get to me... I got behind on laundry just a little bit for the first time in literally weeks. Actually I wasn't really behind, I just did the clothes in the opposite order I usually do.  Normally at the end of the week I'll holler for hampers to be brought to me.  I'll usually sort the girls' clothes into the sorter and go ahead and start a load of Hubby's work clothes so they get done and back in the closet... well this time I guess I did the girls' clothes first and his/my clothes went into the sorter. So, he made it very clear that he was low on dress pants, underwear, etc.  He still had plenty of his shirts and socks, but the load of pants and boxers was still not done.  Well they are now, but I am SO sick of laundry and I am sick of cleaning up after everyone else in my kitchen.  I don't like going to bed with a dirty kitchen, but I am tonight, and I know it's going to mean it'll end up twice as bad tomorrow.  But I intend to get those girls to unload and reload the dishwasher and straighten up the place. The living room is trashed too.  Wii stuff strewn all over, blankets crammed in corners, couch pillows everywhere, dishes, empty pop bottles, trash, art supplies, you name it.  Everywhere. I'm not their maid.  I'm not doing it. And it's kind of really ticked me off. And making me more moody about other stuff...

For instance, my "open concept living room/dining room/kitchen". When you walk in my front door, you're in one corner of it. I guess it's good that the front door isn't in the middle as that would be even harder to place furniture. I've rearranged and rearranged the furniture.  I want it to not exactly be "perfect"  but *functional*  you know?  One thing that has really gotten on my nerves this week is that every time we come home from shopping, we can't even get into the house. The coffee table has been pushed up in front of the door. This is so the girls have more room to play Just Dance2. I don't have a problem with them playing it, I wanted them to get more exercise and am thrilled they even use the workout mode...but I really really hate my coffee table continually being moved (and the huge mess they keep making but I already did that rant sorry.).  If the furniture was better laid out, of course there would be no need to.  Or so I tell myself. The problem is I just have too much furniture, but I can't part with anything... well not the stuff that's taking up all the space anyway.

Here's a rough diagram of the whole space...

Pardon my poor excuse for a chair and foot stool there in front of the guinea pig cage heh.

Ok, so the couch is HUGE, see...

It hasn't been this clean since this pic was taken.

This doesn't really do the depth of it justice. That big seat cushion is nearly the size of a twin mattress. Also, this is basically where all those things are in the diagram, except the 2nd side table is now to the right of the couch.

Ok, so the thing labeled "buffet" in the diagram is a family heirloom on Hubby's side. The coffee table is an Ethan Allen solid wood in excellent condition that was my mother in law's. The book shelf we love and want to display some things we love in the living room. The round side table I got on Craigslist cause it kind of matched the coffee table and I needed a side table. The second side table is an antique from mother in law's house and it rickety and has to be against a wall. The dining table and chairs are used all the time and are where they are now so people can sit there and watch TV.  They used to be on the other side near the china cabinet, but it just made more sense to have it where the TV could be seen since it's where people have to sit... as you can see there's not much real seating.  A huge couch that only seats 2 unless they really like each other - couches tend to be that way I've noticed. and the wing chair and foot stool. I used to have it on the wall where the dining table is so you could sit there and watch TV, but it's not terribly comfortable. I really hate when we have people drop by and they have nowhere to sit except the kitchen chairs.  No one seems to want to sit on the couch. Seriously it does look like it would swallow you whole.

The TV stand is an old broken coffee table my in-laws gave us.  Not an heirloom, but really the only thing that will hold the TV which is a dinosaur and weighs so much I can't even budge it. Hubby won't move the 42" flatscreen from the bedroom into he living room even though we get HD On Demand in the living room...We could always move the old heavy TV to the bedroom so he can watch Glee or American Idol or whatever he and the kids watch together in there while I'm working. ...   I have to pick my battles... anyway... Gerald the guinea pig is happy where he is and we don't mind him in the living room.  I need to get him a better cage though.

So, that's my living room.  You can see why the coffee table gets moved when they want to play the Wii. I think I drew the circle for it a bit big in the diagram, but in the photo, you can see the size.

I thought about moving the couch and using the buffet as a sofa table behind it, but it's just so huge that it would block the kitchen entirely. I'm just not terribly happy with it the way it is though.  I mean it looks big and wide open when you walk into the kitchen from my office or bedroom, and I like the flow it has to the front door and down the hallway. But it still bugs me.  I think one thing is how it's all hand-me-down stuff except the dining table which we bought new and I really like.  I'd always wanted a round table, and it's solid wood, really nice. The couch I bought from a friend for $100 when we moved here and I didn't want to bring our old ratty sofabed with us. I loved it at first, and I still kinda do.  I'd LOVE it in like a basement family room type space,... but I don't have a basement.

While it seems silly to be complaining about not having nice new furniture, especially when we're trying to get out of debt,.. it's still something that gets to me sometimes.

Hmm ya know, while I was sitting here brainstorming and blogging all at once (which leads to these long boring blog posts no one reads), I got a really fab idea... but it means Hubby giving up his precious TV in the bedroom and moving it to the living room.

Put the big 42" flat screen HDTV on the buffet. Of course! I'd lose some display and storage space since a lot of my fancier or antique serving pieces sit on the buffet, but there's room to store them in the bottom part of the china cabinet.  No big deal. Also there won't be room for the round side table, but the lamp can go on the antique one in the front window, and the round table can probably be used as a nightstand or something in one of the girls' rooms, or it can go on freecycle.

I went and measured and found the couch is 7ft long which is exactly the length of the sink counter.  Also, that dining table and chairs isn't nearly as big as I had them in the first diagram. . So even though the couch will be closer to the table, the table is smaller. Then the dining table will have the view out the back window again like it did when it was on that side of the room before.  I did like that, but people had just complained about not seeing the telly. Now they'll be able to see it fine from the couch and the dining table and there'll be plenty of room  for playing the Wii. Oh and date nights will be much more comfortable! I much prefer watching TV on the couch with the snacks on the table, than trying to get comfy propped up on pillows and trying not to get crumbs in the bed.

Now... to get hubby on board with the idea, then move the furniture around and switch the TVs. The kids are really going to love playing the Wii on the big TV and it'll be great being able to actually watch the HD channels in HD  hehe.  Wish me luck on that one!

There's another project Hubby has agreed is a good idea and we can start on it when I can budget in the supplies. We're going to add steps to the other side of our back deck. Here's a pic of it from when we were looking at the house before we bought it. I sure with the back yard was that neat now hehe. 

Love Hubby's fashion sense ;) 

Not a great pic of it, really, but you can see it only has the one set of steps coming down into the main part of the back yard.  But there's also another part of the back yard on the other side of the porch which we haven't used for much other than feeding birds and hanging up laundry (no one can see back there so maybe I won't get reported to the landlord cop for having a clothesline).

That was taken the first summer we were here. It's so overgrown now, I wouldn't recognize it. But what's cool is that now it's much cooler with more shade. So, when we add steps coming directly into this little secluded area of the yard, we can put our outdoor dining set there and it can be a great place to eat out in the warmer months.  The grill can stay on the back porch with easy access to the kitchen, and then just down the steps to the table. I'm really excited about it.  I think we'll be able to do it ourselves pretty easily.  Well, I hope.

So, those are two projects to keep us busy over the next few days off we actually have together.

***Extra Note!  I didn't get this posted last night as I'd wanted, but I have asked Hubby about the rearranging and would he be OK moving his TV to the living room, and he said it was fine. So Hooray!