Need a seat?

After a year of living in our home, we decided to add some storage and seating to our living room with a window seat.

The bay window in our space has some unique angles but the windows themselves are beautifully symmetrical, and we found ourselves drawn to sitting in the area.  We had tried a chair and small bench in the window area, which did not fully utilize it, flipped the room arrangement around for the love seat to fit on the shorter wall but block the light, and finally decided to take the plunge and build a permanent seat in the living and family space.

Our first phase was deconstruction and framing. Our friend Andy helped in this part and also in cutting a number of the lumber pieces so that framing came together quickly.  We removed baseboard trim around the windows so that 2x4s could be anchored directly into the studs the entire height of the seat.  

We marked the studs and used 2-1/2" nails for attaching pieces and to the walls.  When the entire surface was framed, we used 3/4" birch plywood for the base, then attached additional risers to the studs and framed out the top as well.  We used 1x4 appearance boards for the facing and Alex built up blocks inside of the cabinet to the correct height for the drawer slides to fit over the front baseboard, then I left him to the drawer devices.

WHOA!

GUYS! We disappeared but are back and the action has not stopped around here.  Happy New Year!

Since we last posted in July, a lot has gone on:


Alex settled into his new job, marking the end of his time with the startup turned corporation that helped us decide to move to Chicago, and his full transition into the world of product management.

We celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary, with a fantastic chef's table meal at Band of Bohemia in Ravenswood. Alex secured a vegetarian meal and beverage pairing and we got to be, like, humans for a night.

I attended another plant-based conference in Raleigh and met (and drove!) a who's who of prevention-focused experts in nutrition.



We adopted Nyobi's sweet Shadow puppy after six months of fostering, and have been so happy to continue to see her (and winter sweater collection!) grow.






We went to freaking Japan!  Alex has wanted to do this for a long time and we finally pulled the trigger.  It was our longest adventure together to date and so, so enjoyed and needed. At left is the Hiroshima Bomb Dome, a structure that withstood the blast and is part of the memorial.

We decided that I needed a break and pressed pause on my road to RD.


My dear friend Lisa came to visit before winter weather really hit, the first time in years we were both free of obligations bearing down at the same time.





Our sweet, feisty Charlotte gave us quite the scare with a liver infection and hospitalization, coming home during poor Lisa's time here.

Ugh and this election, which at least brought Joe Biden memes to a greater audience.

But, we've surfaced and want to stay in better touch!  Many projects have come and gone and a number are in the works, so I'll try to get you up to speed on that front, and hopefully Alex can get a lot more sympathy for what goes on here.

Happy 2017!

Resaling!

So, if you know us, you know I don't like to pay much for things.  Which is a bummer, because we also like things that are nice! What is a girl to do?

She's going to scour the internet and her surroundings for the best quality she can find, and only occasionally shell out for fancy stuff.  Also, she's going to marry up.  Kidding! Alex was doing ok but not a fancy man when we met and got situated.  I assure you, can show some photos of his clothing choices.

Anyways, this place does not have great storage for entertaining, linens, multiple seasons of clothing to suit winters of -40 and summers of 90+ humidity, so we've been getting creative. After a lunch with some of the best ladies in town, I wandered on further out to a mythical resale shop espoused by Kim and Scott of Yellow Brick Home, Jubilee.  No, I didn't take Alex. Then, he would have to tell me no in person (worse for him) and would also have the ability to tell me no (worse for me). And would have taken up a whole seat in the car!

I was on the hunt for a hutch for the dining room, to help in storing serving pieces and glassware.  Our wall shelves are great, but I'm not sold on storing our wedding flutes, antique wine glasses, and just generally anything we need to drink from on a shelf that is suspended in air and has not passed its trial period yet.  I found a number, and emailed my aunt at her work address to show the photos.  RE: IMPORTANT!  She must be ready to commit me.

Anyways, I narrowed it down to things that would fit on a specific wall, and that were tall or very tall.  One of my only tried and true tips: the taller the better, for storage in small spaces.  After a lot of back and forth with my aunt for advice and Alex for final say, I came away with way more than the hutch.  Whoops!

The other things were all of good use: a wooden stepstool that I am currently refinishing to dedicate for use in our closet/for Ny to get up on the bed, two rocking arm chairs that we have been trying to figure out the future of (so comfy!!), and a sleeper sofa that was a bust space wise but worked out for our friend Andy.  However, 3 out of 4, or 4 out of 5, is not a bad success rate.  The chairs have been living in the back two feet of our garage space since March, but we'll figure it out eventually.

When it came home, I was excited like a small child with a new toy, and we immediately dismantled our older oak hutch to move elsewhere.  I cleaned out the drawers and all of the interior surfaces with a quick furniture polish - it was in such good shape, no refinishing was required.

We moved it to the intended wall, where it fit almost perfectly, because I had finally wised up and took measurements during shopping! I lined the drawers and loaded it up with our wine glasses, table linens, and dish towels immediately. The lower cabinet doors became a home for our canned foods from last summer - so much room!

We did choose to do a couple of things to tune the hutch up.  First, the upper cabinet was missing the glass shelves within the side cabinets.  I made a cardboard template to get the exact measurements for the unique trapezoidal shape, and Ny and I took it to our favorite, Kim's Clarendon Hardware.

John had the glass cut within the day, and at ~$12 for the glass and cuts, this added four additional shelves of space for wine glasses, etc.  We also picked up two bulbs of the correct size at Kim's as they had a special base, and found out that the lights in the upper cabinet were actually on a dimmer - so fancy!







I wanted to love the hutch in its original state, so much - but the hardware finally got to me and I took to the internet.  We did like the golden tone of the original with the red undertones in its wood, so opted for a deep bronze to replace the drawer pulls and cabinet handles.

As the drawer pulls were spaced 3", it was easiest to just choose a style in that size.  Ultimately, we ended up back at Amazon for these Lombard Franklin Brass pulls, which were listed as ten for $17, and added onto our next order.  We loved the first package in person, so went ahead and ordered a second set of ten and yet another for an upcoming project.