Coming Together...but don't look too close

Hey, ok, so the saw horses are gone and the boxes are mostly dealt with, but we've still got a ways to go. No art on the walls yet, but hopefully soon.

Below is our new Stickly dining table that arrived on Tuesday, much to our surprize. We didn't expect it until October. We purchased 2 arm chairs for either end and it came with 2 extenders. So, no more squeezing 6 or so guests around a table meant for 4. We didn't get the side chairs yet, they will be another expenditure down the road, in the meantime we'll make do with other chairs. Currently we're using the chairs that came with the round maple table, that co-incidentally, we are selling on Craigslist and Ebay...for the low, low price of $499! But wait there's more!! Not only do you get the solid maple table with 4 matching chairs, but you'll also receive all of our round linens AND our vinyl table pad! Channeling the late Billy Mays...so sorry. Seriously it's a nice table and if you know anyone that needs a nice table for 4 let them know about these listings.

M and I took Friday off, to do more stuff around the house. Friday afternoon, we made trips to the outer-darkness of Chantilly to visit Lumber Liquidators. I wanted to do business with them because they are supporters of NPR, as are we, and they offer an assortment of sustainable wood flooring like bamboo and cork. We're in the market for flooring for the den...you'll see it below...horrorshow that it is. We went to their showroom out in Chantilly, and ordered from an animated salesman ("Everyday is Friday at Lumber Liquidators!" he exclaimed...he exclaimed everything), a 240 sq.ft. of a medium brown carbonized bamboo click-flooring, we believe we can install this our selves...stay tuned.

I mention this because while we were out on Friday, M wanted to swing down to Crystal City to the Danker that we bought the dining room table and 2 chairs from, which has been going out of business for nearly a year, and look for a rug for the dining room. He shocked the 'H' out of me by buying this rug! He even haggled the rug seller down $200! It's got all of our colors, and we're very pleased with it.

Moving on, Alan completed the message centre last week. Here it is closed up.

Here it is opened up. We have our ugly rechargers, phones and building access badges here. The little drawers are excellent for scissors, small tools, etc.

Here's the front door with the floor all cleaned up.

Alan also finished Tim's display nooks with these tiny puck lights. They're perfect for displaying glassware, and I am so glad that Melissa Chernick, Designer Extraordinaire of Commonwealth, insisted that we go with a bold color in the backs of these nooks. The objet de arte in the nooks are not permanent, but only so we can have something there for the time being.

Kitchen is looking a little more lived in. The dishwasher has a leak in it that occurred after Alan came back to reattached it to the granite counter top, Steve came out on Friday morning, but couldn't find it. It's probably an easy fix, but a Dishwasher repair person will have to fix it.

Here's the behemoth music storage units, partially put together with albums and stuff. M wanted me to leave a couple of those holes empty in each cabinet, so we'd have a space for knick-knackery. This is un-finished, but it's coming togther. The slate is STILL not here, for the fireplace, Alan says it's supposed to be in this week. I cannot imagine what the hold up could be. Also, the middle pendant at the breakfast bar isn't working, and the innards are on order. Those 2 things are the most irksome, because they make the space look 'under construction' still.

Here's the breakfast bar. About 3 weeks ago, we bought these chairs on a whim! We were going to go out and look for bar chairs for this space, and on our FIRST stop at Pier 1, we found these cool and comfortable chairs...on CLEARANCE!! That never happens. We liked how they played off the curves in our space with the oval holes on the backs. We almost went with 2 chairs, but I am really glad we bought the 3rd one. They were only a little over $100 each.

Now for the horrorshow...this is what they don't show you in the Divine Design-type shows. The OTHER ROOMS. Here's our den. As soon as the construction was done, we tore out the carpeting in this room, as it was absolutely filthy, with dust. The room is still a sty, but there's hope on the horizon with the bamboo flooring we ordered on Friday. We believe we can do it our selves, and it's going to look really nice.

urgh. We are going to have the cushions on the couch recovered, btw, but not until we get the floor in. I haven't got my 46" Samsung lcd tv back in either, it's still upstairs in it's box.

Ew, we need to dust that lamp.

So there we have it on August 23rd. Hope y'all had a great weekend. We certainly did. Saturday we had our first guests for dinner. Sunday we went for a morning kayak on the lake, and had an upclose encounter with a juvenile beaver, he didnt see M until he'd almost swum into M's kayak, and he did a quick reverse manuever that only beavers and Michael Phelps can manage. We attended a production on "Dirty Blonde" at Signature Theater, with our theater pals, Bugs, Raj, Maurice and David, and had dinner at Carlyse in Shirlington. Dirty Blonde is a lot of fun if you are in the DC area, I'd highly recommend it. It's based on the life of Mae West.

S'all for now.

cc