Eight Days In

We've kind of lived here for eight days now.  It's getting to the point where we feel less like we are squatters and more like we are living here.  For some reason I felt very offended the first time I had to do things like run the dishwasher or do laundry... and I'm still working on the motivation to vacuum   I'm thinking the Roomba might get that honor.

The kitchen is put away and organized and so's the playroom... but that's where it ends.  We're at a stand off with our missing furniture--its absence is making it hard to make headway in a lot of rooms.  We just got a new kitchen table (see above) and have bunk beds for Finley coming this weekend. Hopefully that should help me be slightly more motivated to finish a few things. But let's be honest... it's REALLY hard to do anything seven months pregnant with two little boys running around. Not to mention the distraction that is getting through Arrested Development again before the new episodes!

(Finley has CHOSEN to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor--even though he has a very nice air mattress all ready for him...)

The new house is great--I was worried I was going to lose the boys or feel like we were really spread out, but it still feels rather cozy.  As a pregnant lady, I'm quick to get annoyed with weird things in the house--there are literally no places for hand towels in the bathrooms... the bedrooms don't have overhead lights (why is that a thing? Seriously!) and the rooms that do have lights have the light switches on the wall behind the door--making them almost impossible to turn on in the dark.  The laundry is also on the main floor off kitchen which for some reason makes me feel like I'm living below the poverty line. How DARE you expect a pregnant woman to carry her laundry up and down the stairs! The injustice!

(Old table and chairs! And a few pictures I set out to make it feel a bit more homey.)

And then I remember what a change this house is from the first three homes we've lived in--this is the first one not connected to someone else's living space. Making this the first time we haven't had to make sure we don't yell for each other too loud or try not to walk loudly around the house. There's an island in my kitchen. WE HAVE A GARAGE. AND CARPET. AND STAIRS. And bathrooms with countertops,  fancy things called "lin-en-clos-ets" and enough cabinets for our stuff.  It's a-mah-zing. Totally.

(Clearly, we need a dresser and to stop living like we are in a hotel.)

We need a lot of furniture--I've bought a few things off Joss and Main which is kind of a black hole for cute house things. You can see them below... although I actually ended up buying the bed off Amazon because it was cheaper.  Free tip: before you buy anything on a "bargain" site do a Google Image Search for it.  Meaning right click the picture and copy the URL then go to Google Images, click the camera and paste the URL. You can sometimes find the "bargain" for even less. You are welcome!



So here's where you get to weigh in with some input--furniture!  We're kind of avid Craigslisters and are pretty awesome at it, but the addition of two children and my inability to lift heavy things and the lack of time to leisurely look for things make it less ideal than it was when we were two crazy kids in Boston. So--good places for furniture? We're stuck trying decide if we should go ahead and fork over more money for nicer stuff that we love, or if we should just get cheaper stuff since our kids will likely poop on it... or if we should get a mix of the two. We still need more master furniture, a dining room set, a sectional, entertainment center and other various odds and ends. We've been to The Dump (a fairly awesome scratch and dent place) and IKEA... but haven't gone into an actual furniture store yet. They scare me.  So, help? Any great places to get furniture that is cheap, well made, pretty and awesome? Is that even possible?