400

This is my 400th post...I feel like there needs to be a celebration of some kind. What better way to celebrate than announcing the birth of baby boy #2 Lane Michael!!! So here we go...

Oh...did you get really excited with that? Yeah I would be really excited too if that were true instead he is still cooking away. Head is down (dr could feel his head when I got checked last week) yet I can still feel his feet in the top of my rib cage so he must be pretty long. At my appt on 11/6 the Dr said "with any luck baby next week", but here we are 2wks later and still no baby Lane is here.

So, in the last couple weeks we have done the following:

Created a wall gallery:

we spent all of $6 to make this happen, how did we manage that? Well, we had a closet full of frames from our other house. The items that were purchased were the small yellow mirror and the "Z" and the scrapbook paper that I applied to it.  Ok and a can of yellow spray paint but we used that in Lane's room as well.

yrs.

Did you also notice the chairs that are below the wall gallery??  Those are "new" too!!  I say "new" because those are new to use thanks to craigslist.  Brand new those chairs are $99 each at Ikea they are practically brand new despite the previous owners owning them for 6-8yrs. We paid $65 for both and we are contemplating slip cover colors. 

 

Next up we replaced our couch:

 

Here is the before:

 

 Here is the after:

 

 And here is the before and after together:

So, this couch also from Ikea originally and $399 brand new with no slip cover a white slip cover is $59 brand new, we scored the couch and 2 sets of white slip covers for $100. The couch is 2yrs old and comes with a 10yr warranty.  The one set of slip covers had some stains so after some searching and a recent trip to Ikea we did some googling and decided to dye the cover grey. Round 1: didn't go so well, learned the hard way that a top load washer is needed to dye fabric. Round 2: landed Ian and I at my in laws where we used their top load washer. We also had to switch from pearl grey to black which surprisingly turned out to dark grey which is exactly what we wanted and were settling with the black.  So here's what it took: 2 bottle of RIT dye for the base cover set on large load cycle, 1 bottle per 3 sets of cushions set on medium load cycle so a total of 4 bottles. Here's what I did the instructions are the same for all 3 loads:

1) place load in washer and run it threw the rinse and spin cycle (assuming the covers have already been washed, if they are brand new then wash first)

2) pull the cover(s) out and start the washer on large load, let it full with water and dump your bottles of dye into the water add 1tbsp of laundry detergent and 1 cup of salt per bottle of dye (pray and try not to pee your pants out of nervousness as you watch a perfectly white washer turn black).

3) once washer is half full put your cover(s), pray some more

4) close your washer and set a timer for about 8min, you want to reset the washer as the water starts to drain from the wash tub you, you will repeat the resetting 2x resulting in a total of about 30min

5) now, you are going to wash it with regular laundry detergent

6) we put ours in the dryer or you can line dry.

7) put it on the couch, sit and enjoy!!!

 

do you see a problem in this picture??? Well, folks I do and so does Marcus (who is color blind and guy) so that says A LOT!!! We had to remedy this problem ASAP!!!

 

 

A craigslist search led us to this chair:

 

 

It's again originally from Ikea it's the called the Poang chair and it has a sheepskin cover, this retails for about $180. We paid $15...did you read that right? Yep I said $15!!!

 

So grand total we spent:

wall gallery: $6

chairs: +$65

Couch w/dye: +$130

Poang chair: +$15

sold old couch: -$75

GRAND TOTAL: $141

 

Now, we aren't done yet we are still on the hunt for a ottoman I'm thinking large black ottoman with storage, a throw, new slipcovers for the pillows, footstool for the poang chair, new covers for the chairs (possibly), and new curtains (possibly) haven't convinced a certain someone on those yet. No matter we have come a long way since our mod-podge of furniture. We moved the chair (plaid one) into Lane's room and the Lazy Boy will be sent to the basement (where all lazy boy's belong).

I absolutely love our living room and I'm no longer ashamed to have people over (they just can't go past the living room until the tile in the kitchen has been replaced).

Next post will probably be Lane's room and hopefully his arrival, fingers crossed!!!