Becoming Grown Ups

[akirlu]

Someone has stolen our living room and replaced it with an exact duplicate a room of the sort that would be occupied by grown up people. It's so shiny and exciting, it feels a lot like Christmas morning. I got up early on Sunday, just to sit on the new couch and admire the overall affect.

We got the new-to-us couch and club chair in on Saturday, with much adventure. We had by then been forced to conclude that we might not be able to fit the old couch through the door to Hal's office, so instead we rearranged the living room so that it can accomodate both couches. The result looks terrifyingly grown up, and coordinated. And seats about fourteen people if you include the rather commodious arms of the couch and club chair. Yowza. I reckon we really can throw a party.

I'll have to take some pictures of the living room to give a proper idea of the place, but in the meantime here's a picture Hal took of the new couch, while it was still at late, lamented, lost Suburbia.





ETA: You can see Hal's panorama of the room here. What's interesting to me is the way the paint on the wall here actually looks like it did on the original paint chip, instead of much, much brighter -- the way it normally looks on the wall.

Also, public thanks are due to Jerry and Suzle for answering the call for moving help. Thanks, guys!

Comments

[intelligentrix.livejournal.com]

Ooooh. Shiny. I am assuming it didn't come with the very life-like gentleman and glasses. I can't wait to see it in its new habitat.

[urlgirl.livejournal.com]

That is a beautiful, beautiful couch.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

No, none of the former customers came with the couch. Pity, in a way, as we were initially concerned about having enough help to carry the furniture in.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And it goes really nicely with the olive- -- excuse me, "ryegrass" -- green we painted the walls. I wasn't sure if it would. Heck it even ties in together with the battered old second-hand mahogany secretary. I was planning on painting that secretary gloss black, but now I think I may leave it. Less work for me, I reckon.

New photo up

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

...showing things in situ. Available on LJ (http://libertango.livejournal.com/247960.html), or on Flickr (http://flickr.com/photos/hal_seattle/2291676847/).

Re: New photo up

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Wow, the panorama makes the room look huge, and echoingly empty. You really notice the absence of art on the walls. Oh, well. We ain't got no shortage of art...

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Whew. I wondered what the heck happened to Hal! So it's good to know that's not him on the couch. It is very nice -- the panorama does look like a grown-up living room. First Charlie and Feorag and now you guys!

[liveavatar.livejournal.com]

Pretty! I like the curved effect in the panorama. The room should only be shaped that way.

[richardthe23rd.livejournal.com]

In the pictures from my Oscar party, you can see the new sofa and dining chairs that I bought. And the entertainment center my neighbor let me have when I moved.

Hey! I spent twenty bucks on that sofa, I'll have you know!

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I don't know about that. The dog has enough trouble with the hardwood floors without making them convex, too...

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

There's something about buying real estate, I guess. Also, I think we may be over-compensating for not having been able to find a Craftsman bungalow in our price-range and neighborhood. What you can't get in the architectural detail of the house, you make up for in the architectural details of the furniture...

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

It doesn't show up very well in the panorama shot, but beyond the fireplace is a rose-pink slipper chair I picked up for twenty bucks. I'm a great believer in buying used stuff when I can. Craigslist is my friend. In fact, most of the furniture now in our living room was bought second hand. The exception being the el cheapo white melamine stand for the TV, from IKEA, and the coffee table and white couch picked up at Sleepers in Seattle. Of those, the only piece I'm really attached to is the coffee table. It's hinged and weighted so that the table surface can be lifted up to work on like a desk. Brilliant.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

(I decided that what really makes you a grown-up is when you don't have anything made of particleboard any more.)

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

The cats have learned to walk and even run on the laminate without skittering, but when they're startled, they scrabble for purchase.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Oh, then I'm never growing up.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, by that criterion, I'm not likely to be a grown-up any time soon, either. I've spent too many years accumulating IKEA furniture, and much of that is particle-board under one veneer or another. So's this computer desk, for that matter...