Self-Control of the Remote Control

The Family Room. I saw these definitions and had to add it in because at our house there is a conversation about constant channel flipping that happens every night after Tim has selected 5 shows to watch in a period of 10 minutes.

REMOTE CONTROL (ri-moht kon-trohl) n.
a. female...A device for changing from one TV channel to another.
b. male...A device for scanning through all 175 channels every 2 1/2 minutes.

Remember that infamous porthole I discussed here and here. Well you FINALLY get to check it out. My friend Andrea told me it doesn't look as bad in person but I have a hard time believing that especially with Tim's smart little comments when it was first put up (i.e. walking in the room saying "Ahoy matey" and saluting me...thanks babe!). Regardless it was on clearance, non-returnable and such a pain to put up that its staying there until we upgrade the TV.

Tim's mom passed down the rug to us, the couches are from Tim's apartment in college as was the coffee table turned console table and the coffee table was given to us by our friends/builders when it wouldn't fit into their new home.

Things we have left to do here:

1. Get a new rug- I already found one I like from Pottery Barn and its already all sold out. Any surprises? No? Good. My next search will be for the Taylor Rug with its milky chocolate brown and soft blue tones.

2. Get a new couch - I want a sectional. I love laying down to watch a movie as does Tim and a sectional would allow both of us to do so without either of us having to literally get the short end of the stick and curl up on the loveseat or the chair. Surprise! Its brown.

3. Get a new coffee table - I'd love to get a round tufted leather ottoman, in my traditional brown of course. Ethan Allen has a great looking one that actually seems to be fairly reasonable (although its in the cheapest cloth the offer so it may not be so reasonable with the leather).

4. Get some side chairs - I found this one when my cousin Amy & I were out shopping one day and after we went to so many stores I have absolutely no clue where I saw it but everything about it is what I want except the feet but those have to be easy to change out, right? It had a low-profile but was incredibly plush, had the soft blues I adore and has arms so you really can relax and lean back without falling off the side without being too large.

5. Get a side table - I've loved this one since I first laid my eyes on it over at Pottery Barn. Its the oil-rubbed bronze that I've put throughout the rest of the house and the shape is so incredibly similar to our light fixtures. They are meant to be together.

6. Add in some built-ins - I want some display cases and some places to hide and store some of our DVDs and such. We will build these after expanding the wall out and will have them come up right below the windows to either side of the fireplace.

7. Get a new TV & surround sound - Tim is convinced he "needs" an incredibly large TV. In fact the size he wants is so large that we have to expand the wall around the fireplace a little. It turns out we didn't plan well by not having a cable and power hook-up so we will have to open that wall up anyways so expanding it out about 6 inches on each side won't be too big of a pain to do. If you noticed the random wires handing from the ceiling, those would be where we pre-wired for surround sound and got too lazy to do anything after until we have speakers, etc. Oops!

8. Build a new mantle - Our mantle holds quite a bit of significance to me. Tim and our builder did a great job building it for us and it looks incredible. Unfortunately we will have to pull it down to expand the wall in order to get Tim the TV he wants so badly. We will most likely go with something simple and traditional, similar to the below.

9. Get some curtains - Because those really seem to help finish off a room so well. I think these light blue stripes are so pretty but have a bit of a masculine touch to them for Tim as well.

10. Add a light kit to the fan - I don't want anything special, just something similar to what we have in the bedroom in order to add a little extra light. Its not dark by any means but gets a little dim at night and I don't have any plans to add in lamps anytime soon.


11. Add some art to the back wall? - I don't know if I should add something and if so what that should be. I'm still waiting for inspiration to strike. I guess I will go sleep on it now.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry

Tonight its all about the Dining Room, the least used room in our house. When we started to build the house we opted out of an eat-in kitchen for the simple fact that we typically will just plop down on the couches in front of the TV and hang out while we eat. We do have a table and chairs in the dining room right now but those are leftover from Tim's college days (aka they are covered in marks from many games of quarters). It is convenient when we have parties to put the food on and have people easily walk around.

I do love our light fixture and that will most definately stick around. The table and chair have got to go though. Half of the rungs are missing so Tim & I are always trying to make sure guests don't sit in them and end up on the floor by the end of dinner.

Things we have left to do here:


1. Get a rug - I want something thats pretty tough like jute but still is soft on your bare feet, enter the chenille jute basketweave rug from Pottery Barn. It even has the same color scheme I like through the rest of the house.

2. Get a china cabinet -  Sorry for the fuzzy picture but I saw this at a store called Dutchman's when Tim & I went on our mini-moon this year. They were the perfect mix of Anthropologie, Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware all in one, my dream come true.

3. Get a table -  I found this one while my cousin and I were out furniture shopping at Bassett one day and love the concept because when it expands it doesn't become an oval. You add the additions around the edge so it becomes a bigger circle. Not a huge deal but for some reason I just don't like oval shapes. Yes, it is weird, I know...

4. Buy some chairs we aren't afraid of letting our guests sit in - Pottery Barn, surprise, surprise, has some that I've had my eye on. I think I want to get 8, six to stay around the table and two extras I can store in the corners to either side of the china cabinet for extra guests.

5. Cover the tan - Obviously this room has the same issue as many of the others in the house with its overabundance of neutral.  I want to get something to add a little color to all of that so I need to figure out some artwork to go in there. 


6. Get some curtains - Once again just to finish off the room I'l like some curtains over the double windows. Plus its extra protection from our friendly peeping house-hunters.