Some House Adventures

We have slowly been adding furniture and rearranging stuff since we have moved in here. Has it really been six months already? There is a blank wall that is sort of in our living room, but also is a high traffic area so we couldn't put anything wide on that wall. This bench was our solution--it is great. Out of the way when we don't need it, but it fills the space. It is near our door to the outside so is a good place to sit and put on shoes, well, once we start wearing something other than flip flops. When we have more than 5 or 6 people in our living room we can pull it closer to the couches and complete a "conversation area." This bench seats three people easily. It was a great bargain find at HomeGoods store, as was the painting above. I love that our living room now looks more complete with art, rug, seating, throw pillows, lamps, etc. that all coordinate so well! I wish I could take a 360 degree picture so you all could see :)

In other house news, we found out that we had a family of raccoons living in our walls and Aubrey's room's ceiling. Gross, I know! Our basement/crawl space didn't really have a solid door on it and they were getting in there. They tore out some insulation so they could climb up inside the walls. Bill and I shovelled out 14 wheelbarrows of mud out of there (who knows how long that had been accumulating, the house is over 100 years old!) and then the next weekend Bill and my Dad framed out the door and then built a special two layer screen door to shut it tight. It has to be a screen so that the air can circulate under the house so that it doesn't get too damp. We put a fine mesh screen to keep out mice and a sturdy wire screen to keep out bigger varmints. Once the door was done we left it open until we heard the raccoons leave in the evening. We shut it tight and locked them out! We haven't heard them since, so we are pretty sure it has worked. :)

Next we are going to be working on the bedrooms downstairs, moving the baby furniture out of Aubrey's room into the guest bedroom since she is in her big girl furniture now. I got some wall decals that match her new bedding, but want to paint her walls first. They haven't been painted for over 20 years (I think) so they are due! The colors in her bedding are pink, green, orange and tan. I found this picture and liked the idea of an orange stripe, maybe with pink background or a less khaki looking green.