Thisclose

Please pardon the lack of a weekend post-- I've found, as it happens, that I'm a terrible blogger.  I can really only post once or twice a week, as:

1) this blog is about our house projects and in order to write a post I must first complete a project, 

2) I have a full-time job that requires a considerable amount of my energy, 

3) blogger.com doesn't work with my iPad for some reason so I have to use my husband's laptop to post, 

4) we live in a place where it's generally pretty dark (hence its attractiveness to roving bands of sparkly-skinned vampires), and there's rarely good natural light to photograph completed projects, 

5) our camera is old and crappy and takes HIDEOUS yellow flash photos, and its shutter speed is too slow to go flash-less unless there is glaring natural sunlight flooding the space (see number four), and

6) a lot of the projects we do aren't cool or glamorous enough to warrant an entire post.

But this week's lack of a post wasn't due to any of those reasons.  It's because we actually took a quick, desperately-needed vacation to Northern California's redwoods with some friends this weekend.  It was great-- we stayed in a cute bed and breakfast and hiked miles and miles through old-growth redwood forests.  We walked along a herd of grazing elk (it was the only way to get back to the car) and, post-hike, ate an awesome alfresco feast of bread and cheese.  Epic two-day vacation if I do say so myself.

And now we're home, a little sunburned and pretty tired, to enjoy a week "off" between semesters (it's not really a week off when you have to grade finals and make syllabi for the next term's courses, is it?).  And I was really, really happy to walk into the new, fresh, white-ceilinged, fully-baseboarded, Groban-walled guest bedroom.

As always, please pardon the shitty quality of these photos:

Which brings us to the next set of decisions: what the hell are we going to put in this room?  As I may have mentioned once or thirty-seven times, this furniture is beat.  My mom and I were discussing the other day that we have a tendency to keep furniture we hate, and we decided it's time to make some changes on that front.  Mom stepped up to the plate by getting rid of an enormous armoire that had been hogging all the real estate in one of her guest rooms, and now it's my turn.  Presently in the guest room and soon to possibly make their debut appearances on Craigslist are:

1) The dresser you see in the top photo above.

It has three big drawers that make it entirely impossible to be organized-- who only has three categories of clothing?  Other than that, there's nothing wrong with it, and I really don't dislike it but I can't make it work in that room, so I think it's going to get the boot in favor of a low, six-to-eight drawer midcentury modern piece to go on the long wall.

2) The little side table in the second photo.

I use it as a desk and vanity, and it's just too damned small to be of any use.  Its tiny drawer is crammed with crap, and the basket underneath it (which holds my blowdryer, makeup bag, and a tangle of cords and phone chargers) looks sloppy.  I'm hoping to find something cool to use in its stead.  Ideas?

3) The futon you can't see in any of those photos, but it looks identical to this:

It's not horrible, and really, it has to stay for now because we're not on the market for another queen-sized bed.  But just for the record, I don't like it.  It came with my husband.

4) The rug that's in there.  

I actually really like this rug, but I don't like it in this room.  So it's off to the third bedroom too.   Eventually.

I'm kind of attached to the little bookshelf sitting under the window-- it used to hold my grandmother's Encyclopedia Brittanicas, and now it holds all some of my Spanish literature books from grad school.  It's kind of nice to see Pepita Jiménez every morning while getting ready for work.

Several months ago, I went to turn off the overhead light in the guest room, and the switch broke-- meaning that the light was still on even though the switch was in the off position.  Normally I'd totally try and fix that myself, but not in this old house-- we have an electrician coming on Wednesday to take care of a whole host of electrical issues / ugly lights.  So anyhow, new ceiling fixture going in there this week.  

And the hunt for new furniture is on!