Not To Be Trusted With Knives

New Home Update

March 21, 2010 by Beth

As I mentioned before, I’m working towards having a grown up place. I feel like I’m there with the kitchen – I’m something of a kitchen gadget freak and since I inherited the kitchen table and other kitchen furniture, all I had to do was unpack my many boxes of dishes and bakeware and other such kitchen goodness and it was pretty well good to go1 I’m also very excited that I finally have a kitchen with enough counterspace to keep my Kitchen-Aid mixer out.

The living room, however, is pretty vacant at the moment. From my old place, the only living room stuff I brought was my desk, two small filing cabinets and a couple of bookshelves, all of which I put along one wall in my new place. And that’s it. And it’s a pretty big living room. It actually looked quite ridiculous once I unpacked most of the boxes, which were at least filling up some of the living room. I have now purchased a lovely walnut coffee table and end tables2, which at least takes up some space, but the room still looks pretty silly with just tables and no place to sit.

This week, however, I will be getting a few key things that will make my place more livable. First up, Tod is loaning me an extra couch that he has, as well as a lamp that he’s not using, so that will mean I can sit on something other than my desk chair in the living room and will actually have enough light to read3. On Thursday I’m getting my new mattress, which I bought for half price at Sleep Country4. I wasn’t planning to buy a new mattress, but after I moved my old mattress into my new place, I discovered that it smelled pretty musty. Which I’m sure I just couldn’t smell in my old place because the whole place was pretty musty. I figure that breathing in must and mold 6-8 hours every night can’t be good for me. Hence the new mattress. In preparation for the new mattress, I’ll be going to Ikea to buy an actual bed, as I’ve been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for the last three+ years. I tried checking out a few other stores for beds, but they are all either unbelievably expensive and/or take a month (or more) for delivery. I am both cheap and impatient, so Ikea it is. While I’m there, I think I’ll buy a wardrobe, because my bedroom closet is way too small for all my clothes.

There are also a couple of other things that I’d like to get that I’ve been having trouble finding:

• a room divider – I’d like to get one of those Japanese rice paper room divider thingys to block off my desk from the rest of the living room. You know, so my living room will feel more relaxing without my work stuff looming. I have no idea where one would buy such a thing.
• a small table to put by my front door – I want some thing is tallish5 and thin that I can have by my front door. You know, like a place to throw my keys and such. I’ve looked at a few places and haven’t been able to find anything even remotely like what I’m looking for.

If you have any idea where I could get either of these, I’m all ears!

1. I did pick up those Olympic cups and a few glass jars from Ikea to put stuff in – since I have so much counter space, I figured I could make it look pretty. [↩]
2. got them used from someone who was downsizing and gave them to me for a really good price [↩]
3. the room has a light fixture in the ceiling, but it’s not very bright [↩]
4. yeah floor model! Only $600 for a $1200 mattress! [↩]
5. like, say, 3ft tall [↩]

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