A video tour of my living room, which is now almost done.
Yesterday morning, I made a video of my living room setup. Thought I’d share it with folks who want to take the tour:
I admit that I sometimes refer to this as my “trophy room.” That’s because the red leather sofa, TV, and stereo surround-sound system came from the condo my wasband bought as a place to live during the week when he worked in Phoenix. To this day, I’m not sure why he agreed to let me have them. The only reason I included them on the list of personal property I wanted was so I could give them up in the bargaining process. But he agreed to the whole damn list — after stewing on it for months — in exchange for me moving out of the house. Joke’s on him: I had to leave anyway for my summer work and my RV and helicopter were already onsite in Washington.
My almost-finished living room; a very pleasant place to hang out.
The leather sofa is very comfortable and has a sofa bed tucked into it. My ex-sister-in-law, who I’m still in contact with occasionally, gave me two of the four pillows on it as a housewarming gift. The rug, storage “bar” behind the sofa, and black leather cushions on the chair are new from IKEA. The lamps are heirloom items — more on those in a future blog post. The rest of what’s in this video are a mix of new items I bought over the past three years and items moved to Washington from my old home in Arizona.
The room is almost done. I just need two things:
- Windowsills. I have temporary window sills in place under most windows. I was going to make them out of 1×12 lumber and actually finished a few of them, but my friend Don offered me slabs of wood that match the tables he made for me. I can then make windowsills out of that. Trouble is, Don needs to get his friend with the bandsaw on the program to get me the slabs. Then I need to cut, stain, and finish them. It’s a big project and I don’t expect to have it done anytime soon. So I have trimmed 1×10 and 1×12 planks for temporary use. I probably won’t bother staining them, so I can use them for something else in the future.
- Coffee table. Don made me custom TV table and end tables. They were cut from power poles that survived a fire back in 2010 or 2011 near the Rocky Reach Dam, upriver from Wenatchee. They have a lot of personality, with actual scorch marks on the live edges. I like them so much I’ve asked Don to make me a matching coffee table. We discussed it in some detail yesterday. I hope to get it within a month or so.
The jury is still out on the rug. I bought another one at Pier 1 that I’d like to try. This one might be okay with a coffee table over it.
And yes, I know I should get a universal remote. But honestly: I don’t watch very much television. The view out the windows is much more enjoyable.
The place is coming together. It’s already a far more pleasant home than the one I left behind in Arizona.
ThanIs for the tour! The room looks so comfortable and inviting. Clearly you are surrounded by things that you cherish. Wishing you continued happiness there.
Thanks very much. It’s great to be almost settled in. I still have some unpacking to do — and a lot of disposing of things I thought I’d want/need but don’t. But as each room comes together, I feel better and better about my new life here. I didn’t think it was possible to be this happy in a home.
Looking good! The roosters going off all the time in the background are a homey touch. ;) If you ever end up with big dogs or little kids upstairs you’ll probably want to have some sheets of acrylic ready to keep the storage/bar intact, as it’s the perfect height for grabbing hands and swinging tails. I usually don’t like the chunky wood furniture style, but the end tables look good in your location, it’s nice that the burned poles could be recycles into something useful. Do they smell at all like creosote?
Thanks! No creosote on the poles at all, so no smell. And no kids!