Seeing Red!

Here's a peek into our new space.....

I'll share more as the rooms get finished.

Box by box, room by room, we are starting to feel at home in this house.

I was so excited to get my RED sectional from IKEA in my living room!!!

We left our old tired brown sofa and loveseat in Rhode Island and I really wanted something that added some pop to the space we spend so much time in.

I wanted to walk into the room and smile.

Red does that for me, so the logical choice for me was bright, bold, beautiful RED!

It was a hard sell on the rest of the family, but knowing that these are slip covers and we can change to safe, mediocre kakhi for less than $300, I got my wish.

I'll show a better photo of the sectional once I get a steamer and steam the wrinkles out of the slip cover. The wrinkles look so much worse in the photographs, so I don't want to give you the impression of sloppiness while everything is still fresh and new.

For a more honest dose of reality, check back in about 4 months after David has been gone a while when the wrinkles in my sectional are the least of my housekeeping worries.

For now though, I'm basking in the newness of everything and in the convenience of having a husband who is not deployed and not having to report to work for another ten days!

For the living room, we got a big white window box style coffee table to balance out the bold solid red and we also got a kakhi slip cover for the chair to add some contrast.

We added navy blue solid and striped pillows along with stark white ones for a kind of modern nautical look.

I really wanted to put lime green pillows on the sectional, but I figured I'd pushed my luck enough with the red and I'd be wise to let them get used to that brave choice first!

Here's what you see when you are standing at my front door looking in.
I love the light that this house gets.
We've still got lots of clutter to either throw out or find a home for, but so far it's coming together nicely.

Here is the downstairs finished basement.

Because the room that the boys share down there is much smaller than we had anticipated, we geared the whole downstairs toward them and entertaining their future friends.

The game systems are down there along with the kid's computer and a TV for watching movies and sports.

I found the colored chairs that are around the black table on craigslist and I'm hoping that this area will be used for homework or for playing board games.

At first there was so much whining from Zach and Michael about sharing the small room downstairs that I thought I might have to move into it myself just to preserve my sanity while David is gone, but now that it's all put together they love it.

It's going to be a great space for them to use when they have friends over.