More Home Improvements

While the focus of our home improvement efforts was upstairs in the nursery, that required some changes downstairs as well. The guest room (now nursery) also was where the computer lived. With limited space, we took the advice of our neighbors and transformed the wet bar in the living room to a little computer alcove.

My father-in-law took out the cabinet and the sink when he came to visit last spring. It was a wonderful start and as much as he could do before returning across the pond. We've had unfinished walls and pipes sticking out since then waiting for help. My dad and Sandra decided to cut into the walls in the under-the-stairs closet and install a spring hatch to get rid of the pipes before finishing the wall. (They saw it on This Old House...all the talk of "the hatch" made me think of Lost, but hey, it worked!) Lots of sanding, two coats of paint, and some tiling work later, our new desk is in place and working well! Even Rafa approves!

In the middle of all the chaos, I happened to wander onto Craig's List. Our old dining set had come from the Irishman's Lad Pad. He paid $50 for the table and chairs. They were perfect at the time, but had seen better days. The cats loved the blue scratching posts chairs. Rafa slept in the upside down chair until it was picked up by a Freecycler. They were both sad to see it go!

My biggest concern was how to fit a high chair in the space. (And with padded chairs the space savers were not an option.) Thankfully I found someone wanting to get rid of a dining room table. The Irishman and I went to look at it and fell in love at once. It is smaller than what we had before, but comes with a leaf to make it bigger so we feel it is the best of both worlds. It is a solid table and the price was right. We are extremely happy with it!