A Tale of Two Coffee Tables {Part I}

So, we have a new coffee table! It's very exciting, I assure you, and like nearly every other piece of furniture I own, it has a story about how it came to live in our home.  But, before I get to sharing my new pride and joy, I feel I must tell y'all the story behind our old coffee table.  (As it turns out, she's the reason we have a new one actually.)

Two years ago, when we lived in Illinois, my living room was quite spacious, and I determined that we needed a fairly large coffee table to suit the space.  As any Craigslist-obsessed person does, I diligently checked the St. Louis listings until one day I saw an ad for two marble coffee tables--one rectangular shaped table for $150 and its square-shaped mate for $100 or so.

Obviously, the price was more than fair, but it was going to be about a 45 minute drive, so I needed to do a little planning to figure out when to pick it up.  Oh, and the seller said to bring help, as it was really  heavy.  Now, when I am in this kind of situation where I really want something that is listed, but I am dependent on the seller emailing me back and wanting to pick me as their buyer (because in my head like 20 other people are also emailing them about the awesome $100 marble coffee table!), I can be a little crazy.  I try to walk that fine line between "very interested, yet level-headed buyer" and "strange obsessed person."  Sometimes I probably do a better job at walking the line than other times.

Well on this cold December night, I did what any reasonable wife would do.  I hired a babysitter to watch my kids and begged my husband to drive with me after work to pick up the heavy coffee table!  God bless that man who had to get up at 5 am the next day (I'm telling you, I remember details when it comes to my CL acquisitions.) and agreed to come on this journey with me.

He's a keeper!!

Just testing it out!  Ah, my babies!  They have grown so much since these pictures!

Once we arrived at the home of the coffee table, we realized how heavy this sucker actually was.  Literally, it was 300-400 lbs.  I kid you not.  Thankfully the seller had a dolly, but between Philip, myself and the woman selling the table, we nearly had to give up on the whole thing it was so unbelievably heavy.  Thankfully I did not have to call the whole thing a bust and somehow we managed to get it in the back of our car.  Just to give you an idea of how involved, exhausting and flat out ridiculous the whole experience of trying to move the table was--the lady ended up giving it to us for free!  I believe she said something along the lines of "If you want this table this badly, I just want you to have it for free!" I may have hugged her.

Are you seeing the kind of muscle that was required to move this thing?! Many thanks to these dear friends for their assistance :)

Let me try to wrap this up.

The coffee table was everything I could have hoped it would be and more.  I loved it in our living room.  Fast forward to a year later and my table was not so kind to my girls.

The little lady on the right lost a tooth very prematurely thanks to an unfortunate collision with the table.  The little lady on the left got a small chip in her tooth when she grazed its edge on her way down to the floor.

At this point I decided I should go ahead and hang my Mother-of-the-Year badge up and find us a different coffee table--maybe one not made of a hard stone?!  Not to worry, my marble love lives in its own little crated bed in our garage (I'm totally serious) and will hopefully be able to join our family again in a couple years.

Proof that it does have its own bed. (Again, please note the grimacing occurring.  These movers loved it when I mentioned that I got this for free.  ha.)   Surely y'all must have pictures documenting the life of your furniture too?

Check back soon for the next installment in this riveting series :)

Painted Interior Doors

There are some design elements in a room that I think strike you right away.  Fabric choices on furniture.  Statement art on the walls.  A really interesting rug.  Kitchen countertops.  Fabulous Lighting.  Deciding on these things is important and definitely shapes the feel of your home.

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I also think there are some elements in a room that deliver a big impact in a more subtle way.  It's not secret that I love to paint things, and what I'm thinking about today are painted interior doors.  Maybe not the first thing you'd think to address in your home, but I love the way they warm up a space and create a good dose of contrast.  

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In our home in Richmond, I painted the inside of our front door black.

I also painted the inside of our back door and an interior bathroom door gray (Benjamin Moore's Gunmetal to be exact).  This small change did so much for the kitchen I thought!

Our current home has lots of options for painted interior doors.  There's the back of the front door, several doors in our dining room and the hallway, which in its current state is not interesting in the least.  It's lined with cheapo, hollow core doors that are just begging for some love.

My apologies for all the junk laying around…these photos were not styled :)

{I feel the need to explain the water dispenser you can see here…I have always been a tap water kinda girl.  Well, not in California.  According to the city's water quality report, Davis water may contain boron and hexavalent chromium (Erin Brokovich anyone?), so we aren't too keen on drinking it.  The trade off is this beauty in my dining room.  Philip's parents thoughtfully gifted us with water delivered to us for the year!  I'll happy take a water dispenser over toxins in my drinking water, thank you very much :) }

Baskets of laundry, always.  Also, a ceiling light fixture that I am so not friends with.

I could, however be friends with a blue door.

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Gray is nice…

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I think yellow is really pretty in this particular space.

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Maybe I'm just a wimp, but I'm inclined to go more neutral in our wee little house with 8' ceilings.

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Rachel Halvorson is uber talented and wrote a great blog post about dark doors.  One of her color recommendations is Sherwin Williams' Urbane Bronze, which is actually the color I painted the walls of our master in our Illinois house.  

Black is a classic choice, and you know what they say about it--every room needs a dose.  If you're looking around your room and noticing that you are lacking in the black department, why not grab a paint brush and give a door a quick makeover?

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We already have black countertops or else black would be a given for our front door.  I'm wondering if it might just be too much in our little place, and I should go with a gray or a brownish-black.  Hhhhmmm.  Too much or just right?  

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The thing I love about a project like this is you can knock it out pretty quickly without too much hassle.    So long as there aren't any tiny people running amuck (cue the nap time chorus!), you can paint a door without much fuss.  

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So, have I convinced you?  Who else is with me and is ready to paint some doors?!

On Being, "Almost Home"

When I chose the name for this little blog of mine, "Almost Home," there were a number of reasons I felt this phrase resonated with me.  The most obvious of course, being that my adult life has consisted of a series of moves, most of which I knew to expect.  There's a unique challenge inherent in knowing that you are going to move in x number of years from each home where you live.  Of course, that kind of foreknowledge can also help you make smart decisions (you hope) when it comes to where and how you live, but it still creates a unique dynamic.

The backyard of my parent's home back in the good 'ol Commonwealth.

As we prepare to move into this new home of ours out here in California (the farthest we've ever been from family!), I've found myself reflecting on how all of these different "homes" have felt for me.  I can honestly say that up until this point, each place where we have lived has truly become home.  I credit this to a gracious God who has dealt gently with me as we have moved from place to place over our 8 1/2 years of marriage.

Visiting with dear friends in one of our very favorite places (Charlottesville Va's Downtown Mall) just before we moved this past summer.

Our first year of marriage in Philadelphia was a really hard year for a lot of reasons.  Philly was tough for me, but we had a wonderful church, full of people I still think about with fondness.  I am convinced God provided for us through those friends and that church.  And because of that, it was home.

Halloween fun with friends in our loft apartment in Old City, Philadelphia.  

We lived in the guest cottage of my parent's house in my hometown of Lynchburg, VA for two years after that.  We had just made the decision for Philip to pursue dental school, and while the six years that that would entail seemed a bit daunting, we were energized (maybe slightly naive?) for the journey ahead.  We quickly made that little home our own, and it was a sweet time of being near my parents and my brother, Graham.  {Sitting in a coffee shop listening to instrumental music as I type this, I'm feeling a bit choked up at the thought of it all!}  It was a unique time too, as I was the one working {outside the home} every day.  I am so grateful for that season.  I really loved my job as a pharmaceutical sales representative.

A bit of Christmas cheer in the guest cottage we were so blessed to call home for two years :)

Next, we lived in Richmond VA, and even though we knew we'd be moving after four years, it really didn't feel like a temporary place.  We bought our first house there, Wade and Holland were both born there, and Richmond still feels the most like our adult home.  I feel great nostalgia for that time in our lives, and I miss it.  I sometimes wonder if we end up there again, would it be the same?

Hard at work on our first home in Richmond, VA!

Four years later, we celebrated Philip's graduation from dental school with dear friends.

We started out in Richmond newly pregnant for the first time.  Fast forward four years later and we were a family of four!

Leaving Richmond to follow where the Air Force was leading felt like a big step.  (Our six year plan through dental school had now become a total of 11, once Philip took a scholarship through the military...)  When we found out we were Illinois bound, it was a little intimidating to think of moving half way across the country to a place completely unknown to us.  But, we knew it was only a year, so how hard could that be?  Now, more than a year later, would you believe me if I told you I actually feel homesick for that little town in southwest Illinois?  Who would have guessed it would leave such an imprint on our hearts?  Let me assure you the year had its share of hard times, but I wouldn't trade it.  We quickly plugged into a wonderful church and built relationships with some really amazing people, and it was home.

Boxes, boxes, and more boxes as we settled into life in Illinois.  The look on my face should give you a sense of how I feel about the task in front of me.

This little dude, on the other hand, was quite pleased with what unpacking boxes meant for him!

My kitchen window in Illinois

So blessed to have sweet friends to miss when we left!

Now, we find ourselves out here on the west coast, and for the first time, I'm feeling weary from what has started to feel like a pretty nomadic existence.  This leads me to wonder why?  The house we bought is in a lovely little town, and we've already met countless new people who have been welcoming and kind.  We are so grateful for that.  Maybe my weariness has something to do with the fact that I'm about to have a third baby in less than two months (and I just miss familiar friends and family and the help they could provide!)?  Perhaps being so far away and living in a place that feels really different from all that is familiar is at the root of it?  Maybe its simply a product of knowing that we are kind of in the home stretch of this whole moving around business (at least as far as we can tell!), so my energy is waning?

Bedtime reading in our temporary house at Travis Air Force Base in CA.

I'm sure all of these factors are playing a part, but there's something else that's been different about this move:  we have been in a temporary house on the Air Force base for more than seven weeks, and while we have everything we truly need, it's really tough for a furnished place that lacks most of your own things to feel like home.  There's a part of me that wants to dismiss that thought--heck, I even have someone who will come by and make my bed and bring new towels every day if I like (#firstworldproblems).  Sometimes it seems just a bit foolish, superficial even, to grant so much weight to my material possessions.  Isn't it really all about the people with whom you're doing life?  Aren't my chairs and my picture frames and my dishes just a bunch of stuff?

Our bedroom in Illinois

Most of y'all know how much I like to decorate, how much a new paint color can make my heart sing.  I'm tempted from time to time to think I should focus my efforts more on things "that really matter," but I have to tell you, I'm feeling more and more convinced of the contrary.  Sure, my children and my husband are the foundation of what makes a place home, but the things we've acquired, or been given, or made-over with that new coat of paint, I think those things matter too.  If these seven weeks in a temporary home have taught me anything it's that my stuff reminds me of the story my family has woven as we've trekked around the country together.   Somehow it seems to help me plug along and engage with the next chapter of life.

Bookshelves filled with bits of our life

Our moving truck is set to deliver all of our stuff that's been sitting in storage for the past three months next Tuesday.  I'm expecting Monday night to feel a bit like Christmas Eve for me :)  I'm so excited to uncover all of the things that will hopefully help me feel like my story can continue out here in California and it too can begin to be home.

Our Illinois Living Room

I've meant to share some pictures of our living room here at Scott Air Force Base (if I haven't explained before, we live in base housing that's not technically on the base) for a while now, but you know, with all the living happening in there, I just couldn't get myself motivated to take the time to straighten it up and photograph it!  I was finally motivated to do so yesterday, as I've got a potential buyer coming to see my sofa, so I knew I needed to document the space (for my own memory's sake!) before a major piece is eliminated.  Fingers crossed they like the sofa!

Two quick things I want to mention:

1.  As referenced above, of course I cleaned up this room before I took the pictures!  I share that lest anyone come away reading this wondering how I manage to keep my house so clean with two kids running around.  I have two kind ladies come clean my house every two weeks and it still looks messy most of the time.  Just ask my husband :)

2.  Yes, one of my curtain rods is totally wonky and hanging half way out of the wall causing my drapes to hang crooked.  Haven't you heard that's the latest trend in window treatments?  Not really--truth is, my kids like to play hide-n-seek in the drapes (I've since forbidden it) and pulled on that one a little too hard.  Seeing as how we've moving so very soon, the rod has remained in this chic placement for a good month or so.

Here are two pictures of how the room looked when we first got the keys. Also, my children have grown so much in a year, especially Holland!




And here's what it looks like now:

With the exception of the coffee table, all of the furniture is from before we actually moved to this house.  Most of what you see is the result of buying things I loved, so long as they met my budget constraints.  While the house itself lacks a plethora of character, I have to say I have loved the spaciousness of this room and the fact that it is bathed in natural light. It has been a good room to live in, and it's really hard for me to believe it'll all be packed up in a few week's time!