Another Year Over

This video of Harper "walking" with Dad is unrelated to the rest of this post, but darn cute!

It's been one year to the day since we moved into our house. It's good to note this milestone because without something to prompt me, I'm the type person who stops really seeing things after they've been one way for awhile.

For example, I looked at the calendar in my office the other day, realized that it was just a few days shy of our move-in anniversary, and then I realized that the calendar was still the only thing hanging on the wall in my office...in a random spot above my desk and to the left...where I'd thought I'd place it temporarily until I got some real art...and that there were two paint samples hanging next to it that must have been there since April of last year...because I really didn't like the color the office was painted--wait, still IS painted...

Once I knew that we'd been here a year, there were lots of things that jumped out at me. Like the fact that our coat closet is a disaster, because I'd initially stacked my scarves on the top shelf figuring I'd get around to organizing them when I unpacked the rest of my winter stuff--which is still in a box in the basement--and since then I've just tossed things like hats and purses on top of them.

I also noticed that we still have a folding chair serving as furniture in our front living room, because I never could decide what to buy to go with the sofa we bought in April. Joe actually had a nightmare once in which we were arguing because I wanted to buy a new bedroom set and he was trying to convince me that we needed to spend our money on other things. "We have a folding chair in our living room, for God's sake!" he said. Apparently the nightmare version of me replied, "If you could earn a bigger bonus this wouldn't be a problem." I suppose feeling like I had cash to burn might stimulate furniture-buying, but that isn't why the folding chair is still there. Just to clarify, we don't have a new bedroom set (nor do we need one), and you will never catch the real me complaining in any way about Joe's bonus.

The real reason we still have a folding chair is because we need to remodel our kitchen, which will determine whether or not the current dining room space remains a dining room, which in turn determines the layout and function of the front living room. After a year of saving I think we're ready to talk with contractors to see what our options are for the kitchen and whether or not we can afford to get that half of our house in order. Hopefully by the time March 12, 2012 rolls around I can report that we've replaced the folding chair. And that all of my scarves are neatly stored in one location and my office has decorations other than paint samples (the calendar ends in March so even that will be gone), though that might be asking for quite a lot.