July 3, 2023 Sunday--5:30pm

Hello!  Hello!

I am not sure when I will be posting, but I am starting this on Sunday because the bedroom furniture is supposed to be picked up sometime after 1pm Monday, I've been sleeping later in the mornings, and it takes me forever to write them.  Everything I do these days is in baby steps--lol!  Mostly this week I am going to show you the many IKEA pieces of my new apartment so you can imagine it right along with me. :)

I never made it to the dentist...the usual health issues.  They rescheduled me for the end of August.  I ought to be feeling a lot better by then, right?  Thinking positive.  

Thursday

You might remember the donation corner of my garage...and I added more since I took this picture!

Well, the truck arrived and they took...

...everything!!  Awesome!

But Leah and I will have to postpone the kitchen and pantry purge until the following week because Leah is planning to make trips down to Minneapolis to haul IKEA boxes up here that her sister has been hoarding for us in their garage.  Leah sent me some photos this week and I assume she included pics of what is down at her sisters because this is what is already in my garage.

This is not my garage or Dagan and Leah's--so must be Ariel's.

You can see there are two huge stacks of boxes. 

So Leah figured two trips or possibly even three!  It's about 4 hours one way so that is a LOT of driving in one day--let alone day after day!  Her options are Wednesday through Friday.  Plus I think Trent is over today and tomorrow (Sunday and Monday) to work on the basement--so Dagan and the boys will likely be the ones to show up here for the bedroom furniture pick up Monday.

[Note: This has been such a strange sale.  He was going to come Friday afternoon but then switched it to Saturday afternoon.  We think he had been working outside in that extreme heat (Leah said he was in a construction truck) because he told her right away that he was too exhausted to deal with moving them.  He did come in to see them, knows he should have somebody to help him, he already paid Leah, she wrote him out a receipt, and he was concerned that she mark them as sold online...so we absolutely know he wants them.  Let's hope he shows up with people to help him in a big vehicle.  We did tell him he could make more than one trip if he needed to.  

So--they are sold but not gone yet--TaDa!!  Leah has been really lucky with selling on Facebook!  Oh, and after he left Leah, Ian, Liam and I played a card game and a board game they had brought with.  It was so nice to have a chance to take it easy and just be playing games with Leah and the boys for a while on Saturday.]  

Okay--back to the endless IKEA boxes.  Why are there so many?  If you have never bought IKEA furniture or put any together...well, one item can come in many boxes.  I'll kind of explain more in a little bit here.  

Anyways, I tried to make a larger floor plan--and it is just as out of proportion as the last one was--ROLF!  I am just excited that everything will finally be up here and ready to go later.  Wanted to show you now that we have a complete floor plan figured out.

I am starting on the left side of the living room and going clockwise...and I will do the same for the studio furniture.  On that left wall on the studio side I will have two wardrobes side by side.  They each have a tall skinny mirror on the front.

Then up on the top wall--(we call it the TV wall because a TV will be mounted on the wall over the middle set of drawers)--from left to right I will have a 12-drawer unit on either side of an...

...8-drawer unit that will have the TV over it.  My wall of drawers!!

Now--as an example of why there are soooo many boxes--it looks like the 12-drawer units come in four boxes that have three drawers in each of them and then another box with a separate top and bottom to the whole unit.  So that's five boxes for the one dresser.  How does the 8-drawer dresser come?  We don't know yet.  Could be in more sets of three drawers plus a single or two sets of two drawers...and I am using some 2-drawer chests for end tables, as you will see.  It will be like figuring out a jigsaw puzzle when it comes to putting all these together.  I am soooo glad Leah says she actually likes to put IKEA furniture together.  (But she might change her tune after all this, you think?)

Then under the living room window will be another of the above 8-drawer units.

Then on the wall between the window and the front door will go two Havsta bookcases with both wooden and glass doors.

I am going to have two big chairs in the middle of the room with three end tables like I have here.  You know how I use my lazy susans--so I needed some extra room on my end tables.  Well--I plan to use the wider 2-drawer chests on the far sides of the big chairs--with the drawers facing away from the chairs, if you know what I mean.  They'll be used for storage...not to access right from the chairs.

Then in the center between the two chairs I plan to have two of these smaller 2-drawer chests--back to back.  So they can hold things I might want to reach from my chair...at least in the front one, for sure.

Then behind the two big chairs and the end tables will go the new big kitchen table!

It's a three-way table with two leaves that live right inside the table.

So, it can be three different sizes.  Great for larger craft or art projects or sewing, too.  :)

But it will be small size most all the time--just like my kitchen table now.  But it is so nice to be able to make it larger any time you want--like magic!  And the new table has three sizes!!

I picked out a rug for the living room with a matching runner (for the kitchenette) called Monet Modern Abstract.  Wanted something bright, light, and colorful in contrast to all the dark furniture.  :)

I told you my place is going to be basically IKEA bookcases and drawers--LOL!

Then in the studio...when you look in the door on the far wall will be my taller die cutting table with the couple of IKEA drawer units underneath that I have now (and love).

Then--going clockwise again--there will be two of these drawer units side by side...yes, I ordered another one.

Then my art table I have right now will be under a window there, too.

On the would-have-been-closet wall...will be two Havsta bookcases with just the bottom wooden doors.

Then in the corner there next to the living room wall will be a corner unit of the smaller Billy bookcases.

Coming out from the right side of that corner unit and going down that wall to the studio door will be three of the larger Billy bookshelves.

And in the center of the room will be my current (soon to be former) kitchen table.

My current rust-colored rolly carts will hold art and craft supplies and live in the studio.

I will transfer everything from the rust ones into a new set of black ones which will hold the writing supplies and be in the living room.  I do plan to try to have a general division of art & craft supplies in the studio and all the writing and letter supplies in the living room.

Another decision that has been made.  I am going to have automatic blinds on my two windows like Dagan and Leah have upstairs in their high, horizontal, skinny window.  Awesome!!

Whew!  Are you exhausted?  Did you make it all around the two rooms?  LOL!  Well, if you did now you can picture it more...especially now that you have seen it framed down there just as I have.  It will all slowly come to life. :)  I know it would drive many people crazy to have everything so similar and such dark furniture...but I am so very excited and happy about it.  Would it drive you nuts?  Or would you find it uncluttered and soothing?  Could you live like a hobbit?  I am going to try to have it uncluttered, anyways.  Or at least more organized...and downsized!  ;)

I'm only including a few pics of the boys...even though Gramma got a bunch and more tennis videos. (Ian is improving.)

Fargo has so many parks with so many different kinds of things to climb on--man!

I see Daddy was with one day at a park, too.  

They brought a friend with on Saturday to Home Depot.  Looks like he was already finished and a little bored waiting for Ian and Liam--lol!

This time they made a beanbag game--with one hole.

Looks like they always have fun there no matter what they make.

We had a pretty decent bit of rain today.

Allie was wondering what I was doing when I took that picture.  I think I was mesmerized because I love rain and the sound of thunder and just stood there too long--lol!

Well, I think I am going to break (my self-imposed) tradition and post this early.  If Trent came today and is coming tomorrow, I should get pictures for next week of what they did down there.  Whoohoo!  I always get excited to see pictures.  And then tomorrow is saying goodbye (finally) to the bedroom furniture.  I hope that goes well.  That triple dresser and the tall hutch dresser are pistols to move.  I'll be glad when they are safely gone.  Then I can reorganize and use the bedroom for moving boxes and such--except for the U-Haul end tables--LOL!  Could get some of the clutter out of the living room maybe. :)

Poor Leah will be on the road half the week, I think.  I told her times like this I really, really wish I was healthier.  I used to absolutely love cross country road trips!  Dagan and I always had such a good time all those hours in the car.  I just know Leah and I would have such a grand, happy time.  But I loved road trips alone, too.  That is when I loved audio books!!  Now days there are pod casts, too.  That's what Leah plans to do.

I haven't been able to travel for so many years.  I will be missing another school reunion in September.  We've had them every five years for 55 years now.  Where did that time go?!  Heck--I don't even know where this day went!  Been working on this for six hours (with breaks, of course--baby steps).  Time to stretch this achy body again.  Been a beautiful day...rain...then the sun came out, but it is only 81 degrees.  Allie hasn't thrown up for three days and she's been sleeping peacefully all afternoon.  The bedroom furniture is already paid for.  The donation corner of my garage is empty.  I just plain love McFamily so much.  Grateful to Leah's sister and her hubby for helping us out like they have.  I'm at my normal old 3-4 pain level today.  Life is good.  Life is so good.

See you next week!!  :) :)