Erieversible

Maybe it is because I’m a woman (!), but I struggle with mentally picturing things in other places.  Like couches or rugs or beds.  All of which is a small problem at the moment as, in the last two days we have bought 2 couches, 2 rugs and 3 beds! 

And I can not, no matter how hard I try, imagine how they will look in the rooms they are intended for.  It is like going to the furniture store and falling in love with a living room outfit and then finding out that it is too small for the living room once you get it home.  Or buying the perfect door mat, only to discover that it just disappears in your entry way. 

The spaces in our new house are deceptive.  The house is larger than anything we have ever lived in before (Thank you America for having reasonably prices homes, compared to the UK!), but it is also the way it is laid out that is giving us trouble.  Rooms that feel quite small are turning out to need larger furniture and fixtures than we realized, and in other rooms we might have been a bit too optimistic about the furniture that would fit in.  (But I really really wanted a king sized bed.)  And neither of us has any idea how much space we have in the family room for our TV stand.  There could be anything from two to ten feet between the windows, I just don’t know.

[9 feet, measured it this evening]

And yes, we can (and should) measure…but even that doesn’t help all that much.  We measured for an “area rug” for the family room.  But then we stood in Lowe’s, looking at area rugs, going “I’m sure the space wasn’t that big”, even though the rug we were looking at was smaller than what we thought we wanted from the measurements.

I’m sure once we get moved in it will all begin to fall into place. We have a load of furniture being delivered soon and I just hope it all fits where it is supposed to go, and the colours and shapes and whatever look right in their new location.  Never mind…we will find places for everything…I hope.

Today the kids saw the new house for the first time.  Judging by their reaction I think we chose a good house!

Before heading back to Erie we dropped in at a large furniture store.  We ended up buying beds for everybody, various other bedroom furniture for the children, a couple of couches for the new family room and….and….and something else but my brain has gone numb.  We were a lot later than planned leaving to head back to Erie, as it all took quite some time, but if all the furniture is delivered as scheduled I should have it all in place before the rest of the family arrive next Saturday.  That will be great, everyone starting life in their new home in new, real beds!

And with couches in the family room we can all relax, in comfort, together.  We currently don’t have enough furniture to do that!  All the other furniture we need can wait until after we’ve moved, but the basics are now arranged.  Though that doesn’t mean I won’t be trying to get a few other pieces in place before next weekend.

We ran about 14% over budget for all the stuff we bought today.  Okay, the budget was fairly loosely constructed, a real ‘finger in the air’ piece of work.  (Former work colleagues should refrain from making comments about my professional budgeting methods!!!)  However, what I continually forget about is NY tax - 8.5% on top of the final prices of the furniture (after in-store discounts and a final period of haggling given the amount we bought).  That 8.5% came to a very unhelpful number today.  I’ll get used to it, eventually, but meanwhile I decided that figure shouldn’t be included in my budget overspend….

Christmas is a time when the recycling trucks need to work overtime.  All the plastic and cardboard that accumulates from all those really ‘green-packaged’ toys.  What is surprising is the amount of plastic packaging that is marked as recyclable and the amount that isn’t.

By that last comment I mean it seems to be about 50/50 and I wonder why the 50% that isn’t recyclable, or at least isn’t marked as such, isn’t.  If 50% of the plastic packaging involved can be recycled, why can’t the other 50%?  When we (hopefully soon) move to NY state I understand there are quite strict laws governing recycling there.  The question I would ask is why there do not appear to be regulations governing the marking of products as recyclable?  I would bet that a large proportion of the plastic rubbish generated in our house in the last 48 hours is able to be recycled, but not marked as such.

My other view on all the packaging is the number of twisty metal ties holding the plastic rubbish (i.e. the toys) inside the plastic rubbish (i.e. the wrapping).  Surely all those wire ties, plastic ties and sellotape are not necessary?  

Now, I’m off to get back into my humbug suit…