Enjoying the new chairs

The new recliners are everything we hoped for.  
They take up less space and are wall-away style, so they can be positioned in areas that would otherwise be impossible.  They also recline and swivel.

When you have one chair to call your own, you want as many features as possible. And just to alleviate the worry that Left Brain has been left on the floor, he has a matching chair as well, it's just that it's hard to photo a small area to show both of them.  But, as you can clearly see here, both he and Gracie are enjoying all the features of the recliners.

My favorite option is the side table.  It awaits use in this position.

 

Then it swivels into whatever configuration you desire and is really nice to eating while watching TV...which is always seem to do.

It can be totally removed if desired, but I can't imagine why I'd want to do that.

No more twisting of the neck to watch TV, now I can just lean back and relax....aaaah.  

Life is good.



Long Live the Lounging Queen

The former couch area

A last glimpse at the couch and dinette seating

With the couch removed and a recliner in its place, now I have room to put the kitchen cart in the newly opened area.  This provides a nice cool granite stone in the window for the cats on those hot sticky days and best of all, I don't have to move it when we relocate!

It also hides all those cords and extensions that ran all over the place, as well as the oven rack and step stool. Finally things are falling into place. 

I hung on to these three collapsible storage cubes because I just knew they'd come in handy some day...and they finally did.

They are lined up behind my chair and serve as storage for surplus supplies, a lounger for the cats (it's always about the cats) and a charger station for my tablet, Kindle and new phone. Did I mention that in the midst of all this remodel work that my phone died?  Now I get to learn all the new features of this phone....I just can't keep up!


By having my chair in this spot, the cats food dish are finally in a location that protects them from being stepped on.  The water bowl is on the floor of the co-pilot area out of the foot traffic.  Left Brain really loves this, as they were both directly in his path before. Since the chair swivels, I can actually enjoy the view outside this large window now.

I took this as a sign that the changes we were making were meant to be.

The little narrow shelf that was behind the couch needs a little decorative touch to hide the braces, but is too handy to remove.  It also provides a cat-walk from the granite counter top to the desk.  You know how cats hate having to actually walk on the floor.

Now I can actually access the upper cabinets where the food is stored, without having to stand on the couch.  Same thing for the former bench dinette side...I could never get close enough to reach things without crawling over the furniture.

Long Live the Queen of the Window View

The Remodel - Stage Two

Couch removed...check.
Dinette removed....check.
New furniture in place...check.

Now we need two chairs for the table.  Since we enjoy our computer time, we opted not to get regular chairs...which would make more sense spatially.  But then we've never been known for our strong sense of conformity.

We want rolling office chairs that swivel and tilt...with arms.  Yeah, not the best choice maybe, but it's what we want.

We went to a couple of office supply stores and found what we liked best at Staples, who happened to have the chairs we wanted on sale that weekend. 

Since the wood is cherry, we went with a rich dark brown.  We weren't able to agree on the same chair, but they look very much alike and are a close enough of a match.

It's funny to think about how fast we decided on the $900 recliners and how much time and effort went into the $60 office chairs.

Much of our time has been spent reorganizing things into the desk and getting things into the right location.  Photos will be coming of the complete set up in due time.

Long Live the Queen of Fine Seating

The remodel - stage one

Things turned out a bit differently than planned.  Since we made such good time getting into Indiana, we were able to schedule the couch removal in the morning and the dinette installation in the afternoon.  One long day...but then we don't have to move See-More again....or confine the cats. 

Our last view of the old dinette and couch set up....say goodbye kitties!

First stop was to Bradd & Hall Inc.  They removed the couch and as luck would have it, were able to remove the dinette section as well, which made things go much quicker for Carlyle later in the afternoon.  Because the cats hide behind the couch, we had to prevent that option and sequester them in the bedroom.  Here is George in his new man-cave.

In what seemed like no time at all, the couch and old chair were removed.

Then they began removing the dinette.  What a difference it makes when you know where the screws are hidden and have the right tools...and young backs.

going...going

gone!

Since we had some time to spend between jobs we found a local dive that lacked decor, but made up for it with real mashed potatoes and their own homemade cucumber salad and tartar sauce.  Then it was time for a drive through Amish country to reach Focal Woods for the dinette portion of our remodel.

A common site on these roads, there is even a bike and buggy lane in downtown

We arrived at Carlyle's house just before 1:00, as scheduled.  You see a lot of hitching posts in this part of Indiana.  I cannot show you photos of our craftsman, as the Amish shun having their photos taken.

Arriving at Focal Woods and ready to start the install of the dinette

Gracie was getting a little short on patience and tried a couple of times to make a break for it.  I put her harness on and took for for a little walk to burn off some energy.  George just stayed in his man-cave like a good boy.

I'm almost out.....just a little further....nope, the chest and belly are too big.

It is a joy to have handcrafted Amish furniture in our RV, and having it installed by the creator was sublime.  He carefully and patiently installed each piece, double checking to make sure everything fit and moved properly.  So much nicer than bringing home a box and assembling it yourself.

Left Brain supervising the work while enjoying his new chair

Then the cats came out to give it an even closer inspection

We were able to get home early enough to enjoy some fresh air outside and let the cats play in their tent city.  The next step will be to find the perfect chairs to use at the table.

Long Live the Queen of Remodeling

RV Remodel time!

Yesterday we drove most of the day to arrive at Elkhart Indiana.  I have been waiting for this day for a long time now and it's almost here!  We will be doing some work on the RV ....well, actually we'll just pay them....they do all the work.

Here you see the standard set up of a dinette table with bench seats and a couch jammed right up next to it.  This is pretty standard in the RV world and it was fine...for a while.

ignore the distortion from the photo - our RV doesn't actually curve like that

My neck gets kinked up watching TV from the couch and I've been wanting a recliner for a long time.  George is almost a lap cat now, I've been working with him for months towards this goal and he'll jump up on the couch and wait for me to pull him on my lap.  This is a major milestone for him.  Soon I will have my own chair for us to snuggle in.

By gutting this out and putting in a recliner, it will open up a lot more floor space and I can position the chair to actually face the TV....imagine that!  Plus the chairs have this cool table that swings up for use, providing another surface for the laptop, puzzles, cats, whatever the occasion calls for.

The dinette set up had nice storage underneath the bench seats, but it was hard to get to the other overhead cupboards because of the bench seats.  It was decided to go with a storage cabinet system where the table pulls out from the center space.  This allows for a longer table than we had before, but it can be shortened up by removing the leaf and pushing it in.

Now the kitchen cart can be moved to a location that will not require it to be moved when the RV is in motion....yipppeee! That little sucker is heavy.  Left Brain will be glad to see it relocated as well as it was an obstacle for him getting into the bench seat.

Long Live the Queen of Remodeling