I Love Progress

It’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do for rooms. As you know I shared last week that we’re painting away.  I also have for months – at least three maybe four – been faithfully watching online market place looking for new family room furniture to replace my old stuff. 
 
For the last twenty two years I’ve had a leather sofa and loveseat that we bought on sale. It’s been good and comfortable for our family. It’s been through parties and sleepovers and pool escapades. It’s also burgundy. While it had a good hint of red wine to it for many years, now it’s gotten really dark. Some days it almost looks brown.
 
Well today after searching so long, THE sofa set came on sale. I had to scramble and borrow money from a friend to beat everyone else out – but I did.  It’s perfect. The furniture was used to stage a new construction and the buyers didn’t want it so the decorator moved it to another house. Turns out it doesn’t work with the new house and she decided she was not hauling it all over town or storing it so for the price of used furniture I got a great quality, nearly new, sofa, loveseat, chair and ottoman.  No idea what I’m going to do with the chair and ottoman but for the bargain basement price we got – I’ll find someplace to put it!! LOL. 

As you can see below - to the left - the dark older furniture (with my hubby and grandpup lol)  - to the right - the new sofa ! 

I'm very happy with the progress the house is making.  When I come back from visiting the grand kids this week, I'll take some photos of the finished projects to share! 

Have you placed your preorder for Owen?  Just for you - here's a little unedited snippet: 

    The long hot shower had been a small slice of heaven. After the almost seven hour drive his back had let him know that despite the comfort of his nice new pickup, driving back and forth between Oklahoma and Texas was getting beyond very old. The modern world had advanced to talk to computers with no need of a keyboard, communicate anywhere in the world instantly via cell phones, or if they preferred, see the smiling faces with video calls, and a slew of other sci fi realities. How hard could inventing speed travel be?
    Though he preferred handling business from an ergonomically comfortable chair—yeah somewhere he’d become that old – at least thanks to all the wonderful advances of  modern technology, he’d been able to knock out several phone calls to unruffle some feathers on two of the Oklahoma renovations underway while driving. Their construction crews were some of the best, able to accomplish the world without him or his brothers having to micromanage them. If only he could say the same thing about some of their subcontractors.
    One in particular had been at the root of both of those phone calls. One of the interior designers they used had a nasty habit of going over budget on her work.  The woman had no sense of numbers at all, but she had to have lost her mind on the Chez Gerard renovations. One of the most exclusive velvet rope restaurants in the entire state of Oklahoma, Farraday Construction had managed to beat out five of their best competition for the project. The numbers had been tight and unlike most of the projects, the contingency budget was next to nothing.  Neil had insisted Constance Swenson was the right choice. Considering how many times Owen had had to do battle with her over numbers, he was less than convinced the fit was right.  After multiple calls with their book keeper, the furniture gallery, and the logistics company responsible for the delivery of the imported chairs—from France no less—he wouldn’t mind wringing her pretty little neck.  Except that was one thing his mother and Aunt Eileen would agree on—they’d both kill him.
    Now it was up to him and his brothers to find a way to offset the unexpected expense of imported restaurant chairs. Towel drying his hair, he shook his head wondering, what was wrong with Made in the U.S.A.?
     Booted heels stomped up the wooden steps of the old ranch house. He’d always thought the home a comfortable place, but it didn’t hold a candle to his Uncle Sean’s spread.
     “About time.” His brother Paxton’s voice boomed from down the hall. “We don’t have all day.”
      As his brother crossed his room in a few long strides, the same towel now wrapped around Owen’s hips, he flung open the bathroom door. “For what?”
       “Tomorrow’s design meeting on the new ghost hotel has been pushed up to today.”
     “We really are going to have to find a new name for the place. You can’t keep calling it Ghost Hotel.”
     “Don’t see why not.” Pax shrugged. “Any how,  Neil is still in Tuckers Bluff, so you’re going to have to meet with Harriet. Fortunately this is only the prelim gathering. Going over the plans Neil drew up and the budget you’ve laid out as well as sharing a few photos of the not ghost hotel, and discussion of the direction we’re going in.” 
    Thank heaven Neil hadn’t insisted on that woman who had given him a headache the size of Texas. “Why me?”
     “I told you. Neil is still in Texas and you’re here.”
     “So are you.” Why his brother wanted him to meet with the design team was beyond him. He was just a numbers man.  “You’re a landscape designer and she’s an interior designer. The two of you probably speak the same language.”
      “Plants and wallpaper are unrelated.”
     “You’re both creative. I’m all about numbers and spreadsheets. You speak her language.”

And that's it for this week's update - see y'all soon !