Five Easy Pieces

If you went to UVA or visited Charlottesville you may think I am referring to the delicious sandwich from the famous Little John's deli.  Sadly, I'm not. But I am now craving it!  What I am referring to are some key furniture pieces that we have "easily" scooped up for our basement transformation.  Going into this project, we knew we wanted to create a cozy space that was casual and chic, but not spend a ton of money on it.  We started sourcing furniture at local stores as well as online and ended up finding some great stuff.

Easy Piece #1:  Sectional Couch
The basement is being divided into 2 distinct sections:  play area and TV area.  Since it is not a large room, we need to make the most use of the space and we thought a sectional would help us accomplish that by offering ample amounts of comfortable seating as well as act a natural divider between TV viewing area and James playing area (which we know will eventually be mashed into one space no matter how hard we try!).  Enter Bob's Discount Furniture.  We had been to Bob's a few times when living in NY and were really happy when they started opening stores down here. We paid them a visit a few weekends back and fell for their Venus II sectional model.

Not only is it a simple, clean couch, it was also very reasonably priced without being total crap that will fall apart in a year.  The best part - all the ice cream and cookies you want!!  James was a fan of that - as was Ed. :)

Easy Piece #2:  Entertainment Stand

I had a vision for what I wanted in an entertainment stand from the get go.  I wanted something that was solid, sturdy and tall enough to withstand the hands of a toddler and a tv-watching dog.  I also wanted something that had a good amount of storage to hide toys/games/books of said toddler and tv-watching dog.  And my final wish was for it to have a rustic, almost reclaimed look.  A pretty tall order, but my dreams were answered when I walked into Home Goods - hello gorgeous!

This beauty was all that I wanted without a Pottery Barn-styled price tag. It was probably the first time that I made a purchase like this without Ed being present to give it a thumbs up, but thanks to photos via text message, he was just as much on board as I was.

Easy Piece #3:  End Table
Because of the configuration of the room, we are in need of a single end table to house a lamp and some other goodies.  After securing the couch and measuring the space, we were able to get something fairly sizable and in my head it would be something unique, but simple.  The Home Good Gods shined down on us again and offered up this pretty piece:

It's hard to tell from the photo, but behind the little cut-outs is a mirror making it both rustic and chic at the same time.  It's also a door that opens to reveal oodles of storage which is a big plus.  The price tag was a little more than I wanted to spend on an end table for the room, but I figured it was worth it to have an attractive piece that also served up ample storage.

Easy Piece #4: Ottoman Coffee Table
This is a piece that I had been eyeing for some time and has actually been sitting in our basement for quite a while.  I first spotted it on my favorite DIY blog, Young House Love.  After doing some research, I found it for a whopping $800.00 and put it out of my brain then and there.  No way I was going to invest that much into an ottoman.  Then one day, while browsing the Joss & Main website, there she was for 75% off the rack price.  Uh - yes please!

I scooped it up then and there and we have had it for several months in anticipation of the basement.  It's a big piece measuring 25" x 25" and the best part is that it opens up offering major storage.  Are you seeing a theme here??  Full disclosure - we are still deciding if we want to keep this monster or try to sell it on Craigslist to get something a little smaller and not as matchy matchy with the couch.  We will make a final call once everything is in place.  I already have a back-up in mind (of course!).

Easy Piece #5:  EXPEDIT Bookcases

So technically we don't yet have these in our possession, but we will once we make our way to IKEA in the coming weeks.  Here is the inspiration:

We are going to get two of the 2 x 4 Expedit bookcases in white and fill it with some red and teal baskets for all of James' stuff.  The did is small, but he sure has a lot of crap so this will be one of the ways that we attempt to contain the crap.  The plan is to set them up in a similar manner so that we can also have his little table and chairs and a refrigerator along the same, not-very-long wall.  

So there you have it.  There are still some other items to get in place including a book case, a mirror and screen for the fire place area as well as some other decor related items, but I'd say we are well on our way to having a stylish and functional basement family room/play room!

Now You See It...Now You Don't!

It's renovation time again in the Mangiaracina house - yippee!!  The basement has been a thorn in our side for a while now so we decided that it was time to ship it into shape.  The motivation?  James' 2nd birthday party of course!!  To be honest, we have been wanting to convert the basement into a family room/play room rather than an oversized storage space for quite some time.

Now is the time.

In order to accomplish this feat, we apparently had to make it look like a tornado went through the space.  Good Lord - is that a mess or what?!

But, the best part of this mess is that is just the first step in making the basement a gorgeous, usable space rather than a dumping ground.  

The real first step was to remove the kitchenette that lived on one of the walls.  

We had decided pretty much as soon as we moved in that we would never really use it and would rather take it out and open the room up a bit.  So, one recent Sunday morning we dropped James off at Grandma and Grandpa's house and got to work.  

The kitchenette wasn't high quality so we figured it would be easy to remove from the wall.  And thanks to a trusty drill and some Mangiaracina muscles, the upper cabinets came down, no problem.  

The bottom cabinets were just as easy - but we did have to deal with some plumbing.  Luckily Ed knows a thing or two about pipes so dismantling the sink was a breeze.

As you can see from the above photo, removing the kitchenette did leave us with a hole in the wall and some missing baseboard molding.  Nothing a quick trip to Home Depot couldn't solve!  Within minutes the hole went from this...

... to this:

No problem, baby!  You can even see from this photo that Ed replaced the baseboard molding as well.  That part wasn't as seamless, but it wasn't anything an electric sander couldn't fix.  

We felt such a sense of accomplishment once the wall was free from the eye sore kitchenette.  Instead of trashing it, we are donating it to ReStore - a Habitat for Humanity program where you donate building and household items that are then sold in one of their local stores with proceeds going to the charity.  I'd much rather someone benefit from this thing rather than dump it in the trash.

The catch?  You have to get said items outside for the pick-up.  That meant Ed and I dragging these not-so-feather-weight pieces out of the house.  

In the freezing cold.  

With all the snow.  

Definitely a work out, but it's done and ready to be gotten.

As James would say, "buh-bye"!  Next stop on the renovation train: Paint Town!

Holiday Highlights

I can't believe I am sitting here on the last day of 2013 with a new year looming on the horizon. Where did the year go??  Wasn't it just James' first birthday??

Since I have less than 12 hours before 2014 hits, I'm going to make our Christmas recap a quick one (in relative terms, that is). Like there rest of this year, the holiday season flew by in a flash and between time spent in the car traveling, at Urgent Care and unwrapping a slew of gifts, we managed to have a good time and create some great memories.

This year, Christmas began on December 22nd at the Quartuccio house.  Because we decided to visit family in NY for the holidays, the Quartuccio Christmas was a few days early - but just as big as ever. Aunt Suzy and Uncle Ivan were in town to help celebrate and we did it up!

On Christmas Eve morning, we loaded the car and began our trek up north. First stop - Belle Meade, NJ for Christmas Eve with the Basile's.  James did surprisingly well on the car ride thanks to some napping and a whole lot of Jingle the Husky Pup on the iPad.

Upon arrival, Aunt Linda surprised James with a new chair which of course loved and of course climbed in and out of about 100 times.  He had a ball exploring their house and running around with Daddy and all his cousins.

  

Unfortunately, things started to go sour in the afternoon.  It was clear that James was not feeling great and after hours of endless fussing, we decided to hit Urgent Care where we learned our little man had an ear infection.  Definitely not on his list to Santa!  Luckily the meds kicked in quick and he was back in action at the end of the night.  He did a great job entertaining everyone and was the little boy we know and love.  And P.S. - he totally fell in love with Kamrie.  Sorry, Jon - looks like you have some competition! :)

That night, we once again hit the road for stop #2 - Wantagh, NY.  We were going to hunker down and wait for Santa at Aunt Adriana's and Uncle John's house.  James luckily slept in the car and transferred into the house so we were able to do our thing upon arrival.  

Finally Christmas morning was here and unfortunately, it didn't go as planned. :(  Our little buddy was not feeling so hot and doesn't do so well when outside of his surroundings which meant one meltdown after another.  We realized that the only way to keep him happy was to make sure that Jingle was playing on the TV so we ended up watching it all morning long.  Whatever it took!  He did manage to open gifts in between the crying as did the rest of us.  And we all were treated well!

Christmas day continued with another car ride (and a long nap thank God!) to Staten Island for a visit with the Giocolano family.  It was so good to see them and spend some quality time celebrating the holiday.  James did really well considering he was still under the weather.  He even managed to entertain us with his dance moves.

By 8:00 pm, James was done.  Overdone actually so we headed back to Long Island and promptly put ourselves to bed.  The next day, we made plans with some friends who have kids and it was just in the nick of time because James was getting very tired of looking at us old people.  Our first stop was to the Seigal household where we hung out and played with Alyson, Rob, Mikey and Lexi.  Alyson is one of my oldest and dearest friends and even though we don't see each other often, when we do, it's as if no time has gone by.  It was so great spending time with each other watching our kids play together.  

Next up - the Green's.  We were greeted at the door by Dominick and Guilianna and had a great time hanging out with Dave and Michele.  I honestly don't have any photos because the kids were running around like crazy people.  James had a blast and really needed the time with other little kids.

We headed back to Grandma M's house for dinner before hitting the road for home.  It was so great to see our family for the holidays, but I would be lying if I told you it was easy being on the road with a toddler for Christmas.  When we got home late Thursday night, we both felt like we had been hit by a truck so we collapsed in our bed and saved the unpacking for the next day.

The holidays were a whirlwind and I honestly can't believe the we are about to ring in the new year tonight.  Now is usually the time of year when you reflect on what you are grateful for and honestly, there are so many to list that I'm not even going to attempt it.  But I can say, the thing I am MOST grateful for is my amazing family.  Ed, James and Lucy are the best things that have ever happened to this girl.  Happy New Year!! xoxo