UNCOMMON GROUND: Cohabitation

Mr. Marcus and I have been married almost six months now, and we have recently come to the realization that we didn't know as much about each other as we thought. Its just the little things that you could never know about a person until you live with them. I'm sure you all can remember the Xbox situation ( i.e., I didn't know he could play those mind-numbing video games for 33,832 hours straight). But there are other things, like he often times fails to remembers to put a trash bag in the trash can after he takes out the trash. And I can bet my life that there are some things that are new to him. Of course, no one can ever know eeeeevrything about someone; but the fact that we didn't live together before we got married, really shines a light on those little things that we're just now discovering. So now I ask myself, "Would things be different if we lived together before we got married?"

We've all heard at some point in our lives that cohabitating before marriage, or shacking, as some call it, is a sin. And if you haven't heard that its wrong, you've at least heard someone refer to a shacking couple in a condecending tone. Simply put, its no secret that its looked down upon by a majority of the adult society. I never had the conversation with my parents about it, but I had a good feeling that it wasn't something they'd be overjoyed to tell their friends about. All I knew was that I didn't want to stake my claim at it. I especially didn't want to have a knock-down, drag-out debate over it with my dad.

But, why do so many people make it out to be such a big deal? I've never seen Biblical scriptions that said anything about shacking or cohabitating.  Isn't it just two people that like/love each other, living together to test the waters...or to save on rent?



I Got Yo Bench!!!

I'm back with another master bedroom update. We needed somewhere, besides our bed, to sit down and put on our shoes; and a place to throw all of our fru fru pillows when its time to go nite nite. Soooooo, I got the creative juices flowing and gathered a couple of the scrap pieces of wood from my living room console table project...



I just had the lovely guys at Home Depot rip down a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood down into four 16" x 54" strips. The leftover pieces just so happened to be the perfect sizes for the legs of console table and and a bench. So with a couple of screws and wood glue, I threw the pieces together.


If you're looking at the picture above, you'll notice that there are a few extra pieces of wood thrown in there. Well, once I sat on the bench once it was put together like the console table, of course it didn't hold my 155 lb frame. So, I headed to HD, again, and picked up a couple of $2.00 1" x 4" pieces (and had them cut to size before I left). And with more screws and wood glue, we finally had supports for the bench that could hold not only me, but also the hubby. Yay!


But, it was at this point that Mr. Marcus told me that he would never sit on it if I didn't "get some soft stuff to go on top of it". So, I grabbed the fabric left over from the headboard project and started to think of how I could upholster this thing.


I promise you...the bench sat (sans soft stuff) for almost 2 weeks in our bed room. I knew how I wanted it to look, I just couldn't find the motivation (or the extra money) to do it. It would've taken 5' of 2" thick foam ($60 if I bought it at WalMart), a couple layers of batting (already had on hand), nail heads/upholstery tacks ($20), and a little spray adhesive ($4), and a SEWING MACHINE($$$!!!) Child, please!!! I know buying a sewing machine could be a pretty good "investment" considering how I love a good DIY project. But I wasn't willing to take the plunge on this project. Ruining the last little bit of fabric I had on hand was NOT an option. Now, if I went out and bought all of these materials, I would've been out of at least $85-$285; not to mention the time and frustration it would've taken to get the bench to look EXACTLY how I wanted.

Insert [here] a quick visit to the UPHOLSTER!

I was pleasantly surprised to find one actually in Poplar Bluff. (There are NO fabric stores, but we have an upholster...yeah.) All I did was drop off the bench and fabric (after I gave the sides a couple coats of spray paint), told him how I wanted it to look and that I wanted him to add nail head trim. And $70 and less than 24 hours later, I got this!!!


Ain't it PURTY!?!?! I loooove it! And it doesn't hurt that its more than a little comfortable.


Now, you know I pride myself on being a cheapo. But in this particular instance, I thought that my sanity and patience were definitely worth the $70...especially, since I wouldn't been out of more money if I did it myself.

Aaaannnnddd...I know it wouldn't have looked this good...even if I spent every waking moment on it.





So, that's our newest addition to the bedroom. A big thanks goes out to Jeff Allen at Ellison & Allen Furniture, here in Poplar Bluff. He was super nice and couldn't have done a better job. We've had it for a few days, now, and Mr. Marcus has given his two thumbs up. I'm glad his butt approves. So do you guys have a thing about sitting on the bed? Do you have a special place to put on your shoes or throw your clothes at the end of a long day? Share and share alike!

Xoxo
Coco

HAPPY MADE UP HOLIDAY!!!

Happy Valentine's Day everybody! I hope this day warms your hearts and fills you with all the love of a juicy swine! Lol!

I Love You More Than Bacon Valentine Card by Oh Geez Design
via

See you tomorrow!