All out of gum.

We were hit with Snowmageddon Part Deux on Tuesday. Into Wednesday. It snowed for more than 24 hours. We got another 18 inches of snow. Combined with the 28 inches from last Friday and the 6 inches from the Wednesday before that, we have a grand total of 52 inches of snow! In case you're math-challenged, that's more than 4 feet!


Up to this point my wonderful hubby has insisted on doing all of the shoveling himself, but it's just too much work for one back to bear so I finally convinced him to let me have a go at it this morning.

Here's a shot of the walk up to our door. I have to say, the hard part of shoveling wasn't scooping up the snow, it was finding a place to put it once it was in the shovel! The snow "dunes" are so high now that I can barely launch the snow up high enough to clear them! After two hours of shoveling I managed to clear our walk and dig out one of our cars.

When my hubby saw how much I got done he said, "wow, babe. You're all out of gum."

"huh?" I replied.

He put on his best tough guy voice and said,"I have come here to chew gum and kick butt... And I'm all out of GUM! -- Come on, babe, it's Rowdy Roddy Piper"

Okie dokie.

Do your husbands quote random wrestlemania nonsense from the early eighties?

By the way, see that black crescent shape that I circled in this photo...

That would be the top of my husband's head. He's 6 ft tall. That's how tall the snow "dunes" are!

Okay, enough of the snow coverage and on to the topic at hand- The Daddy Chair!

BTW- I don't think I mentioned where this chair resides in our home. It's in our basement media/play/family room. It's actually a really nice room (for a basement) because it gets great light and has a big stone fireplace.

I think I'm going to go one of two ways.

After inspecting this stock image of the chair...



I think I may have come up with an acceptable plan for a slipcover.
This is obviously a really rough sketch (I just sort of colored on top of the stock photo in a simple photo editing program), but I think it's enough to get an idea...



I would have to add some foam/padding around the open part of the arms, but once I do that I think they would actually resemble my favorite arm style (like on my sofa). Then I think adding a skirt makes it look less recliner-y, and as an added bonus, the skirt would cover the handle. The only problem with this design is that when the footrest is out it will not be covered by the slipcover, but I'm okay with that since in my mind no recliner looks attractive with the footrest out.

My hesitation in going ahead with this plan is the cost of the fabric (I'll need roughly 5 yards) and the foam. I think I would need to spend a minimum of $50 on this project (and that's if I can get a good deal on fabric) not to mention the sweat equity. I don't mind spending the money or the energy slipcovering a piece of furniture that we'll have around for a while, but I don't want to do it if the chair isn't going to last for a while. Realistically, this chair is already several (not sure how old, actually!) years old and in my experience recliners eventually get all creaky and crooked and need to be replaced.

While snowed in over the last few days I've been doing some craigslist shopping and I think I may have come up with option 2- buy a new chair (and sofa?) on craigslist. Here's what I've come up with.

This chair for my boogie-


still obviously a recliner, but my hubby would LOVE it and I do like the style of the upper half, especially the nailhead trim.




and perhaps this sofa for me?


The chair is listed at $150 and the sofa at $200. Both pieces say they're in like new condition. I've contacted both sellers and haven't heard anything back, so it's likely that neither of these pieces is still available.

Our sofa in the family room could use to be replaced as well and the style isn't something that I like enough now to spend the time/money/energy making a slipcover for it. However, I could probably sell them on CL and make at least a little money to put toward a new chair and sofa. Hmmmm...

Actually, from strictly a numbers point of view, and if we were only talking about the chair, I'll have to spend at least $50 to recover the chair. Meanwhile if I sell the current chair I'm pretty sure I could get $50 for it (or at least I got $50 for an older, uglier recliner less than a year ago!) and then I would only have to spend $100 for the new CL chair. What do you think? Should I spend $50 to make a slipcover? Or spend $100 to buy the new (to me) chair on CL?

Love,