We have spent a lot of time thinking about our home lately- as most of you are aware, we have a small 800 square foot, one bedroom condo in inner city Calgary. We have lived here for just over 5 years and really love the space, location, our yard and neighbours, and (most importantly) that it feels like home. Obviously the issue of only having one bedroom becomes a bigger one the older Finn gets. In the beginning it was fine- our bedroom is large enough that Finn's crib fit just fine- we knew things would be alright for the first year, and after that, we had always thought we would move. But a year came and went (far too quickly) and we realized, Finn does NOT sleep well with us in the room. Just before heading back to work in April, Finn was waking up 3 - 5 times a night. I always disliked the all hours wake-ups, but they were manageable when i was on maternity leave and he was sleeping a few steps away. Once I was back at work and needed all the sleep I could get, we decided to try sleeping in the living room, giving Finn his own space. After just one night, he slept for 12 hours straight for the first time in his life. It was clear he needed his space, but it was unclear what we were going to do. Of course moving was our first discussion, but it felt like a lot of stress to even think about it, and really- I like having us all in such a small space- its weirdly a sense of pride for me. So we opted to get a hide-a-bed for the living room. We figured it was an inexpensive fix, and also a piece of furniture that if we did move, would be handy to have for a spare room or basement. We found a very practical sectional from IKEA- it would definitely not be a couch i would pick out if we were buying a new couch, but we were buying a bed- so really it all boiled down to something that would be incredibly easy to set up (and put away) each day. This couch turns into a bed with one little pull- no need to take off any cushions or unfold anything- just slide and pop! you have a bed! also, the chaise section of the couch lifts up for storage- the perfect spot for our bedding and pillows. All in all, I'm happy with our new couch- its functional and does what we need it to do for this transition period and it buys us a little more time to figure out our next steps, and for that, we are all grateful!
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| Living Room before- our old couch and the brown leather chair were put in storage. |
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| Before |
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| Before |
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| Before | |
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| Finn's last time sitting in our old leather chair. for now at least. |
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| After - new couch- we got rid of the old rug and got a few new pillows - still need to find a good graphic blanket and change up some of the art. It's funny as i was concerned the new couch was too close in colour to the walls, but in these pictures the new couch looks like its the same colour as the old couch. |
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| After |
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| After |
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| After- with the bed pulled out |
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| another angle of the bed pulled out |
