For me...

In a modern-day miracle, I still don't have the AC running.  For someone who is incredibly sensitive to heat and who has a bum temperature regulation system, this is even more miraculous.  I set an miser goal of not using it until May 1st.  Today is warm and tonight will not be much lower, but tomorrow is another little shift downward in temperature, so I am going to try to tough it out.  Every day without either portion of my HVAC running is saving me oodles in money (comparatively speaking).  Since being felled by chronic illness, I have never gone this late without running the AC.  But these days, it's all about the money!

I posted my treadmill and my sleeper sofa on Craigslist.  I posted the treadmill because it is so very hard to bear my weight and exercise and the recumbent bike is really the way for me to go.  For the span of about 12 hours, I had a serious buyer coming, but then she got a free treadmill from her parents and the prospective sale vanished.  I had another nibble, but nothing further.  And the other bite on the couch turned out to be one of those check-cashing scams.  Still, I have all the time in the world to sell the treadmill, being tucked away down in the basement.  If I can sell it, then I will move the recumbent bike from the living room (easier to watch TV whilst torturing myself) down to the basement (much cooler anyway for all that sweating).

I recently sold some jewelry and two Robert Jordan books.  I thought my first edition Anne McCaffrey books would have sold, but I suppose that her fans all have those books and the next generation doesn't seem to adore her.  Personally, I think her son taking over the PERN series ruined it.  The books have been repetitive in plot and there is too much advocacy of homosexuality.  The series is about dragons, not LGBT rights!  SIGH.

I have the money set aside to try and address what my friend Emily noted as being more comfortable/making things work for me.  The couch is just not firm enough for my sit-upon.  It was a very poor choice on my part.  Granted, when I bought it, I did not realize I would be this ill and spend my time on it lounge on my arm like a Greek Goddess.  That puts my backside right atop the crack between two cushions.  Very uncomfortable!  My goal is to get a Plain Jane, economical sofa with two cushions.  But I am also leaning toward a love sofa where the GREEN chair is so that my living room is more comfortable in the seating options for visitors.  Plus, really, it is ever so easy for me to lie down all day long, so I would like the temptation of the GREEN chair less accessible to me, though I have loved that leather recliner for over twenty years.

Of the sofas I have seen thus far, this is my choice.  VERY plain.  [Not, mind you, those horrid throw pillows.]

One of the things I have done, in trying to decide if a love seat would work in the space, is play musical chairs with my grandmother's rocking chair, which had been to the right of the fireplace.  I have moved in to three different locations, with it currently being next to the chest that is along the wall behind the GREEN chair, near the front door.

The chair has been here for a couple of days now, and I think that I like it.  Of course, I have considered playing musical furniture to a greater degree and make this more of a reading space.  I could move one of the bookcases here and this chest to where the book case was.  The most likely one is the wide lawyer's case from one of the spare rooms.  However, the books in it are my picture book collection.  It is the lowest bookcase I have, but even so, I am wondering if it would be too high for the mirror, which would mean moving the mirror up.

Only, well, this mirror and this chest have been "together" since they resided in my grandmother's house.  How in the world could I separate them?  Also, wouldn't a marble top chest of drawers look a bit odd in a bedroom?  If you look closely at my blurry photo, you will see I put a copy of the Book of Concord on the corner of the top of the chest by the chair.  Take a seat.  Enjoy some doctrine!

The room is long and has the fireplace just inside the cased opening that divides the living room from the foyer.  The fireplace is opposite the chest.  And the space between the two is a bit of dead space.  A lot of dead space, actually.  I think that is where I would keep the chair, should I get the love seat, since, as I have said, it is the place the rocking chair has been in that spot the longest since starting its journey.  Amos, mind you, is distressed over each relocation.  I think my Fluffernutter is resistant to change.

There would be 3.5 feet of floor between the end of the loveseat and the start of the brick hearth.  I think that would be enough to provide a clear pathway from the front door to the dining room.  But my very talented interior designer mother disagrees.  We do not always have the same taste, so her word is not final for me.  But her doubt is giving me pause.

I think one thing that would help is that the couch is two inches less deep than my current sleeper sofa.  I know that swapping out a love seat where the GREEN chair is would define the space more, limit it in a way, but it would provide more of a sightline into the room since the back of the love seat is lower than the recliner.

To that end, I made another change.  The beautiful inlay table I have had next to the couch is now up in the solarium and the smaller mahogany table from that room is now next to the couch.  Smaller in table top size is an adjustment for me.  I am trying to see if I can make that work.  But what I like very much is the smaller in height aspect of the table.  That means, looking at it from the side, you can see the sofa easier.  The lamp is lower and does not dominate the sightline as much.

I have the matching table upstairs (from my grandmother via my sister).  It is funny ... for years I had a round table next to my bed and the rectangle table elsewhere (most recently in the spare bedroom).  But, about a year ago, I decided that since I wanted that table next to my bed, I could let myself have it.  Am I not silly?  I have this terrible habit of keeping things where they are instead of using them that would be most comfortable or enjoyable for me.

Take the solarium, for example.  I still struggle—albeit much less—with guilt over taking away the dual bed spare room functionality when I made it a place of solace for me.  One twin bed.  That is it.  As a spare room, the place is also more comfortable and restful.  It just sleeps one now, instead of two.

The antique mahogany tables are still high, so it does not actually fit the typical style of a table next to a couch (although the height works well beside my bed), but I love those two tables probably more than any other piece of antique furniture that I inherited. I don't know why.  But I do.  They are nothing special.   Solid mahogany.  Rectangular top.  Four-inch solid sides below the table top.  Candlestick turned legs, braced at the bottom.  I like having them by my bed and in my main living space ... now.

I guess all this is to say is that I have been practicing making choices based more on what I think rather than what I think I am supposed to think.  That and trying to reduce what discomfort I can because there is ever so much discomfort about which I can do nothing.