Making Lemonade

Moving is the worst.  I certainly wouldn't be surprised if some study came out announcing the process of moving results in a loss of five years from your lifespan.  Moving would be just be added to the list of everything else that kills us... you know, BPAs, cell phones, Sarah Palin's reality show.  I must say, though, on our actual moving day, just two short months ago, everything went unexpectedly well and no one was horribly injured and more importantly, none of our stuff was damaged.  Well... everything except for our unsuspecting stairway leading into the basement.

As you may recall, we faced a challenge in moving our ginormous La-Z-Boy sectional into the basement due to the narrow door and stairway.  Our poor friends were barely hanging on after a full day of lugging heavy boxes and furniture, and of course, the sectional had to be the very last task.  Once our friend, Paul, had removed the door frame, the guys were able to squeeze forcibly shove and kick the couch, piece by piece down the stairs.

Couch v. Tiny Stairway

A moving day miracle occurred and my beloved couch found its way home, but we were left with this... modern art?  I like to think of it as an expression of the frustration of today's homeowner... struggling to get by in a down economy, like you're just trying to climb your way up, get your piece of the American Dream, but something just keeps kicking you in the face.  Uh huh... that sounds right.

Then there is this scraggly door frame.  It kind of gives our basement an even creepier feel, what with the low ceilings, freezing temperatures, and two black cats darting to and fro.  Yikes... maybe we should devote more effort to making the basement a little friendlier before we wake up chained to a bathtub down there (a la "Saw")...

Anyways, we decided we wanted to commemorate this first adventure at Grafton.  At the time, it was just so frustrating, but looking back, I'd chalk it up to an invaluable experience.  It is an opportunity to be reminded of how great our friends are and there's nothing wrong with a getting a few bumps and scratches in life.  So, I gathered a few chunks of wall and Gorilla Glued them to an extra scrap of contact paper I had been using to line our cabinets, and stuck it in a little shadow box we bought at IKEA.

We hung it right inside our stairway and the almost happy face arrangement of the chunks greets us on each trip down to the basement.  So, there you go.  We got some cheap art, great memories, and a comfy couch to relax on.  Now that's what I call making lemonade out of life's lemons.  Those lemons better watch out because we're not afraid to kick, shove, and tear stuff up to get what we want.  :)