a place to sit

We were on a little vacation last week (pics to come) and I didn't get a single post scheduled before we left. I had planned on posting about our newest hallway addition last week...but here it is, better late than never.

We finally found a bench for our entryway! It's a tight space and most benches I liked didn't come close to fitting. We were planning on just making one (someday) but I stumbled across one at Hancock Fabrics one day and with a 50% off coupon...it was cheap (around $80)! I had seen some like it but they were in the $200 range so this worked out perfectly.
Here's a peek at the bench. But to get the real picture of what a difference has been made in this little space, we have to back up to pre-water damage.

Here's my baby Emma when she was just learning to cruise along furniture. The hallway to the right of the stairs is now the wall with the bench. Elliott just looks so tiny in these pictures too! The stairs were his favorite place to play.

Here's a look at the front door from the extra bedroom downstairs. The door to the hallway is now our master bedroom closet door and the hallway is our closet. The back of the closet wall is where the bench now resides (the bench is placed about where Emma is in the picture below).

Here are some in-progress shots. You can see the wall in various stages of being done to close in the hallway.

Once things were put together a little more and we moved back in, this is the first wall I put pictures on.

And now we finally have a bench to use when putting shoes on. I'm toying with the idea of making or buying a cushion for it. For now, the grass-ish material on the top is working just fine. I bribed Henry to sit here for a picture and he tried to read a book to you through the camera. :)

He's still working on getting his own shoes on. He does well putting everyone else's shoes on and proudly wears Daddy's shoes or Elliott's around the house most of the time. But with his own, apparently it's a lot harder.

Ahhh, it's nice to see the little details coming together.