Furniture Shopping

So with this new house (ps...we move in JUNE 15TH!!) comes new furniture. The house isn't huge, so we don't need alot, but I do want to get a few new pieces. Mainly a nice comfy arm chair for the living room. We only have a couch right now (a nice one, even though it was a hand me down from my parents). It's sage green tweed...the tweed has brown, orange and yellow in it. In our tiny apartment, we also have one of those IKEA chairs (the ones everyone has - the wood frame with the thin canvas pad that fits on it) that I have left over from college. I do not want to use that IKEA chair in our new place...i'll probably stash it in the spare bedroom/office. I think a nice comfy chair will be good for the space...especially because we have a fireplace in this house and I want to be able to cozy up :-)

Also, our budget is not very big at all (like non-existant...Sailor Boy will say we don't even NEED a chair...but once we get one, I know he will love it). I'd like to spend under $200 on this chair. So I started searching online at target.com because I actually like a good amount of their furniture. Here's what I found so far: All these chairs are under $200 and I think they all look really nice. I'm intrigued by the leather chair, because I know Sailor Boy would love it (he would feel very distinguished sitting in a leather chair reading the newspaper). I need to see if that green chair matches or at least compliments the green in the couch. We have a long low bookshelf with those same feet on it like the green chair, so I like that it would sort of "match". Plus, if we get an ottoman for the chair, it will make it a little more comfy.

I'm also in the market for a banquette/buffet table of some sort for the "dining room". This house doesn't have a formal dining room like we have now, so we'll be using the couch to seperate the space into a dining area. So I want to get some sort of a table to make that space seem a little more "dining". Here's another piece I found at Target that I like:

We don't need a china cabinet (since we have no formal china), so this might be good for extra storage and just to make that space seem a little bit more "dining room like".

The one thing I'm NOT excited about it packing!! grrrr. I really really hate it. When I moved into my apartment last summer I said I was never moving again..ha. One year later, here I am. Luckily, Sailor Boy is moving/packing NAZI so it should go pretty smoothly. I've never seen anyone move or pack as fast as he does. It's crazy. I just stay out of his way and do what he says...he seriously moved me into the apartment in like 4 hours. We don't get to take "breaks" and I don't get to figure out where I want stuff...he just plops it down and keeps moving. I guess it's good, but it's definitely a little frantic. My favorite part of moving anyways is unpacking and putting stuff where it goes.

I also need some advice on plants. I want to make sure our yard looks good and plant some flowers. However, the neighborhood is ALL trees and SO shady. Any suggestions on good plants that thrive in practically all shade?? We don't even have any grass in the backyard because it won't grow. It's just decking and then mainly mulch and dirt. So I guess I will do planters with things in them...it's just a matter of finding what will actually grow with all that shade. I can't wait till we're moved in and I can post all the pics of the new house!!