Kitchen Table!

Today we went out in search of some tables. We need to get either a Kitchen table or coffee table so we'd have someplace to eat. We previously looked at kitchen tables when shopping for our couches but never found anything we liked. So many tables we saw were counter height tables and that just wasn't what we wanted.

We found a table on Pottery Barn's website that we really liked but we didn't like the price. We decided we'd spend today table shopping and go to Houston if we had to. We were planning for a LONG day of shopping.

We hit a couple of places in the Woodlands and ran by Pottery Barn to check out the table in person. We still loved it but the price was just... well... obnoxious. The salesperson at Pottery Barn told us they were having some great specials so we looked around at other tables. They helped us find one that was very similar to the one we came in for, but for much less $$. And, she snuck us a 20% off coupon so we could get the whole set for 20% off and they had EVERYTHING IN STOCK.

We did lots of inspection and were just really happy with the table and the chairs, so we bought it. It was just what we wanted, a 60" square with 2 leaves to extend it to 76" or 92". I know, sounds huge but its perfect in our breakfast room with one leaf. By 1:30pm we were headed home with our new table and 8 chairs! YIPPEE!!!

All the pieces were well packaged and all we had to put together was screwing the table legs on. Its very sturdy and very heavy! We love it!

The next mission is still coffee table/end tables for the family room but at least now we can eat sitting down!

Staging for sell...

One of the blogs I like to read is The Nesting Place. The Nester writes about all kinds of home decorating related things. Recently she said something that really struck a chord with me and I have said it several times.

"Staging, every home for sale can benefit from being staged. And before you think you'll skip this series because your home isn't for sale, think again. The one complaint heard after people stage their home for sale is, "Why didn't I do some of this stuff years ago so I could enjoy it?" Yes, there are some things that you might do only when you put your house on the market but, for the most part, if you keep your home up over time, you will enjoy it more and it will be market ready just in case you ever need to sell." - The Nester's Staging Series

This question in bold has been my mantra lately. Our house is for sale since we are building the new one. Ryan bought our current house his first year out of college and the house was already completed, so he didn't get to pick any of the finishings. Over the years, we have done some upgrades. Ryan had the whole house painted so it's not longer "builder beige". Most of the house is Sherwin Williams "Tony Taupe" which is a great all over wall color. He had some cabinets built in the living room and master bath to add some much needed storage. And, of course the floor upgrades (Carpet and Laminate) we were forced to do when the AC leaked.

The biggest complaint we have had has been about the Kitchen. It's very functional but it's the one place in the house that we have done no work and it shows. White tile floors, white counter tops, white appliances, light wood cabinets. OK, I take back that nothing was done to the kitchen... Ryan did add lovely nickel hardware to all the doors. Anyway, I've never loved all the white and especially hate the white counters. Everything stains them and any crumb shows up.

If you read this blog regularly, you know I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. So, after seeing the complaints (that we agree with) about the kitchen, we considered offering some upgrades in the kitchen... new granite, new appliances, etc... with an acceptable offer. As we put this package together, I was just kicking myself for not doing these sort of upgrades the day I moved in this house. How much I would have enjoyed a Gas Range and Granite Counters. Sigh. "Why didn't I do some of this stuff years ago so I could enjoy it?"

We have not actually done any upgrades to the kitchen, but we have been doing some staging. The extra desk was removed from the study and replaced with an old couch we borrowed from Ryan's parents. This was in hopes to show the study off as more of a flex room that could be a study, sitting room, nursery, exercise room, etc.

This couch has great shape and is pretty comfy....
It just needed a little face lift. We got a cheap slip cover and some pillows from Target. I am now considering how much it would cost for a professional to re-upholster the couch and add some cute little feet to the bottom for use in our game room or media room. Ryan's parents have another one just like it.
We also did a little bit of work in the backyard. Okay, by "we" I mean Ryan called his landscaper and he brought some guys to fix things up. Spending all day in the yard in this heat is just not on my agenda. We only had the one tree in the back corner and now we have this. It looks great and again... "Why didn't I do some of this stuff years ago so I could enjoy it?"


I guess all this is just to say that I have learned that I shouldn't wait to fix things up around my house. I regret not fixing up the kitchen and now that I see how pretty the yard is, wish we had done something there too (of course, Admiral would have destroyed the yard as a puppy). So, as The Nester reminds us, don't wait until you are selling to get your house like you always wanted it!

I LOVE Target

Target has always been one of my favorite places to shop. I love a good bargain and can typically find a shirt, a pair of shoes, workout pants,a picture frame or other cute home items for reasonable prices. Since moving to The Woodlands though, going to Target has been somewhat of a chore. We live pretty far from the Target in The Woodlands and about as far to the Target in Tomball.

But, Sunday, a BRAND NEW Target opened in Magnolia, all of 5 minutes (10 if you get behind a slow car) from our house. I got Ryan to agree to go with me, despite our fear that it would be super crowded. Luckily, it was not that bad. I have definitely been to Targets that were much more crowded.

Some observations:

• It looked just like any other target on the inside.
• They had new "buggies" (shopping carts) that were all plastic--no metal anywhere.
• The layout of the store was slightly different and confused me just a bit.
• It isn't a "Super Target" with full groceries, but has a much bigger grocery section
• It was still so clean and organized that it was nice to walk through
• The aisles were bigger which is always nice

Ryan and I didn't really have anything we went for in particular so we just walked around a bit. We took our first stop in the Rug section because we have been looking for rugs ever since we got the new laminate floor. This new Target had a much nicer selection of rugs than the other one we went to.

We looked around and decided that after all our searching, it was probably best to get something inexpensive since we don't know how long we will be in this house. And, because the rug in the living room will be Admiral's favorite place to lay.

We settled on two rugs at Target, each under $100.

Dining Room

We went with a goldish toned, natural rug with a black, floral board for the dining room. We wanted something that would set the table apart from the new floors, since they are the same color but didn't want to go too dark or too light. This combination works really well. And, the rug is a good mix of "classic" with the "scrolly" / "flowery" border and modern with the clean lines and simple design.

I really like this rug and thing it really ties the room together. It looks much more polished and finished now and despite the mix and match furniture, looks like a grown up dining room.

We are trying to figure out if we need to do something to get rid of the wrinkles or if they will eventually fall out.

Living Room

We went with a green border as green is definitely an accent color in the living and dining room. The rug doesn't "match" with the couches but it coordinates. There are little flecks of dark brown/burgundy in the center section that sort of tie it all together.

New Floors - Carpet

As I wrote about in a previous post, we have pretty much "re-floored" our whole house in the past few weeks. Hand-scraped Laminate in the front part of the house and new carpet in the bedrooms. The living room, dining room and hallway got laminate flooring due to the unfortunate circumstance of our AC overflowing. The carpet in the bedroom came about in a much less dramatic way.

When the AC leaked, the insurance company did an evaluation of the carpet to see how much it was worth. We always knew it was cheap carpet but the evaluation proved just how cheap it really was. It was cheap. Several weeks later, Ryan's dad sold a home to a family that wanted to remove all the carpet. We asked what was going to happen to the carpet and learned that it would just be given to the different sub-contractors who wanted it, or we could have it. This was very very nice carpet, for free. So we started discussions with their carpet company about how much it would cost for installation and after several rounds of estimates and several days of discussion about whether it was "worth it" decided to go for it.

Here are pictures:

old carpet (light color) next to the new carpet (darker color)

Next to the new laminate floor

Next to the bathroom tile

Master Bedroom

I have never walked on such soft carpet. As Ryan said, it makes you want to just lay on it.

New Floors - Laminate

Over the past couple of months, we have gotten almost all new flooring in our home. The only thing that is left is the tile in the kitchen and bathrooms.

In October, Ryan and I went on a weekend trip to Dartmouth to see his little brother, Eric. We returned late on Sunday night and found that there was water dripping from our living room ceiling. The water was dripping on our dark red couches which in turn faded on our white carpet. We did some investigating in the attic and found that it was the AC leaking. Ryan called their AC company to come out and inspect the unit. He found that drain had clogged (normal) but that the backed up water missed the secondary drain (not normal). This was because the unit had been installed some 7-8 inches out of level so the water was draining the lowest point... the corner right over our living room.

After several months of conversation with the builder (Lennar) and our insurance company, some mediocre work by the builder and then a decision by the builder that it was OUR fault, we finally turned the whole thing over to the insurance company because we needed to have everything fixed. The dealings with the builder are just too much for me to re-hash so I'll leave it at that.

With Ryan's "hookups" in the building industry, we found that we could fix the ceiling and replace our old carpet with some top of the line laminate for not much more than the amount of the insurance estimate. It was just too good to pass up. After 3 months of a red stain on the carpet we have nice, dark laminate floors in our living room, dining room and hallway.

Dining Room Before

Dining Room after

Entry Before
(Ryan had already torn out the closet piece)

Entry After

Living Room Before

Living Room After

The only down side so far is that Admiral is a white dog and this floor is dark. I never knew how nasty our white carpet must have been. I am sweeping almost daily.

"DIY" - Part 1

Ryan and I do not do too much major DIY work. Since Ryan is a builder, they have lots of sub-contractors that will come do things for us for really good prices. So, that is what we typically do. Yes, I am spoiled! :) We have done some things around the house but we always tend to run into problems and they seem to take way longer than expected. But, this weekend, we decided to tackle a few things ourselves.

First, I convinced Ryan that we needed to re-cover our dining room chairs and that I could do it myself.

Back story: When Ryan's grandparents moved out of their house into an assisted living facility, we inherited their dining room table, china cabinet and curio cabinet. This was definitely a plus since new dining room furniture was low on our "to buy" list. Our dining room has evolved into a Black, Silver and Gold themed room. This came about because Ryan's parents gave us their old chandelier, which was an upgraded version of the one that came with the house. It is brass. I am not a huge fan of brass, but it was a much bigger and nicer chandelier so it was hard to say no. We weren't too sure about trying to paint it, so instead, we got black shades to make it a little more modern. The rest of the items in our dining room (china, serving pieces, accessories) were silver or had silver accents. We even had some candlesticks that were silver with black accents. Perfect! I decided to make the most of it and incorporate the three colors. It has turned out nice.

The only thing that has been bothering me is the maroon chair cushions. They just didn't "go".

So, after many hours of watching Trading Spaces and HGTV, I was convinced that I could just re-do them myself. I had the idea of finding some gold and black striped fabric. I drug Ryan to Joanne's Fabrics (he felt very out of place) and we found several fabrics that we liked. Of course the ones we liked were outrageously priced. So we looked and looked and found a nice gold on gold striped fabric. It wasn't exactly what we wanted but it was only $10 per yard, then was on sale 50% off. $5 a yard sealed the deal.

The project turned out really well. The only problems I faced was that my staple gun was just not cutting it. So, off to Home Depot to pick up a new one. Ahh, much better. I got all four chairs done in about an hour or so.