Black Friday Shopping

It's true. I've never truly been black Friday shopping because A. I feel my time is worth more than the $50 I might save by standing in line for 10 hours. B. I like to spend time with my family and eat dinner with them rather than stand outside in the cold. and C. my immediate family is strange and doesn't request the typical items from the big box stores so in actuality I wouldn't even know what I would buy. My mom and I did do our own version of Black Friday by sleeping in and then hitting some thrift stores of course!

We decided to check out a recently re-opened thrift store which always looks kind of ghetto so I never have the nerve to go in by myself. Luckily the two of us felt brave and I found a practically mint Cinderella bowl set of my Butterprint pattern for $3.99 a piece plus a 15% Black Friday discount! Yay!

In my excited rush I also bought this little guy with the excuse it matches my kitchen colors...

New Rug is Open for Business

Putting up Christmas decorations forces me to dust and organize all of those nooks and crannies which means I FINALLY have a somewhat acceptable photo to post of my dining room with that new rug mentioned several months ago!? Yikes! well, better late than never? I guess?

Yes, the washed out background is intentional to hide that patio door thing. Someday it will be windows once again...

A New Color Scheme for the Bathroom

Mark is a pretty easy going guy when it comes down to the crazy and weird things I do. That is why when he said "no" to doing a pink bathroom sadly I knew it wasn't going to happen this time around. It's not like I didn't try. I even taped all of my pink paint samples to the wall but he kept on saying "you can paint it any other color, ANY other color but I don't want pink." He finally said I could do it but the guilt took over and I decided to change out my color sample wall and took down the pink. We went out shopping Sunday to see if we could find a rug and/or shower curtain which caught our (my) eye and while flipping through the clearance section at Bed, Bath and Beyond behold what I discovered!

My new bathroom colors

Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew these existed but I completely forgot or spaced it off because I didn't think I would be able to find them around these parts. Mark looked at me strangely when I shouted to tell him I had just found a Vera shower curtain on clearance and then proceeded to ask me who Vera was? In the end it didn't matter as I told him we could paint the walls gold which is not pink so he told me to go ahead and get them!

As I was trying to find a picture which I could actually copy and paste I found the curtain on sale even cheaper at Dillard's but it doesn't look like it is or ever was at a store around here. 

I did get a hand towel for decoration but they didn't have the rug, the bath towels are white, white (they would last about 2 bathing sessions) and the trash can, soap dispenser etc. are breakable so those also were not coming home with me.

Previous Weekend

As usual I realized I never posted last week's post I had in mind, probably because it is boring. However, I am excited about the progress.

 We got the custom made by dad storm windows in place. He got a bunch of grandpa's tools and wanted to test them out. Who was I to say no? Especially since it meant I could get rid of that plastic which has been gradually falling off.

 Gross plastic. This picture also makes the neighbors house look really close.

Much Better. Plus there are no random breezes coming through this window anymore! Four first floor windows down, eight to go plus 2 doors.

Now a little peek at the bathroom. We got the new toilet installed!

Save this house #1

Never fear, I am still painting and caulking and someday I will be able to reveal that bathroom remodel.

In the meantime, an area I have decided to add to my blog to cement my dorkiness are some real estate photos which catch my eye. Usually of an "outdated" nature. Why am I looking at real estate listings? I use the excuse I am looking for a house for Frankie but who am I kidding, I like looking at other peoples houses. It gives me decorating ideas...yes, that is it!
It doesn't happen often. Most of the interesting looking houses end up with only a picture of the front and a description  "diamond in the rough." But sometimes an agent takes photos anyways or actually describes that pink tiled bath as "retro" or "vintage".

This house caught my eye on the way to work the other morning. It is on a slight hill with a huge front yard. The derelict landscaping led me to believe this one might be an interesting one to take a look at and yay! there were lots of nice photos in this listing! Sometimes a realtor's choice photos is odd and sparse but this one pretty much hit everything I wanted to see.

http://www.woodsbros.com/NE/Lincoln/68510/homes-for-sale/1200-Fall-Creek-Rd-67580113/popup

A 2,421 square foot ranch. No, that doesn't include the probably full basement. Built in 1948. $175, 000!?

The bath is described as retro but in great shape. but? Shouldn't that be an and? 

So many cupboards! OK, Avocado wouldn't be my first choice but as long as they worked I would do something funky with them. That sink/diswasher combo is fun and built in canisters? 

The informal dining area with lovely light fixtures.

A built in bench with more storage? Sign me up! 

and what was that peeking through the informal dining? Yes, a bright pink dining room! OK, the green and pink are a bit much even for me but I am liking the curtains (from what I can see) Actually, I instantly pictured this Heywood Wakefield in this room so in my alternate reality these colors do work for me:

I think I can do a little scrubbing at this house and be perfectly content to move right....

WHOA! OK, the carpet would probably have to go but I don't see much that needs to be done at this house. Too bad it will probably be sold in a week and a giant dumpster will be out front the next...

The Planets?

I have a little over a week before my dad comes back expecting to be able to reinstall my bathroom fixtures AND install the storm windows he made and I still need to paint. So the countdown is on and I am frantically trying to tile, grout, paint and caulk. Of course everything takes a little longer than I imagine it ever should and there are things like going to work and socializing with others to distract me.
A great segue into today's distraction:

What the..? Yes, this is a record of orchestra music? I believe? I'm not sure what is happening on this cover or why they decided a crotch shot with bunched up panties was sexy? artsy? space age modern? campy? I don't even know what they were trying to accomplish.

My brother and I had gone to the salvage store with the intent of checking out their carpet scraps for a scritchy post project for Cammie and they had 15 packed full boxes of records for $1 each so we had to check for crazy covers. One can see the search was a success?  I did find a few others for my collection (along with a large stack of Smothers Brothers for my mom for Christmas) but none can even compare to this one.
Oh, and we did find some pretty pink carpet for Cammie.

"New" End Table

I just found this post in my started but unfinished posts though I'm not sure why it didn't get posted:

Last weekend was pretty eventful and non-productive. I did go out shopping with my mom and came across a Lane Acclaim end table which matches the one I snitched from my grandparent's.  Unfortunately it is currently not as nice as theirs so it is being quarantined in the garage until I can clean off the spider webs.

I did have to cough up $20 for it which I thought was a little much but I'm pretty sure grandpa found his in an alley somewhere so neither he nor I had to pay anything for the other. Also, despite it's outward appearance, I bet I can comfortably stand on this and do a jig without so much as a wiggle from the table so I'm not going to find anything this sturdy even if I spent $100 for a new table.

Major Award

I ordered it so I think it is official and I can safely say I won a rug! Hooray! I will post a picture after it hopefully arrives but this is the rug I  have on order.

 

(Unfortunately this is Shaw's display room and not my living room!)

I found out about this rug through my favorite site I stalk daily,  Retro Renovation (even though my house is clearly 50 yrs older than most topics covered) I instantly pictured this crazy rug with my "new" dining room set from grandpa and grandma and wanted to go out and track it down for some price checking. 

Then I found out (also through this site) Shaw was doing a contest on facebook for free flooring so I was entering daily to see if I could win because, why not? Mark made fun of me for my diligent daily entry until I received an e-mail saying I won! I thought at first it was spam but the more I read and looked at the paperwork it looked real. I even googled the address they gave to make sure I wasn't sending all of my personal info to some sleazy looking house. I filled out the papers, sent them off and then I got to go to the store and pick out my new rug. It didn't take too long since I knew what I wanted. I think I did order it a size too big but the size smaller would have barely stuck out from under the table. Plus it is a free rug so why not get the more expensive one? It might end up in the living room if it's too big but either way it will end up under some of grandpa and grandma's furniture since the 50's couch is out there! I'm anxiously awaiting for the floor store to call and say it has arrived!

Fresh Step Kitties

I spotted this ad a while ago in Real Simple

I had forgotten about it until I recently spotted it again in my Better Homes and Gardens I started getting for free via Coke points. It made me laugh again so I cut it out and put it on the fridge.

This month when the magazine arrived at my doorstep I was delighted to spot another ad!

Ha! This one also was immediately removed from the magazine and is sitting on my desk. I start laughing everytime I see kitty's expression.

Not wanting to wait until next month to see if there is another one for me to giggle about I googled and Yes! indeed there is a third!

I can hope it will be in my next issue but for now I will preserve it on my interwebs.

I have to admit I am liking the second and third kitty's rooms. The yellow wallpaper, the Royal Copley cat vase (I have one floating around somewhere) and the knitting in the second and the plaid carpet, yellow chair and telephone stand in the third. I'm not sure I would like the ads so much if kitties were standing in a normal plain old room. Then again, the expression on their faces! hehe yeah, I probably would.

The Problem With Chairs

I have a problem with chairs. There are just so many out there it's hard to resist. Another thing I have been trying to resist is Re-Ment - super cute miniatures from Japan. I haven't happened upon a retailer around here so I have been able to successfully resist this collection thus far. I have so successfully been avoiding it I forgot what it was called and thought I had accidentally bought a piece this weekend at the doll show I was helping my mom with.

Nope, just a knock off so whew, I'm still successfully avoiding it and this chair is super cute and detailed down to the fiberglass fibers on the seat.

I can't afford an Eames Eiffel for myself but now my trolls can enjoy one!

I'm not sure how much longer I can resist this Re-Ment urge since I spotted the Toy Story Sets with tiny aliens....

Moving on. My mom and I also checked out the Goodwill Wearhouse which is basically their leftovers? or stuff they didn't feel like messing with at the real stores? They have table bins full of odds and ends, you fill up a cart, they weigh the cart and you pay by the pound. At first we were disgusted by the people rabidly digging through things but after a while we got into the spirit and managed to find some stuff. We did draw the line at digging through the clothing bins. Apart from us, I'm sure there were some other good candidates for Hoarders roaming the store.

I'm sad and slightly embarrassed to admit the Tiddly Winks box is empty but it was such a cute box and in good shape so I hated to see it being wrecked and tossed about in the bin. Not a single tiddly or wink in sight so I'm not sure where those ended up. 

And circling back to my chair problem. That is correct. A very boring book topic but I love the chair. 

The Disadvantages of Being Cheap?

I've been half wanting a patio set. Our yard hasn't been nice enough for me to feel the immediate need for one because who wants to sit on a dirty deck and look at a pile of dirt and weeds? I figured I would wait for some fall clearance deals and sure enough we went to Lowe's and they had just what I wanted.

It had to be heavy so it wouldn't blow away and no glass because hail happens frequently here. Metal mesh should work perfectly!

I got what I wanted on super clearance so what is the problem with being cheap? When I first spotted the set there were two different sized tables so I had to go home and measure to see which would fit best. They had lots of each table so no problem. We went home, measured, came back, got the table and went to grab the chairs...Yep, someone had ravaged the chair selection. They had lots earlier but when we came back they only had three and this odd one which blends but doesn't match. I bought the three chairs and the oddball chair just because if I didn't I would never find that fourth matching chair. Unfortunately we only have one Lowe's but fortunately the Omaha Lowe's had plenty of chairs and also fortunately Mark's parents live close to one and they happened to be coming down the next day. They swung by to grab one for us before they came to town. It took a little extra work than if I had just forked up full price for a set in spring but I am happy with my decision. Now I'm hoping someone doesn't wander by and steal it before we get to enjoy it!

The end of my new found love for Billy? or is it the beginning?

My drama for this morning via Mark via the LA Times:

IKEA anticipates death of paper books, tweaks bookcase

September 9, 2011 |  6:33 pm

 

3

65

Will this symbolize the death knell of the paper book?
Furniture giant IKEA will debut a new version of its classic BILLY bookcase that is intended to store everything except well-thumbed reading material, a report says.
Coming out next month, the tweaked bookcase will feature deeper shelves meant to display "ornaments, tchotchkes and the odd coffee-table tome -- anything, this is, except books," the Economist reported.
The Swedish furniture company is already pushing glass doors for its bookshelves, anticipating that customers will increasingly utilize bookcases for decorative purposes, the report said.
IKEA may be right. Certainly, times are changing -- and digitizing -- for the book business.
About 12% of American adults now own an e-reader, the first time that number has pushed into double digits since the gadgets became available. Sales of e-books in America finally surpassed those of adult hardbacks in the first five months of the year, and online retailer Amazon.com reported that it sells more digital books than ones printed on paper. Borders Group, once a book peddler to rival Barnes & Noble, is liquidating all of its U.S. stores.
Some have predicted that like the mastodon, bookstores too will go extinct.



Mark should have known I would be distraught the rest of the day by this news. The death of the paper book? I could care less by that comment. A new Billy? WHAT!? I'll have to Google a little harder because I can't find if they are discontinuing the original size or just adding an additional thicker version or even how much thicker the shelves will be.

Living in Nebraska, I just recently discovered the joy of Ikea a few years ago and purchased my first lovely Billy last year to test out the infamous shelves and house a portion of my troll family.

Yeah, it's just a little fuller now...

I measured and had visions of buying 1 1/2 more Billys with doors to fill this wall. It would have been glorious. Now I'm thinking do I "rush" (the closest one is an 8 hr drive) out and buy 1 1/2 more shelves? But if I someday move my shelves maybe I could expand so maybe I just want to find another spot for this Billy and start fresh? After all, I am obviously the target audience of this new version of Billy because I'm not seeing many books on my shelves. I could fit another row of trolls on shelves which are 2" or 3" wider!

Labor Day Weekend

A few projects from last weekend:

One tedious and not so interesting project I have been working on is the foundation. Thankfully brick only makes up the first 3 feet of the house.

Quite a bit of the mortar has held up and looks sturdy, some places the previous owner made a sloppy attempt at repairing (foam caulk is involved in a few places) but in other spots:

Ack, you can see right through! and in fact I could see right outside in places in the basement. I did a daylight check after I was done stuffing fresh mortar into cracks and all looked dark.

I finished the front of the house along the bottom and have to finish building up some dirt. Hopefully the remaining wood pieces will disappear by the time our termite treatment wears away.

My dad has been on a broken window kick at their house so he took care of a few broken panes at our house. No complaints from me there!

and some wainscoting is up in the bathroom! Very slowly but surely it is getting done!

Shiny "New" Tub

To try and redeem that horrible boring-ness of my last post about a broken toilet I thought I would show some pictures of something productive.

The before shot of the tub with chippy (probably lead) paint. Every time the walls got a coat of paint the front of the tub did as well, starting with that delightful pooh brown color.

Most of it chipped away easy enough but of course those last coats on that rough cast iron wouldn't budge and stripper made it worse. I sanded but it is a little chippy looking when you sit down and get right up to it. I'll probably be the only one who will notice while I'm cursing at the giant dust bunny off in the distant corner.

Whoopsy! This is the back of the tub and I'm seeing the camera flash showed all of the places I missed - the bottom is reflecting the white papers. The front of the tub is hopefully more thoroughly done but I realized I hadn't gotten a picture before we flipped it so I could paint the backside.This calls for an edit in the future when we re-install the tub.
I just used glossy Rustoleum Enamel spray paint so I'll have to see how it holds up. I was going to go for a matte finish but I found the glossy in the basement and decided the shiny looked so clean and well, shiny. The tub looks way better and it only cost a few dollars, not including the many hours of chipping away the nasty looking paint.

Crappy Toilet

I went to flush the toilet last night and nothing happened. OK, loose chain, no problem. I lifted the lid to discover this:

 

 

It's hard to see but:

The "chain" was some sort of rubber zip cord which surprisingly? rotted.

Fortunately I remembered a stash of toilet parts in the basement because I wasn't going to spend any money on this toilet while its replacement patiently waits on the porch. 

Success! I poked a hole and attached the chain so the toilet flushes again! and to maybe add some interest to what looks to be a very boring blog post, here is a picture of the inside of the toilet lid.

According to the date, this bathroom remodel was nearing completion 3 weeks after I was born. Though what names start with O? Maybe this is just a response to a question in a pre-texting world in an awkward and/or secret location? If I ever get my rear down to the records office to look up previous owners the mystery may be solved.

I'm still alive...I think...

Ack! My camera started mysteriously working again so fortunately I put off trying to fix it. I always get so annoyed with electronics when they don't work, I then start yelling at said electronic device and then Mark thinks he did something wrong so he'll go cower in a corner somewhere. I do grumble and yell to myself a lot so he should be used to it. I will someday be that crazy lady in those oh-so-comfy looking stretchy knit pants talking to herself while picking out cat food at Wal-Mart.
Any who, I'm so far behind in random things I've been thinking about posting I don't know where to start. Another reason I have been procrastinating. It's getting worse so I figure I better just post something...anything. So here it goes, bathroom floor pictures. Yay! Between trips to Denver and other summer activities it has been slow going but it is going. 

 This is what we started with. Gross carpet from circa 1981 (someone initialed and dated the toilet) and some odd painted knotty pine wainscoting which looks better in this photo than it did in real life.

The bathtub got moved across the bathroom since it wouldn't fit out the door and we are left with the last square of carpet, asbestos tiles and the rotten floor boards. 

The rotten and smelly floor is gone. Fortunately the previous renovators got rid of the asbestos flooring in this area for us! 

We replaced their pieced together boards with one large board.

 The cement board on top of that

And finally the tile! Note the asbestos tiles are now securely hidden under a layer of tile and boards. I'm not messing with removing that stuff.
And yes, this is all I have done so far...Remember my "plumber" has been in Colorado and working on the attic floor of his house.
I was hoping to get the tub back in and started on the rest of the floor this last weekend but oh yeah, what about my walls? I can't put the tub back without wall covering. We did buy wainscoting and a toilet this weekend so we did accomplish something.

I didn't get the antique toilet I have been wanting but this has a cute old timey look to it so I it will do.  It was probably cheaper and will flush better? I don't know about the flushing part but it might use a little less water anyways. It has to flush better than our current toilet. I  like the side flushy though I am picturing myself scraping unmentionable grime out of the ridges on the bottom.