Family Room Update

A few weeks ago, I posted about our shopping trip to check out curtains for the family room.  Since we needed extra long curtains, there was nothing suitable in the store, but we did order some online and we recently installed them. 

Before we put up the curtains, we had to fix the valences over the blinds (or whatever the little slat that goes over the top of the blinds to hide the ugly stuff is called).  Originally there were little plastic doohickies (technical term of art) which the slats slid into.  They are a little fragile, though, and several broke when we removed the blinds to paint the room. 

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Enter industrial strength velcro.  We secured the cover slats to the blinds using self-adhesive velcro pieces.  It feels pretty secure, and I actually think it looks more polished than the plastic doohickies. 

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Back to the curtains, we chose some lake mist blue/green panels that pull from some of the colors in the area rug we chose for the room.  The rods are allegedly oiled bronze, but they look black to me.  Oh well. 

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Some tips:  Measure accurately.  Then check it again.  And it’s probably a good idea to check it again.  Seriously, I am terrible at measuring.  There were some extra holes in the wall that I patched with spackle and repainted before I snapped these pictures.  Also, I think the curtains could be a bit longer, maybe even long enough that the rod could be hung a little higher above the windows. 

And yes, that is a new (to us) couch.  We bought a used PB Basic couch, armchair, and ottoman on Craigslist several months ago.  We ordered replacement slipcovers from a company that specializes in slipcovers for this type of name brand furniture.  So that’s it, with a couple of Crate & Barrel throw pillows (bought on clearance, with a coupon too!).  You probably also noticed there is no armchair in the picture.  That is a story for another day.

© 2009 The Beehive All Rights Reserved

Bathroom Bliss

I know I mentioned previously that we overbought when we purchased paint for the family room and kitchen.  I used the paint for the downstairs bathroom as well, but still had significant leftovers.  So I moved upstairs.

This is what our upstairs bathroom looked like when we moved in.  The colors fit in with the colors throughout the house (i.e. Easter egg).  We don’t really use this bathroom, so I took things apart and took my time painting it, with no real need to clean up or put anything away.

This is what it looked like at the end of the painting process.  Still pretty blank.

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I was at Bed Bath & Beyond purchasing a duvet cover and blanket for a new bed, and I decided to look for some accessories for the bathroom. 

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I found a cool striped shower curtain on clearance and some rugs that incorporated some of those colors.  The plates are melamine, also on sale with the end of summer bar-b-que type stuff.  I thought they went nicely with the colors and could add a beachy vacation vibe.  Still needs a few more touches to make guests feel really welcome. 

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One thing I don’t like about this bathroom is how the doors are set up (you’ll notice there are no doors in the after pictures — I guess it’s not quite finished).  As you can see, it’s really split into two rooms: the outer bathroom with the two sinks and vanities on opposite walls, and the inner bathroom with the shower and toilet.  With the inner bathroom it is not such a big deal, but for the outer bathroom, if the door is open, access to one of the sinks is virtually nonexistent. 

I was thinking pocket doors would be perfect here.  However, for us amateurs it’s a pretty involved project, and because there are light switches and electrical outlets on both sides of the door frames, it would have been a serious undertaking.  I was thinking maybe leave the inner door as-is and hang a curtain over the outer door that can be closed for privacy, but when drawn to the side still allows for space and access to both sinks.  Thoughts?

© 2009 The Beehive All Rights Reserved

Fit for a California King

As I mentioned in my last post, we’ve been sleeping on a tiny, hand-me-down bed since we got married.  Here is a look at our little bed in our big master bedroom. As you can see, we haven’t done much in terms of decorating the place. The curtains were graciously left for us by the seller.

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Here you see more of those fab curtains, and our mismatched dressers.

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And finally a sneak peak at the master bath. Through the doorway, you can see the mirrored doors of Steve’s closet (mine is on the other side). And if you look close, you can see the bathtub reflected in it. Yes, that is fluorescent green paint.

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The new bed we purchased over Labor Day weekend was delivered on Saturday.  Saturday morning, I stripped the old bed so they could take it away when delivering the new bed.  The delivery window was from 12-4, and I expected to be waiting around until 3:45 or so at least.  But amazingly, they were at the door at 12:01, hauled away the old bed, set up the new bed, and were gone again by 12:15.  These guys were pros. 

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It still has “new mattress smell.”  We let it air out with the windows open and the fan on until just before we went to sleep.  By then we were tired, so we made the bed a bit hastily.  It was like sleeping in a bed from a nice hotel, all plush and cozy. 

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© 2009 The Beehive All Rights Reserved

Bedtime Stories

Yesterday, Steve and I decided to take advantage of some Labor Day sales and get a much-needed new bed.  Since we got married, we have been sleeping on Steve’s old full-size bed, which he got as a hand-me-down.  As he is over six feet tall, Steve is full-size all by himself, so for the two of us the bed has always been, well, cozy. 

We spent a good two hours in the mattress store, trying out at least 12 beds, and finally settled on a medium firmness California King with a plush top.  Learned a few things too.  Stomach sleepers, like Steve and myself, should not sleep on a soft mattress because it allows the back to sway, which can cause pain.  Also, today’s mattresses are not designed to be flipped periodically (a relief to me, because I hate doing that!).  We also had some fun trying out a Sleep Number bed — you can really feel the change in the firmness of the mattress as you adjust it up and down — and a movable bed with some massage action.  It was even better than checking out the massage chairs at The Sharper Image.

The only problem with the model we chose is that it is too popular!  They had none in stock, which means it won’t be delivered until next weekend, so we are stuck on our tiny old mattress for another week.  Boy was it hard to get into that bed last night after laying on all those fancy new mattresses.

© 2009 The Beehive All Rights Reserved

Seen and Heard: Pony Express

The other night, on my way home from work, I was driving down our street and I saw some people out exercising their pet.  Of course I wouldn’t give it much thought if it had been a couple walking their dog.  But it wasn’t.  These people were walking a pony.  Like the kind they make walk around in a circle under a tent to give kids rides.  I didn’t realize our area was quite so rural.

© 2009 The Beehive All Rights Reserved

Home Depot: Can’t Live With it, Can’t Live Without it

Steve and I each spent a good portion of this past weekend working, so we did not get a whole lot done around the house, other than some general cleaning and making the place ready for some dinner guests.  We did close out our weekend with a quick trip to Home Depot, though.  We ran out of painters tape several weeks ago, so we grabbed a couple of rolls of that.  We also needed some lengthy trimmers to neaten up some trees in the front yard we can’t reach. 

We also wanted to look at bathroom fixtures, specifically to replace the gold-toned fixtures in the downstairs bathroom we just finished painting.  We looked at the displays and picked one out, but there were none left on the shelf indicated by the display.  I searched for someone to ask if everything they had was out on the shelf, but I couldn’t find anyone.  We went and did some other things, intending to come back later and see if we might have better luck.

While Steve examined some energy efficient light bulbs, I went back to the plumbing section.  Still no one there.  I went another aisle over and finally found an employee, who was fixing her hair.  I asked her if she could help me track down a plumbing fixture that did not appear to be on the shelf, to which she responded “oh, I don’t know nothing about plumbing.”  I realize she did state she had knowledge of the plumbing section, but I’m pretty sure that’s not what she meant.  I asked if she could help me find someone that did know about plumbing.  She said, “oh, I don’t know.”  And continued to fix her hair.  I looked at her for a second, expecting her to go on and suggest where I should look or who I should talk to, but she didn’t.  I turned and walked away and she didn’t say a thing. 

My next step was to press the button in the plumbing section that says “press for help.”  I hadn’t gone that route to begin with because I did not expect anyone would actually respond to it, and sure enough no one did respond.

Just as I was about to give up, an employee walked by the end of the aisle with a full shopping cart, I assume putting items back on their assigned shelves.  She clearly did not want to help me either.  I finally said, “look, I just want to know if you have any more of these in stock.  I can’t believe there is nobody here that knows how to find out.”  She walked over to the computer and 15 seconds later I had my answer: no. 

So we left without a new faucet, and determined to buy a new faucet somewhere else.  Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have had this problem at Home Depot.  Despite the safety orange aprons the employees sport, they are hard to find, and when you do find one, they inevitably will know nothing about the product you are looking for.  Steve says that’s why he prefers OSH or Ace, because the employees at those stores tend to know what they are talking about.  I guess to get the Home Depot savings, you are sacrificing on service.  Is it worth it?