Turning a house into a home, one room at a time.
My latest project is painting the dining room. I’m probably about 2/3 done at this point. Here is what it looked like before.
And I’ve also added a little fall flair.
 |
 |
Assuming I don’t get side tracked, the afters should be coming in the next couple of days. And I have learned my lesson about putting the old curtains back up, so don’t expect to see those again.
© 2009 The Beehive All Rights Reserved
When we moved in, there were no blinds installed in the dining room or living room. There were decorative draperies, but nothing that you could really shut to keep the sun out or prevent the neighbors from looking in and seeing you running around naked. The seller did, however, leave several sets of blinds behind in a closet, which she said were for the living room, dining room, and garage. She urged us not to install them, though, so that all that beautiful sunlight could shine in. That sun isn’t so beautiful when it’s 103 degrees outside and the sun is beating in.
I think in response to several extremely hot days, Steve decided he was going to hang the blinds. Obstacle #1: There are two large windows in the dining room, two large windows and two small windows in the living room, and two large windows in the garage. There are only four sets of blinds. Easily overcome. We don’t really need the blinds in the garage right now, so we’ll just use them on the large windows in the dining room and living room (as they are clearly too large for the small windows).
Obstacle #2: The blinds were not all the same size, as were the windows in the living room and dining room where the blinds were to be installed. Although all the blinds were the same width, two of them were about a foot too short for the windows. Steve scavenged the house to see if maybe some other rooms with a same width windows had blinds that were way too long. He did find one. That’s right, just one. So after he switched the too long blinds for the shorter ones in the closet, we were left with three sets of right sized blinds and one too short, with no window anywhere in the house that would accommodate it.
 |
 |
 |
So we installed blinds in three of the four windows and put the last set back in the closet, for the moment. The installation was incredibly easy. Steve measured and marked for bracket placement. Each bracket had four screws, for which Steve pre-drilled the holes. He used a dremel to fit better into those tight spaces than a big power drill. Once the brackets are installed, all you have to do is slide in the blinds and clip the bracket shut.
We’ve been very happy with the blinds so far. They help a great deal to control the temperature inside the house on hot days. We’ll be shopping for that last large set and too small sets of blinds soon.
© 2009 The Beehive All Rights Reserved
The chairs came! I posted a sweet deal I found on chairs at JCP here, and in record time they arrived on our doorstep via FedEx. We put them together this weekend, and let me tell you, assembling eight chairs and entertaining two mothers over one weekend has left me a bit tired! But, the chairs look great. I think the only way we could’ve found a better match was to order the actual matching chairs from Crate & Barrel. Here they are:
The assembly was not terribly difficult, just time consuming. Unfortunately, I blistered the palm of my hand on the first chair, so assembling the remaining chairs was not terribly comfortable. Note to self: next time you assemble furniture, put on your work gloves from the get-go! I couldn’t be more pleased with the result, though.
© 2009 The Beehive All Rights Reserved
I was browsing some archives of a blog I recently stumbled upon, and the writer raves about a great deal on a rug from JC Penney. I loved the rug. I have a hard time finding area rugs that I like when I shop. I see them in other people’s homes, but I can’t seem to find them myself. 2 years later they still sell the rug at a great price. I haven’t purchased one because I’m not sure what room I would use it in or what color I would get, but while I was on the site I decided to browse other furniture, just to see if there were other good deals lurking.
I mentioned in this post that, now that we found a great new-to-us dining table, we needed some chairs to go with, and I was torn about the hefty price tag on the matching C&B chairs. As luck would have it, JCP had these chairs on clearance for $99 for a set of two (down from $250!).
They are not solid mahogany like the C&B chairs, but they are solid wood with a mahogany stain, and as far as I’m concerned I can live with not mahogany for that price difference. The one review on the chairs is poor at only two stars. But I discount the comments a bit because (1) the complaint partly had to do with chipping paint, and I ordered the stained, not painted, option; and (2) the writer also complained about difficult assembly, which I’ve found to be the case with virtually all chairs that require assembly. Also, I’m just a wiz at putting furniture together. I get it from my dad, I think.
I can’t wait until they come!
© 2009 The Beehive All Rights Reserved
My name is Erin, and I am a craigslist addict. I first experienced the magic in 2004, when I purchased my fabulous metallic red Ford Focus, which I adore to this day. Now that I have an empty house to furnish and an empty wallet, I’m constantly trolling the listings for furniture. It takes time, but eventually you will find a gem. The latest? Our new dining room table. Solid mahogany, seats up to 8, two removable leaves, originally $700 from Crate and Barrel. Our price: $250. Woohoo!
We bought it from a couple getting ready to move. Unfortunately, they did not have the matching chairs, which run $180 new at C&B. At that price, eight chairs will cost almost six times as much as the table. Probably not going to happen. It looks like the table will be lonely until we can find a suitable alternative.
© 2009 The Beehive All Rights Reserved