Let the Fun Begin!

We have been pre-approved. Soon we can tell our landlord to take his 40% rent hike and shove it. Let the obsessive house hunting begin.

I've watched the market closely since we moved back over a year and a half ago and I'm pretty sure our future home isn't on the market yet. So until it is, I will be obsessing over Craigslist, stalking neighborhoods I like and checking email first thing each morning to see what new MLS alerts hit my inbox.

Couch Love

It looks like we will be moving sooner than we thought. We found out on Friday that the landlord is raising the rent....A LOT. Um, no thanks.

So since then I have been obsessing over houses and furniture. I'm getting excited about setting up a new place.

I LOVE this couch! His name is Blake and he is from West Elm.

I thought I wanted a sectional but not since I found Blake. I haven't decided if I want all 91" of Blake or two 81" Blakes face to face. I especially love that the bottom cushion is one piece. No annoying crack to sink down in and no annoying Cheerios underneath the cushions to vacuum up. Not that I do that. I probably should but I'm afraid to look.

Chair re-do Take 2

I bought my dining set from an antique store. I refinished the table twice. I hated it the first time. I've refinished the chairs once and don't love them so I'm going to do it again and hope the second time is a charm too.

I found a fabric remnant on clearance for $3.50. And now decision time. What color should I paint the frame? The table is mahogany color. I can sand and refinish the wood or paint them cream, black or even go out on a limb and paint them a dark blue/teal like in the pattern in the fabric. I'm loving Martha Stewart's colors Plumage, Blue Suede and Gabardine. Looks like I'm not the only one loving these shades right now.

Check this out!


The other thing I need to decide is whether to put a fun, flirty little skirt on the chairs. Maybe something tailored or something more gathered and feminine.

Here are some pics of the chair before and the new fabric. Any thoughts on frame color? I would love your input.




Our dog Stella likes the new fabric.

Only Here

Only on our local Craigslist will you find advertised a "Dusty rose, stained glass chandelier" priced at $150. $150! Dude. YOU should pay ME to take that away for you.

Not so deep roots

Just when I allowed myself to mentally stay put and decorate the house we are in now the owner sent me a message asking if we want to buy the place in a year. The problem is his price was way off of what we feel like we should pay based on a lot of things, especially the current market. I'm not sure where he came up with the number but now I'm back to being torn. Do we do some hard core negotiating or find a place listed for much less and look from some of the things that have been on our wish list for a while (like decent square footage on one level)?

I'm torn again between looking for a one-level ranch/rambler fixer or staying here in this Cape Cod style fixer. It's so tempting to not move again. But if we can spend tens of thousands less on a different house, that's tempting too.