Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Home Improvement Holiday

Scout is leaving for a couple of months, so we took a few days off together. We were supposed to go camping in celebration of the 4th, but we weren't in time making the reservations (and then were somewhat relieved we didn't go, considering it would have been packed). So we allotted the $200 we would have spent camping for a four-day Home Improvement Holiday.

I was actually really ticked off when we went to Lowes to buy the same kind of wood we had done in the bedroom. Yeah. It's been discontinued. I won't mention the fact that I have a box and a half of the old stuff left, hoping that I may have enough to use it on the small downstairs hallway closet.

So we went to Home Depot, hoping that they may have the Sable Pecan color I was looking for (doesn't "Sable Pecan" sound scrumptious? I can't believe they discontinued the prettiest color ever! Believing wholeheartedly in my flawless taste, I have a hard time believing people weren't buying it). Nope. But they had this awesome wood named Coffee...Which was BEEEautiful. And it was only $25 a box (compared to the $43 a box I had spent on the other stuff). Guess why? Because it was being discontinued. Super. Knowing that our budgeted $200 wouldn't buy all the wood we needed, we decided to suck it up and look for a new color. But Home Depot ran out of the "cheap" padding I had used before for $25/100 sq. ft. They wanted $34 for a 50 sq. ft. roll. So back to Lowes it was.

So we finally settled on Antique Oak, which is only slightly lighter from the original Sable Pecan. So this is what $200 got us - about 1/4 of what we will need for the entire back room (notice the busted out window covered with cardboard that we haven't fixed yet. I've been too afraid that once we fix it, the same delinquents will come bust it out again):



We also painted more walls in the main living area - you might recognize the green from our bedroom. I love the layered look of somewhat modern Christmas colors. Personally, I think it should be Christmas time all year round. Now, in my house, it will be:



We've done some other small projects too, although nothing worthy of being photographed. It has been a fairly successful Home Improvement Holiday.

3 comments:

Nicole said...

I'm seriously impressed! I would love to put some pretty tile in my kitchen/dining area which is currently covered in ugly linoleum but I'm so afraid of royally messing something up. Your room looks GREAT! I LOVE the colors.

Erin said...

Nicole,

A contractor recently told me that it's very unlikely that I could mess something up beyond repair. He said to experiment and have fun - and learn from the mistakes I make for future projects. I actually took his advice and love the results I've gotten. Before each project, I just do a little Internet research and go to Lowes for free information.

Dick said...

Keep going. Looks great so far.