Fab Find Flooring!!!

This weekend I made many trips to Rona (as previously posted) and during one of my trips I found some fabulous flooring at an AMAZING price!!! Now I believe I have previously mentioned that when we bought the house we temporarily put stick down tiles throughout the hallway, bathroom, 3rd bedroom (now nursery) and kitchen. We knew this was a temporary solution until we found something better. It has held up ok for the past almost 3 years but a few of the tiles have cracked and the nails are slowly showing through others. We knew it was about time for an updated flooring. The big problem is that our floors slope (being an older house this is common) and without leveling the entire floor we can't put in ceramic tiles. To level the entire floor we would lose about 3 inches (if not more in some spots) of space and that is a HUGE deal. So we have been advised that leveling the floor does not make sense. Enough of the history of our floors... we decided laminate would work out wonderfully as long as we somewhat level the floor. Where there are dips in the floor we can use self leveling cement and the laminate will withstand the dips just fine (or so I am told).

So while at Rona we came across this lovely laminate. Now it isn't as lovely as the laminate that is in our living room which I thoroughly LOVE but its pretty nice regardless... plus what makes it even nicer is it was only 79 cents a square foot.. plus we got 10% off that!!! WOOHOOOO!!!


This baby set us back a measly $300 plus the cost of the under padding which was about $50 so a total of $350. The plan is for this flooring to run through the entire hallway, kitchen and nursery. Since the bathroom floor is the only level floor in the house we do eventually plan on doing ceramic tile in there. This is what our hallway looks like currently with the stick down tiles.
Here it is again looking from the living room to kitchen, cutting laminate should be 'fun' ... don't you love the twisted hallway... its totally not straight at all!!!

I wanted to see what it would look like next to our existing laminate floors and I'm impressed!!!
So this is yet another project that we have to undertake hopefully before the baby is born. The only problem we have now is with the baseboards... the baseboards in this part of the house are the original baseboards so taking them off and reinstalling them after the flooring is laid MAY lead to problems and more costs because we may have to get new baseboards... so we haven't decided if we should just install the flooring against the baseboard and risk the small funny looking baseboard that remains after losing about a half inch of it..... We'll see.

Big Online Garage Sale

One of my favourite pastimes... and Ryan's for that matter (mind you he is looking up dirt bike and trailer stuff 99% of the time) is to peruse Craigslist for awesome finds!!! Sometimes when I'm wasting time I just like to find the stupidest things on there that I can. If you have never visited Craigslist.. or Kijiji basically it is a super large garage sale!!!! You have a little bit of everything and every type of seller. You have those who just want it gone and you can buy it at a SUPER low price. You have those who want to make money off their oops and charge you JUST under what you would pay for it in the stores. Then you have those scammers who try to sell it for more than what it is currently priced at in stores!! So when shopping on craigslist (or kijiji) you have to know your prices.

I have bought my fair share of craigslist items... as well as listed MANY items on there!! I normally will only buy items that are close to home or work so I don't have to drive across the city after work to pick them up. My theory is that if its cheap but I have to drive a long way it isn't cheap anymore because now I've used my gas and my time. I have bought Ryan presents off craigslist... our theory is why pay full price for something when you can get it for a discount and its slightly used!! Now that theory only holds for certain items.... like I would NEVER buy a used mattress... that's gross!!! (just my opinion) I have sold many items from our house on there, including a couch and a futon, dressers, desks, bookcases. I even gave away my wedding dress to a lucky lady for FREE.

While perusing today I came across this 'lovely' little find and had SUCH a laugh I had to share!!!! Its often I come across items that I'm just like WOW WHAT WERE YOU THINKING BUYING/MAKING THAT!!! Its hilarious! Anyway, here is my NOT SO fab find of the day!!

The ad reads:

IKEA wardrobe covered in unique wallpaper, needs doors, Very special piece, with drawer Measurements of wardrobe 71 inches tall, 23 inches deep, 31 inches wide. Measurements of Facade 77 inches tall, 41 inches wide

Basically someone took an ikea wardrobe and transformed it into a leopard print nightmare!!! I have to give them credit for creativity!!! I also have to say that at least these people know its 'special' as stated in their ad. But SERIOUSLY???

Or this ad... mind you this ad just baffles me... I'll explain in a second:

2 ZEBRA PRINT CASUAL CHAIRS (a pair) these are brand new and never used! they are stunning, unique, and sexy black/white pattern such a fun addition to any room Solid wood frame and chenile fabric Asking $1600 (for the pair) OBO Chairs were purchased for $2400/pair

There are many reasons that this ad baffles me... #1... WHO PAYS $2400 for zebra print chairs to never use them and then sell them.... #2 WHO WOULD BUY THESE??? And more importantly #3 why wouldn't you just buy a cheaper chair and reupholster it to your needs. For example the chair below is for sale for $40 on craigslist... you could buy it and then take it and get it reupholstered but WAAAAY less than $800 each!!

I have just never understood the pay two months mortgage for a chair that you will never sit in. I'm not against paying for something that you 100% will use everyday... like our fabulous couch which cost a pretty penny. I tend to shop and shop and shop until I find exactly what I'm looking for in the price range that I think is reasonable. AND I might add I have NEVER not found it!!!! It may take more time but why buy the first one I see when I can look around and get it for half price. SO if you are looking for something let me know and I guarantee I can find it for cheaper!!!

Anyway, that is my price savvy story for the day!!! Just about everything in our house comes with a story about where we found it and how it was such a good deal!! :-)

Fabulous Weekend and Fabulous Finds!

This weekend since I had the Friday off Ryan and I headed to the cottage for a nice relaxing weekend! Which is exactly what we had! We didn't do a whole lot.... I got to read the majority of my super huge book which was great for me because at home I barely ever get to read anymore! Ryan worked with my dad to repair part of the deck up at the cottage that had started to rot out. Since I was reading my book I couldn't be bothered to get up and take pictures of their work... sorry it was a lazy weekend!!

BUT on Saturday mornings during the summer there is a shed sale that goes on and is run by a bunch of old ladies over at the nearby church. Now Saturday was the first sale of the summer so we all got up super early and headed off to be there for when it opened! I'm REALLY happy that we did!! We ended up picking up a fantastic cedar chest for $10!! Yes that is correct it was only $10!!!! Now since Ryan and I were too lazy when we got home yesterday to take it out of my car its still there and alas no photos to show today. I promise to post photos soon though. The best part about the box is that inside some child has used red crayon and written "MEG" WOW it was definitely meant to be my box!!!!! We plan on using it for additional storage in our basement. We have a little house and lots of stuff... you can never have too much storage!!!!

Also during our trip to the sale I picked up 4 old wooden picture frames. I have a project in mind for them as well.. but since they will be Christmas projects you will just have to wait until then for me to transform them into something fabulous!!

Then on Sunday there was a craft sale up the street which we decided to check out before making the hot and sticky trip back home. We ended up picking up this lovely little piece of art!

It is an old screen that the lady had painted with outdoor paint. We loved the idea of this but at first were like where do we put this?? Then the lady informed us that they were designed to be left outdoors!!! Ingenious!!! Instantly Ryan wanted it and since it was only $45 (a steal since the lady had probably put many hours into painting this) we picked it up! In fact my mom picked one up as well that had cardinals painted on it.





The plan for this art piece is to hang it on the condo building wall in our backyard to hide the ugly concrete and bring some of the cottage life home. This is the best picture I can find that shows the concrete wall. There are vines growing on the wall BUT when we went to rescue the evergreen tree from the vines that were killing it some of the vines on part of the wall had to come down. So we were left with this ugly concrete wall. Which normally doesn't bug me too much but Ryan has always wanted to paint the concrete. (also this picture was taken in March or April so the sand pit you see is actually where the pool goes, the boys were taking down the old deck and as you can see I was enjoying my wine!)

The picture will either go on that wall OR we will put it on the hot tub structure. So when you are sitting under the gazebo there is a pretty picture hanging. We have to figure that out this week! Lots to do!! :-)

Projects that I am hoping to get to this week:

* Infamous kitchen light that I have been working on forever....

* Sewing new kitchen curtains

Now since its supposed to be ridiculously hot this week I think I'm going to leave my project list at that.... Because if its stupid hot when I get home from work I'm NOT going to want to do anything other than hopping into the pool!

Fab Finds: Blue Jars and Wall Hooks!

We spent the weekend away at my parents cottage. It was a great relaxing weekend. Both of my brothers and sister-in laws were up there too so it was a full house! But it was a lot of fun! I hadn't expected to do any home projects at all but when my younger brother and sister in law decided to drive into town to go look at the antique shops I thought HEY why not!!! It was raining anyway so it was good to get out. In Lakefield there are many cute little antique shops, some more expensive than others. We stopped at one that I love going into because its a cluttered mess! You can literally stand in one spot for about an hour and everywhere you look you'll keep seeing something new! Its crazy! I had no intentions of buying anything but just went along for the ride. Then I came across these OLD Crown jars... IN BLUE glass!!! After starring at them for far too long and thinking they would be pricey (some of the others in the store were about $20 per jar) I read on the bottom they were only $5 each! SCORE!!!!!! I also picked up a great blue glass tall container that will be perfect for oil! As you can probably guess these are for the kitchen!

As you can see they need a little bit of cleaning!!! I just love that they are hand blown glass jars! you can see the bubbles in them!

Then while rummaging through piles and piles of stuff I came across a box of hooks! Aren't these adorable!!! I picked up 5 for $6! YEAH! I plan on hanging 3 behind the door in the bathroom and 2 in the 3rd bedroom on the back of the door. They are super cute!

That was it for my fab finds this weekend!!! Hope everyone had a good weekend!

FAB FINDS

Ok so it may be too early on a Saturday morning for creating titles for blog posts.... BUT when you are married to Ryan everyone is up at 7:30am no matter what!!!



Yesterday on my lunch hour I took a trip over to Home Sense (my favourite store) to just walk around. I had no intentions of buying anything I just wanted to get out of the office. $40 later I walked out of Home Sense with a big grin and so VERY excited about my finds!!!!!




To start off I found these awesome mugs in the clearance section! They are HUGE!! I love them PLUS they are very similar in colour to the walls in the kitchen. AND they were only $3.30 marked down from $4.99!! NICE!!!



While perusing the clearance section I found matching platters for $3.30 too!!! SO I got 2 of them! The plan is to have them on the kitchen counters to put fruit etc on so as to tie the 2 ends of the kitchen together!



Next came the place mats!! I found these place mats and loved the different shades of blue! They weren't on sale BUT they were only $14 total for 4 place mats. Which isn't too shabby... yes I did just say shabby!!

And then came the most exciting find of the day!! As you know I've been looking for a rug for the kitchen preferably in blue, yellow and white. WELL I came across this blue and white rug and looked at it for awhile and went YES!!!!! I have some left over yellow ribbon from another project so I plan on adding a thin line of yellow around the edges of this rug (because the trim on this rug is material it is easy to do). The best part of all... do you see that red tag on the top of the picture?? Yes it was on clearance for wait... $10!!!!!! Yes it was marked down from $45 to $10!!!! YEAH!!!!!


This is what it will look like in my kitchen!