Chaotic surroundings are stressful. Ordered surroundings allow peace, creativity, and all manner of good stuff to flow. For years I’ve collected brochures showing fabulous garage storage systems and steel storage cabinets. Although I don’t spend much time in the garage, my penchant for organizing means that I’d love to step out of the car to [...]
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With one king bed, one queen bed, and seven full beds in our home, mattresses were a major home decorating expense. Finding a reliable discount mattress supplier can save you a bundle. You might think that you can only purchase quality mattresses from a local brick and mortar store. But you’d be wrong! Even if [...]
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A brand new home often calls for brand new furniture. Your new home will have it’s own color palette, new room sizes and configurations, and different purposes. The furniture should match the new rooms. Yesterday I had a couple of friends over and they asked where I got the latest additions to our slowly-but-surely-furnishing-the-home collection. [...]
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In the 1970s, my best friend had a shag carpet in her bedroom. I was beyond jealous. I had dreamed of a shag rug — mixed yellow and spring green, to be exact — for my gorgeous new bedroom. But it wasn’t happening. My mother was just way to practical to put one of those [...]
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As we near the first anniversary of moving into our home, we also approach the expiration of the warranties for most typical home appliances. Before they expire, we’ll be looking carefully through all our appliances to see if any of them need any kind of servicing. So far we’ve been fortunate in the condition of our [...]
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When we were building the house, I had a file full of designs I loved. One of the recurring themes was glass tile. Especially glass subway tile. I’d seen it in about every home design book and magazine I’d read through, and had fallen in love with the look. In our last home, we added [...]
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We spent the bulk of our Labor Day holiday, laboring over furniture choices. When we finally went home, we ended up with less cash in our wallets, but some great furniture bargains: 2 tan swivel gliders for the library 2 fabulous brown pillows for the library 1 leather cocktail ottoman with storage for the family [...]
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For the past few months we’ve been cleaning out dad’s home to prepare for the sale. Trust me, when someone has lived in a home for 43 years, it’s got some serious stuff in storage. This week, I gave in and called in the second dumpster delivery. (And my parents were neat freaks! I really [...]
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Now that the construction on our custom home is complete, we are working hard to decorate and furnish every room. It’s a time consuming process, but I found a site that offers great prices on a lot of the basics we need. The Bed Bath Store offers bedding, bath accessories, curtains, rugs, home decor, storage [...]
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This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Pier 1 Imports. All opinions are 100% mine. I love Pier 1 Imports. Period. After having been in the store as a teenager, I didn’t go back for years. Then, just a few years ago I dropped by while killing some time waiting for [...]
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One of the final steps in a custom home build is installing appliances. Appliances are a major purchase, one that you’ll be living with for a long time, so making the right choices is essential. After selecting our appliances, it was time to get appliance bids and compare prices. We purchased some of the smaller [...]
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Selecting products for the two staircases was more involved than I had imagined. On our first semi-custom build, the stairs were fully carpeted. On the second, they were carpet with wood on the open edge. These experiences taught us an important lesson: we never want carpet on stairs again. I don’t understand carpet. Who thought [...]
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This blog began as a means to dig into the nitty gritty of building a custom home and to openly evaluate the pros and cons of those working on the project. You all know I’m not afraid to give an honest critique. But once in a while you run across a subcontractor who is so skilled, [...]
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When planning a custom home, you can incorporate all sorts of really cool things that are important to you. We have durable, easy to maintain surfaces, granite with fabulous details, a stainless steel kitchen sink, lots of storage space, and a simple design. But you can’t bring in every neat detail you find. If you [...]
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Towel rings, towel bars, toilet paper holders — these items comprise bathroom hardware. They run the gamut from on price range and, unfortunately, the budget our builder alloted isn’t close to what we need. When we got the bottom-end bid from our general contractor’s recommended hardware supplier, the bid was more than twice what we [...]
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Now that we are preparing to move into our own digs — finally — we’re reconsidering our television choices. After a year using Utopia — instead of a local TV satellite system — we’re ready to get back to satellite. All year the signal we’ve had was lousy, the picture quality spotty, the recording unpredictable. [...]
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As it typical for craftsman-style homes, we have a lot of built-in cabinetry. And that means lots of cabinet hardware as well. I found some beautiful cabinet hardware at Kitchen Cabinet Hardware and was able to get everything I needed for the whole house in one purchase. Best of all, I saved a bundle. My [...]
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Another involved process! Choosing countertops and tub surrounds was almost as involved as selecting cabinets. There are so many possible materials and dozens of qualified companies, that narrowing down the best selections was a difficult process. After all was said and done, we selected the following fabricators based on quality, expertise, selection, price, and responsiveness. [...]
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The counter and tub surround selection took a very circuitous path. I love the look of tile and had a lot in our first build in Boca Raton, but I really (really) hate grout. So we went with concrete floors and priced out anything-but-tile surfaces. It wasn’t until we began working with granite and solid [...]
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We are looking for appliances for our new home. We are prepared to order online, but could be persuaded to order locally if the prices are competitive. Below is the package we have decided on. If you’re interested in bidding, please comment below or use the contact form. Kitchen Appliances Refrigerator/Freezer Frigidaire Professional FPRH17D7KF Frigidaire [...]
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