Gotta love a winter clearance!

I've just got to share my recent steals with you - FYI, if you are in the market for any Christmas decorations, now is the time to buy! XMas stuff at Pier 1 is 90% off right now!!!

For under $15, I got the following (okay, I agree it doesn't look that impressive all spread out on the table, but it sure felt that way when everything was bulging out of shopping bags):

My favorite by far is the tree on the left. It has a metal structure and is filled with pine cones, green moss, and twigs. I found it at Pier 1 and since it was 90% off the normal $40 price, I got it for $4. LOVE it!! Is it Christmas yet? So sad to pack it away  :(

I also stopped at Bed Bath and Beyond, where they have a pretty good clearance section as well. One of the first things I saw when I walked in was the clearance blinds. Since I am crazy, I keep a list of all our window sizes on a notepad in my purse (just in case, you know...). Anyway, they turned out to be the right sizes, and are very pretty (wood/bamboo natural colors, which is exactly what I have been envisioning). I ended up getting 6 natural woven blinds for under $60. (At the regular price, they would have set me back $320). WOW!

 
We're planning to use 3 in the master bedroom and the remaining 3 for the windows in the other two main floor bedrooms. Can't wait to tear down those vertical blinds. I'll definitely post details and before and after pics when we tackle that project.

Speaking of projects, Eric has mandated that we finish some project before buying more materials for new projects. Oops, just added another project. I guess it is time to get busy!

Kitchen Appliance Update: Frustrations Abound

I know it has been a couple of weeks since my last post, but we have been busy struggling to install the new kitchen appliances. Prepare yourself for a marathon post.

The first priority was the dishwasher. If you remember, the old one was completely non-functional and looked like this:

I put the dishwasher in the free section of craigslist, and soon enough, a scrapper guy came to pick it up. We were so happy we didn't have to haul it somewhere! ...which left us with a hole that looked like this:

It is a little hard to tell in the photo, but the floor was disgusting until used a bit of elbow grease:

Finally the new one arrived - here I am with my family just after we carried in the dishwasher. So exciting!!

It seemed so simple... hook up the cords and push it in...

...but then we had a leak, which lead to lots of this...

and this...

and this...

After an epic struggle (and 2 trips to the hardware store), we have a functioning dishwasher. Oh how living w/out one for 2 months make you appreciate just how much time & effort dishwashers save!!! (and doesn't it look sleek?!)

 

Since we had sold our old range on craigslist (got $175 for it - hooray), the next priority was installing the new range. Again we ran into a couple of challenges. First, the toe board on the cabinet next to the range was too long. So we got out the hacksaw and performed some precision carpentry:

But that wasn't all. We realized that the non-flexible electrical conduit and extremely large outlet box prevented us from pushing the range back to the wall. So, yet again we made some precision cuts big holes in the wall so that everything would fit.

A bunch of duct tape later, the wall behind our range looked pretty bad.

But it worked! Hooray! Did I mention this range is super HUGE inside and that the bottom drawer functions as a warming drawer?

You may have guessed, but our troubles were not over yet. Next came the refrigerator, which we quickly found our did not FIT in the space we had.... Which meant we needed to move over the bottom and top cabinets about an inch and a half. After removing all the nails and winning a wrestling match, we were left with this:

Eek! Luckily, my family was over yet again to help (gotta love 'em!). Even my little sis Rozi helped out by removing some nails!

While we were at it, we ripped down the yucky brown-painted formica backsplash. Unfortunately, that left us with damaged drywall and glue stuck all over the wall. :(
But most importantly, the refrigerator, range, and dishwasher are now installed! Now we just have the microwave left, and then that backsplash will need some attention.