Category — Shopping

The problem with having such a long list of things that need to be done (or purchased) is that it’s difficult to know where to start. Well, we KNOW where to start: the basement walls. They’re cracked and bowing, and they need to be addressed first. We’re going to be installing wall anchors to pull the walls straight from the outside, and that’ll probably be done first thing after the ground thaws out and dries out this spring. It’ll be a pretty big, expensive project, although hopefully it’ll be taken care of within a few days’ time.

The problem, then, is figuring out what to tackle first after the walls are completed. Here are a few prospects:

• Tearing up every square millimeter of carpeting in the house and installing hardwood flooring ourselves
• Tearing out and rebuilding the basement bathroom
• Tearing out and replacing the stairs leading down to the basement, and walling-off the stairs and putting a door at the bottom of them so that it’s a separate space that isn’t open to the upstairs
• New couch
• The Kitchen of Doom

I’m going to follow this up with a series of posts filled with ideas that I have for these projects.
Where would you start?

While our region of Iowa is being covered with a blanket of drifting snow, we’re spending a lot of time indoors. Why not make it a little prettier, a little brighter? Okay!

On one of many (many) recent trips to our favorite little Iowa City junk shop, Artifacts, we came across a Lightolier sputnik-style pendant lamp. I passed by it at first, since it’s hard sometimes to just SEE everything that’s in the store, there’s so much to go through. As I was heading towards the front to leave, I spotted it and new it had to be mine. Kevin even liked it, and sometimes it’s hard to convince him to like anything. We got it for a very fair price and ran right home to trade out the old fashioned (and not in a good way) light fixture in the part of our living room that would normally serve as the dining area.

I only have two issues with this light:

1. Four of the globes were missing, so we’ll need to figure out where we can buy more, and then decide if we want the new globes to be smokey and transparent or the translucent white
2. The stickers on the light don’t offer much information, and I’m having a hell of a time researching the piece. Does anyone know anything about Lightolier sputnik lamps?

I think I’m in love!

I spent the weekend in the Chicago ‘burbs, happily NOT going to Lollapalooza and spending as much quality time in the air conditioning as possible with one of my best friends, Natasha. We both decided that no trip to Chicago would be complete without a trip to IKEA, and I had a little bit of money saved in my “house” account, so off we went.

I decided on the Kassett boxes to fill the bottom row of our glorious Expedit bookcase in the living room, to hide the more cluttery stuff that we still wanted close at hand, like magazines and cds. I picked up a few plain white curtains to be used in the bedroom, where my colors are grey, white, and a soft blue. I also got an accordion mirror for the bathroom, and a bunch of frameless picture frames for use in displaying food pictures my friend Alice sent me to decorate my kitchen.

Isn’t it great how buying new stuff motivates you to finish projects around the house? Expect pictures soon!