The house is coming along, I will try to post some pictures eventually. On Friday we had twelve loads of fill dumped and spread in the backyard, and the side driveway & frontyard shaped in preparation for topsoil and sod. I had plans (oh big plans dammit) for a half wall in the front yard and instructed the excavator man to create two grades in the front yard. Only AFTER this did I actually go and check how much paving stones (and the like) were at Kent. Would you believe they're bloody 24$ a linear foot! Yes, indeed, my one hundred foot long half wall would cost me nearly $2500. Pfft. Like hell. I now need to find a way to build a half wall for about 300-500$. Ideas so far: stack slate-like material (stolen from some quarry), mortar wall with medium sized rounded stones (likewise acquired for little/no money), a wooden half-wall backed with 1" gravel for drainage, two dozen or so gigantic stones rolled into place and gathered from god knows where, etc. I'm still working on it.
Also in the "deals" department: late last week we picked up a desk for the office from kijiji.ca ($25), and a two-year old double mattress with boxspring and metal frame for ($50). I'm especially psyched about the desk since I had decided I wanted an L-shaped desk in a dark wood finish without a hutch to eventually write my thesis on. But I could NOT find one to save my life. And I'm not talking "I couldn't find a cheap one"...no...I mean I checked every online site (canadian tire, costco, staples, leons, ebay, overstock, everywhere!) and could not find one save for a $1500 real cherry desk available only in the States. But then I checked kijiji and lo and behold, a 25-year old sturdy mf'er for under 30$. And the purchase of these used items started the downward spiral of furniture shopping to fill the new house. We've bought curtains and curtain rods for all the windows, and I needed to get a bedspread and co-ordinating items for the guest bedroom. Next on the list: a headboard for the spare room (purchased for under 100$ or possibly created by me by tufting a square upholstered piece of plywood) and a new (bigger and darker stained) dining set. Husband would like to seat six and we spent this weekend at Pier 1, Leons and online looking over possible designs. I originally wanted rattan parson chairs like this one to go with our current (but refinished, in my pipe dream) hefty wooden table :
But then hubby pointed out that 1) this material is likely to get real ugly after a few years wear 2) for the price of six chairs (about 90$/chair on clearance sale) we could buy a whole set including table at a "regular" furniture store. They would look great, but they ARE somewhat "trendy" and I would probably want to replace them in three years. Oh and plus, there are only four left this side of Quebec (in Newfoundland so I'd have to pay to ship them here, which the sales lady tried to convince me was actually quite reasonable. Right.)
So then we went to a few "regular" furniture stores to pick out something boring like this:
Which was actually alot more reddish in the store. And although the price is better (700$ for six chairs and the table) it's just so damn boring.
Third vision was to keep the current table, refinish dark as originally planned and buy six parson chairs, which may hold up better and would not be replaced for at least five years like these ones:
Only problem with this plan is that my husband LOATHES microsuede and every single parson chair I can find is either microsuede or really dark brown bicast leather (>>monochrome boring blech).
So back to kijiji. We might go check this set out tomorrow night. It is cheaper than a new store bought set by far, and is so traditional that it will stand the test of time, design wise. My only concern is that it is too formal. i can convince myself either way.
And also, I'm getting dangerously close to doing something crazy to my hair again. And since I covet this hair, I may try purple or blue streaks with big bouncy artificial curls soon:
And I need to book my appointment for my first tattoo too (something like this):
being stuck in the lab all day makes me want to do silly things.
