Thrifty Thursday: Vanity Fair.

I spotted this vanity at Diversity Thrift exactly one week ago:

and immediately recognized it as the same style as my dining room table. Which, fittingly, also hails from Diversity Thrift.

I texted a picture of it to my mom while I was standing there staring at it, and said how I wanted it so, but I just couldn’t pay $50 after dropping so much cash on a wardrobe refresher. After all, this family is on a strict budget. That’s how we get things done around here, like deck, bathroom, and kitchen remodels. Well, mother dearest came through and offered up 50 beans to get that vanity. All it took now was convincing Hussy it was a necessity to be able to get ready in the light, since I’ve spent the last almost 3 years getting ready in my hallway mirror. Why? Because behind it is where I store all of my getting ready stuff, and that only made sense:

Not. I severely needed a better lit area to get ready in.

I went back to DT on my lunch break today, and the vanity was still there. However, this time I realized that it was actually a different price before the $50 I saw it for sale for. It was originally marked $70 on 3/17. It moved down to the $50 on 3/29. I counted 12 days for that price drop, and realized it’s been 10 days since that. On a whim I went up to the registers and asked how often they drop the prices. I was told every 2 weeks, so I asked if they’d drop it for me now since it’s been ALMOST 2 weeks since the last drop. She pulled out her trusty calculator, and gave me a 20% discount if I bought it RIGHT NOW.

Not wanting to feel pressured, I said “I’ll think about it” and walked back to the vanity and called my mom. I told her about the discount, and that I still really wanted it, and then the unthinkable happened. A man walks up and starts touching the vanity! The vanity I just asked for a deal on! He was opening the drawers, looking it over, and not realizing I was giving him a hard “back off pal, that’s mine!” stare. My hand was even rubbing the legs while he was touching all over it! In fact, my mom didn’t know I was giving him the stare either. She didn’t even know I was silently competing for this thing. So I say to my mom on the phone “yeah, I’m about to walk back over to the register now and get it” and he realized I was doing the stare, and walked away. It hit me I would be upset if I didn’t take this home. I mean, where else will I find a vanity in decent shape that I obviously love the style so much for just $40? Not many places :P

So I went back to the register, plopped down my $42 after tax, and my $10 refundable deposit (to secure it being held in the back until I could pick it back up after work) and went on my merry way.

Hussy met me there after work, I got my deposit back, and DT helped load the vanity in the back of the truck. They even gave us a blanket to protect it on it’s journey home! Here it is next to the dining table just to show you how identical they are. Shame they won’t be sharing the same room so they can be all cute together :(

Of course, as soon as I put it in the bedroom, Rupert just has to make himself at home. I don’t have a stool for it yet, so my Eero Aarnio pup will have to suffice until then. Or maybe my bed.

Although the room is now packed with furniture, at least everything is being used! It’s hard to work with 864 sf. Or maybe I just need to be more creative. I do have a blank corner in the living room… :)

All Decked Out.

I mentioned last week that I would post pictures of the deck finally being finished this past weekend. Since we ended up having a deck party, then Easter, and I got impatient with waiting to post the fact the kitchen reno is finally underway… I just didn’t have a chance to post it. So, without further ado, I present the latest project checked off our never-ending to-do list:

It took us two dreadful, allergy filled weeks since I got sick and was out of commission for a week. I’m just happy it’s finished, and we can finally enjoy a little piece of suburban paradise. It’s much nicer to just look at the afters, but I’m not going to sugar coat it… there was certainly a LOT of work involved in the process! Thank god for our beautiful truck.

Yeah so our backyard is a dirt patch. Just ignore that.

And concentrate on the fact once the deck was finished, those trees in between the posts bloomed :)

Ok, where was I. Oh, yes.. the extensive labor part:

Luckily that part’s over. I can’t say I’m dying to build another one anytime soon, but we definitely have the know how to tackle it if necessary. And I mean absolutely necessary. Like, we move into another house with rusted, chipping, 80’s white spiral metal fencing on our deck again. We added some nice solar lights on the posts, since we’re all about living off the grid.

I mentioned here that we just couldn’t walk out of IKEA with just kitchen cabinets. How can you leave that place with just the things you have on your list? It’s im-poss-i-ble. We were thisclose to the check out line, when we fall for those last minute BUY ME! BUY ME! displays. See, we had just gone to Crate & Barrel and found this table that we both fell head over heals in love with. But for $1,899 (seriously, that’s almost how much I paid for my last CAR!) we had to just put it on our dream list. Then that display at IKEA surfaced just before the registers, and we both stopped in our tracks.

 

So that picture I had of our cart “with a little something extra”… well you can probably guess at this point what it was:

And the table was about $1,800 less than Crate & Barrel’s. Sure, the leafs don’t hide all pretty like CB’s, but I guarantee you anyone that looked at that table would never in a million years guess it was IKEA! So Saturday morning we spent the best, most relaxing morning outside (IMO, since our honeymoon) on the deck enjoying the new railing and table set… and some coffee and girly magazines :)

Then Saturday night we had some friends over to celebrate the completion.

But the party ended up being less of a deck party, and more of a yard party. Footballs were thrown, frisbees were tossed, first meets and reunions were made.

 

Then my pretty decorations that I moved out from the living room were pushed to the side to make way for a poker game. I’ll forgive you this time babe.

It ended up being a good amount of space to play on, but it stunk the gaps between the wood slats were a LITTLE too wide for poker chips.

But that didn’t stop Charlie from having a successful win.

    

I would say the return on investment was about 1,000% so far. And it’s been less than a week! It’s an understatement to say I’m excited for more fun on the deck. It’s amazing what a small (ok, fairly large) change from before to after can make:

I just hope the kitchen gives us this much gratification once it’s done!

A Kitchen Renovation: Assembling Cabinets.

If you’ve ever bought something that needs assembling from IKEA, you know how helpful that little man and pictures are.

Unless you’re me, and don’t have your head on straight. It only took a couple tries tonight to get the first cabinet right, and a cut foot. Yes. I’m going to expose you to my gross foot to show you what sacrifices I’m making for the sake of a happier place to cook and congregate.

Hussy did a much better job helping figure this stuff out.

So we were able to get 3 cabinets done long before darkness fell.

And enough time to get a cheesy model pose. Someone please give her a sun. And a gym.

We still have 5 more boxes to put together, then add the guts and feet. We’re still waiting to hear back from the electrician to get the ball rolling, but it’s coming so soon! Soon being 2 years and 3 months later, but it felt like a blink of an eye.

Let There Be Light.

We're coming to an end in our deck railing project. FINALLY. I'll be posting pictures this weekend of the finished product, and maybe even a little deck christening of sorts.

In the mean time, I couldn't help but notice this light fixture in Shades of Light's sponsor ads all over my favorite blogs:








Isn't it to die for? I know I have a cheap fixture in the bathroom already, we don't really need a new one. Especially when we have a kitchen reno about to begin. But man, oh man. That has to be the most beautiful piece of art-made light fixture I've ever seen. To convince Hussy to go for it? Probably worth more time and effort than the $200 pricetag.





And look: they're even teasing me with a frameless mirror like ours below it. If I could get a match for the kitchen, we'd REALLY be in trouble...

or in luck. Since, you know, we're on the hunt for a new kitchen fixture anyhow ;) What's another bathroom light fixture going to hurt?


Speaking of kitchen light fixtures, I put together a little sampling of my favorite overstock.com finds to help me choose something to put in the kitchen:

So Fresh and so Green, Green.

I decided to put together a new dining table centerpiece since the rest of the house is getting a Spring makeover. I wanted something to work with the pitcher my boss and his wife gave us as a wedding present, so I raided the craft room and dining chest for ideas. This is what came out of it:

The fabric is actually a skirt I never wear. When I was going through my fabric scraps, nothing was screaming at me, but the skirt I put off hemming was.

It had a black sash around the waist, so I just tied a bow around the base of the cake stand. For the top of the cake stand, I grabbed a vase from my dad’s Mayor’s Ball and filled it with some flowers I had lying around the craft room and a couple pieces from the arrangements I made with my last Dollar Store batch. I also grabbed two of our signature Granny Smith Apples from the kitchen and two baby salt and pepper shakers to top it off.

Those two green glasses came with the pitcher, and the small green candle holder was my grandmothers. I also pulled out an oil dispenser with black olives and green leaves from Hussy’s sister/brother in law. I took a cue from the chrome tip and grabbed the stainless silverware and chrome carrier and our stainless napkin holder to add a touch of shine.

One last aerial shot to finish things off. I’m so Google Maps. I love changing out the centerpiece any excuse I get! I also spend countless hours perusing the interwebs for inspiration, so if you have any good ones, hook a sister up.