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Master Bedroom Inspiration

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

One day as I was browsing Pinterest I came across a picture of an interior sliding "barn" door. I fell in love with this idea and thought something like this would be a great feature in our master bedroom between the bedroom and the walk-thru closet. These were my two favorite pictures.



Source: Design Sponge

I started looking around and at first thought the hardware would be simple, but we'd struggle to find a door. Wrong! It turns out the specialty hardware kits for hanging sliding doors cost about $400! I looked and looked online for a cheaper place to buy them, including farm and stable supply websites, but couldn't find them any cheaper. Local hardware stores don't carry this type of hardware at all. 

I had seen some more industrial looking box rails, but I was skeptical until I came across these pictures. 




I really like the look of this hardware, too, and I most definitely prefer the price. So yesterday we went to our local Do It Best hardware store and picked up an 8' box rail along with the hardware needed to hang the track and attach the door. The total for the track and hardware came to $92. Yay! Still not super cheap, but understandable for a bunch of pieces of steel, and I was so glad to be done with my search for the hardware. Now to do the real work and hang the door!

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Mr. Fluffy Flufferson

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

We would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family, who also happens to be the fluffiest member of our family. We call him Chaucer, but he also answers to Mr. Fluffy Flufferson and "Hey, Mr. Kitters!" As my sister would say, "He's especially cute when he's orange!" :) We think he's about 2 years old, and he definitely has some maine coon in him.

We adopted Chaucer a little over a month ago and he's adjusted really well to living with us. He spends a significant amount of his time scoping out surprising places to sleep and then sleeping in them. Here he is sleeping in a drawer.


I've also found him sleeping in the linen closet and under the sink in the master bath. Here's Mr. Kitters sleeping in a laundry basket full of dirty clothes. He even stayed in the basket while I carried it to the kitchen. Silly boy.


Chaucer also enjoys sitting on your lap and will just sleep and purr for hours. His other interests include hunting for treats, playing with peacock feathers, running through his crinkle tunnel, chasing a laser pointer, and meowing loudly when no one's paying attention to him. At night he loves to play with feet under the covers. Generally he's very graceful which makes this video where he he slid backwards off the bed doubly entertaining.


No kitties or feet were harmed in the making of this video. 


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Is That a Yard or a Jungle?

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

After the house tour, we wanted to introduce you to the landscaping that was left by the last owners. In all fairness to them it did go untended for almost 9 months during the selling process. By the time we got to it there were several dead bushes and trees, but also a few gardens in not so typical places.

Front Yard from Right Side
Front yard from the right side
So nothing really of note here, you may see the raised flower bed that is right in front of the trailer our roofers used. Yes, there was a raised flower bed in the middle of  the front yard. We have since removed the boards surrounding it, but have yet to completely level it with the yard.

Front Yard from Left Side
Front yard from the left side
On the left side of the house were two dead trees and a garden with kohlrabi and cabbage. While we're all for gardening vegetables, we prefer not to have them in our front yard! You can also see one of the dead, burnt bushes in front of the house.

Back Yard from Left Side
Back yard from the left side
We probably don't mention to guests enough that this chaos is going to change for sure. The previous owners added dirt to make a raised level in the back yard and put in a retaining wall...that doesn't retain much. Unfortunately they did not consult a professional as the grade is not away from the house, but towards it (meaning water runs towards our house instead of being directed around). So we'll need to fix that to avoid water going under our house long term. Besides that, it's kind of a jungle.

 Back Yard from Right Side
Back yard from the right side
Here is the other side of the back yard. There is lots of clean up to do, and we still aren't sure how we are going to restructure it when we remove the retaining wall. Also, you can see the lovely color of red they painted the deck. Hopefully it doesn't stay red for too long!

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