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Out with the Old, In with the New


Well, there have been some major changes around here...and more are coming! 

No, we are not welcoming any new members into this house. Ever. Again.

Nor are we moving to a new house.

But we are making some much needed changes and improvements.

First, we finally got some lovely new curtains in our bedroom.  We had Blinds to Go make black out shades for us when we moved in, but they did a super crappy job and didn't fit the windows properly.  Never using them again!  So we got some blackout drapes to go overtop.  I am not kidding you when I say I started sleeping better almost immediately.  Believe me, making your sleeping space as dark as possible at night is very important!

We also purchased new couches for our living room!  Until now, we have been using the leather ones Adam's folks generously gave us when we moved in here.  They are probably close to 30 years old and have seen better days at this point.  I have 2 lovely new ones coming from Structube this weekend.

After arranging delivery of the new sofas, however, I was struck with the reality that we had to somehow get rid of the old ones.  I called Habitat for Humanity, but they said they had a backlog of sofas already. Fortunately, they suggested I call the Furniture Bank, a charitable organization that takes away your gently used furniture for a fee, but then gives you a charitable tax receipt in return.  Sweet!  The courteous movers picked them up this morning and were fast and careful.  I was very pleased since we used the very expensive 1-800-GOT-JUNK before and they are super expensive and left mud tracked in all over the house...and did nothing after I complained about that.

We also ordered a lovely new front door which will hopefully be installed in a few weeks.  We have been living with the very crappy builders' one that came with the home.  The new one is going to give this place oodles more curb appeal.  Unfortunately, I quickly realized that I better clean up other parts of our home's exterior to match the elegance of our new door.  I went to the hardware store this week and bought paint for our garage door and the bench on our front porch and, at some point, will gather up the courage to paint this stuff myself.  Our house numbers and mailbox will be replaced at some point too, but from screwing this up in the past, I know I'll have to call our handyman to drill the new ones into place.

There are some less exciting things we will have to do at some point...since there is always work that can be done on a house!  But our finances limit things for now.  We bought new toilets a few years ago and the one in our upstairs bathroom is an absolute lemon.  We have had nothing but problems with it.  In the basement, the gross, old carpet is really worn in the area where Adam and I workout.  I am certain it is pretty mildew-y and probably really unhealthy to keep much longer.  I have fantasies of getting the rubber flooring you see at most gyms down there but will have to look into whether or not this is actually feasible.

Another quiet weekend ahead.  I work tomorrow but hopefully we can fit in some fun family activities.  Have a healthy, happy weekend my friends.

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