skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I mentioned last summer that I had a severe distaste for the bushes in our front yard:
As you can see from this picture, they are "boxy" boxwoods and had grown quite unruly. Somehow the left side had maintained its short, low boxy-ness and the right side had gotten out of control. The left side of the house was no better - I had attempted to trim these like regular bushes a while back (which I learned you do not do) and the result was this:
I got an itch a few weekends ago when it was so pretty that these "had to go. now." and posted them on craig's list. Fo' Free. You dig, they are yours. I didn't think there would be many takers but my phone was blowing up. In fact, one person texted me at 1AM. People - don't text your craig's list ad numbers at 1AM! Seriously?
Regardless, these were out of our life less than 24 hours after I posted that ad. This cute couple came from Cordova and dug them out. It took a lot less effort than I had thought it would. They loaded up most of them and then another guy (the 1AM man) took the rest the next day.
Currently, our house looks something like this out front:
(I thought the instagram vibe fit our house currently -the exterior is stuck in the 70s)
So.. no bushes currently but Friday will change that. I'm thinking a 2-3 ft Azalea row for the left side and a short row of something (maybe more azaleas?) on the right.
From this picture, you can tell that the bushes had dwarfed our house even more than usual before:
I'm hoping that the shorter, less boxy bushes will help our house seem a little less vertically-challenged.
Until then, we're looking at this for our decor:
In getting my hands dirty,
After buying Manny the sectional with our Craig's List money, we needed to move the couch into the living room to reunite it with the matching loveseat. We had two slipper chairs in there that we bought for the space - I blogged about them back here (and I was so proud to get them but now they are just not working for me) and the living room looked like this before the ole' switcheroo:
We posted those chairs on Craig's List and got about 20 calls within two days. We ended up selling them for about half of what we paid, which in furniture speak is pretty good after two years, two dogs, and some fading. That money, added to some we made off some barstools for the kitchen project that we didn't use, meant I had some spending money.
Once we put the new couch in, I knew I needed new pillows - I only had two for the room (which aren't even pictured in the picture above) and needed more. So my mom and I went on the Great Pillow Hunt of 2011 (ironically, about a year after the Great Pillow Hunt of 2010, in which I ventured to Pier One with Hilly).
We started at T. J. Maxx where we found something else exciting but no good pillows. On the way out (where we had so much loot the manager had to help us load it into our car), I mentioned we should stop at Ross, which was just down the street. I hadn't been in a Ross since college and had never visited this particular location, but it was worth a shot.
Well I'm darn glad we did! First of all - ladies. The dresses. I got supppper cute dresses for suuupppperrr cheap. You have to dig but isn't that a part of the fun? After browsing the dresses aisle, I made my way to the pillow section. And wouldn't you know they had just the thing? For $7.99 a piece. No lie. Down inserts. Perfect colors.
The pillows:
The back one is sort of a mossy/minty green like the carpet although the picture doesn't reflect that.
The back one in this picture is one of the two that I already had - I like that these are the same color but different textures/patterns. Similar but different.
And now the room, with the new layout and pillows:
A bit different - I miss the simplicity of the before but I like the complete feel of the after. The room actually feels larger and we'll use it more.
And of course, an obligatory picture of my puppy:
In cleaning this house bit by bit,
A while ago, I waxed eloquently about sectional couches. When we started demo-ing the kitchen, I decided to post our appliances and cabinets on our old buddy Craig's List. I set a goal for how much I wanted - I decided I was going to buy a sectional couch.
I posted the cabinets, fridge, range, and dishwasher on Sunday, using these pictures:
After viewing those pictures, who wouldn't want to come scurrying....right? Well, surprisingly, people weren't scared off by the 1970s vibes being thrown every which way. People called. People texted. And, by Wednesday night, people came. We ended up selling all four things, earning enough money to justify going sectional shopping.
Sectionals.... I wanted one for our living room (it is bigger) but Jake had a point - who can justify owning an awesome sectional and putting it in the living room, which is a room worthy of intellectual conversation, visitors, and the like? A sectional is for lounging. For falling asleep as Jake plays Geometry Wars on Xbox once again. And so we plotted and schemed to get a sectional to fit our den. Our narrow, small den.
The result? Off we were to get ourselves a sectional! We measured and decided we could get a couch+chaise combo with 62 inches for the chaise and still have room to walk through the den. So... its a sectional, albeit a small one. Small but mighty.
Here's Manchester the sectional in the store - check out that price tag. Thanks, President's Day! (iphone pic alert!)
We're going to pick it up Saturday. All in all, with taxes, we ended up not even spending all of our CraigsList money. Good thing because we had to hit up Lowe's right afterwards to buy a light fixture for the front hall.
So that is the story of how we got a free sectional due to some Craig's List hard work.
In Craig's List,
PS - I'll make sure to post Manny the sectional in all his glory in our den once he arrives and we get ourselves arranged. Don't you worry!
I love some craigslist. And a while ago, Chic Little House blogged about a site called Craigs Easy. I finally got around to trying it and it has changed my life! What you do...
1) Go here to Craigs Easy's website
2) Drag their bookmark button into your toolbar
3) Do a craigslist search for something you want - or just a category (so maybe "kitchen table" or just hit a category like "pets")
4) Once you're on the page you're wanting to view, hit your "easy" button that is now on your toolbar
You'll be given a page with each ad that has a picture so that you can browse the ads without having to click into each one to see their pictures. It seriously has changed my life and I wanted to share!
Site Design By Designer Blogs
