Binkies and Briefcases

This!

There was a Memorial Day sale at HHGregg over the weekend and hubby has been working lots of overtime so we decided to take the extra $$ and buy a new fridge.

Now we just need to add crown and shoe molding to the cabinets and walls and the kitchen will be D.O.N.E.

It can’t come soon enough because in 6 weeks we will be at the two year mark for this kitchen renovation.

I keep hearing my mother’s voice in my head saying, “The ability to delay gratification is the mark of a mature adult.” What? Am I the only one whose mom is a psychologist?

Two years is a little ridiculous for one room, even I have to admit, but the end is in sight.

You can read more about our how we redid our entire kitchen with materials from Craigslist here.

Sorry I’ve been MIA for a while. We have some exciting family news I’ll be ready to share with you in a few weeks, but until then please bear with me.

In the meantime, we have started renovating our second bathroom. YAY! Actually the demolition part of the renovation took place back in January, but then got put on hold while Eddie prepared to take his Professional Engineering exam, which he passed, ya-hooo! So our family of 4 with two potty training toddlers has been using one bathroom for five months. It hasn’t been as bad as I feared, but I’m still excited that the end is in sight.

Brace yourself, what I’m about to show you might be the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen in your life, but it was actually one of the main reasons we bought our house. You see, when we were house hunting most of the houses in our price range only had one bathroom, but this one has 1.5. That was a huge selling point for me. Although the half bath looked like this:

The 70’s called, they do not want their bathroom back. Yes, that is 40+ year old brown shag carpet you see. And fake laminate paneling. The yellow “stripes?” That would be plywood streaked with glue. My guess is that at one point in time there was some very groovy wallpaper attached, but not so anymore. Just lovely exposed glue.

Also, this space was not insulated, there was no electrical outlet, and spiders constantly were getting in because it’s sandwiched between our garage and the crawl space under our front porch, neither of which were properly sealed or insulated either.

I’m claiming the title for worst bathroom ever, unless one of you thinks you can beat me. If so, please share!

The new walls and floors are finished, but there is still A LOT of work to be done hanging trim, re-installing fixtures, etc. I can’t wait to reveal the after pics to you guys, hopefully really soon!

Dear Stanley Steamer,

I love you. You saved a life today. The life of our very expensive microfiber sectional. You are my hero.

Love,
Steph

About a year and a half ago we spent a LOT of money on this sofa from Bon Ton. Well over a thousand dollars. I don’t even want to think about it. We also paid extra, supposedly for a stain protector and a 7 year warranty.

I’d like to call B.S. on Bon Ton right now. You’ll see why in a minute.

Our sofa looked great for the first few months, but as life happened it started to look awful. Downright disgusting. And it was actually because of the cleaner the manufacturer provided. It left these terrible dark rings everywhere you applied it, although I followed the directions precisely.

Case(s) in point:

Sorry for the flash photos, I had to take these at night, which is actually a poor representation in favor of BonTon because the stains looked even worse in daylight.

It also wore enough within the first few months that there is a large tear over the springs, which is a safety concern to me as a mother with very young children.

I tried filing a claim through their channels, but they told me that since these things happened over the course of time they were considered normal wear and tear and not covered under warranty. Way to stand behind your product, right? You can’t create a product that will hold up to a family for one year? My grandmother had her sofa for over 30 years and we were not gentle with it. It didn’t look nearly as bad as this one.

Apparently if I had “accidentally” taken a knife to the sofa they would have replaced it, but tears that are created by a four year old merely sitting on the cushions are not covered. Likewise, if I “accidentally” spilled a gallon of coffee everywhere I could have it cleaned, but not if the cleaner they gave me destroyed the fabric. Nice, huh?

So reluctantly I made an appointment with Stanley Steamer and paid an additional $175 to have it steam cleaned. It looks amazing! They got out every one of the dark circles, which they confirmed were in fact from cleaning with a soap-based product. (The only cleaner I ever used was the one provided by Bon Ton) The steamers recommend only using water-based cleaners.

They showed up 5 minutes before our scheduled appointment, were really patient with the kids, and had the whole thing done in about an hour. Then we went bowling to give it a chance to dry.

Ahhhh…much better.

In conclusion, do not shop at Bon Ton, ever, but by all means support Stanley Steamer. 🙂

If I had it to do over I would drive my butt to Ikea and get one of their sectionals that has a washable slipcover. As it stands, I’m pretty sure my new boyfriend, Stanley, and I will be having a steamy date about once a year.