Flip The Switch

It seems easy right?  Well....that assumes there is a LIGHT connected to the switch and right now the front two rooms of the house have no lights because I cannot make up my mind.

This is pathetic I know.  There are real problems in this world and my indecision over light fixtures is silly, but I have been staring at fixtures for the past 3 days and according to Mr. G it might be next Christmas before I finally decide and order.

Feel free to email amongst yourselves and make fun of me, because it is literally the joke of the house.  Mini K came home from skating practice and said, did you pick yet?  I said no and her response was:  "how about I can stay up until you decide?"  Seriously, even my 6 year old is in on the joke!

So two fixtures and a pair of sconces need to be decided on tonight and I am turning to my friends for their opinions because I just cannot decide.  For those of you who have been following our construction or know me in real life, the tile starts going in next week, the new front door arrived today and they are doing all of the prep work to begin priming next week.  At this rate we might be finished by Thanksgiving.....if I get the light fixtures!

What do you think?

30 Days In...

Today marks day 30 of construction on our house and what a month it has been! Those of you that read the blog know we are in the process of remodeling our house.  The project is a big one and we are blessed to love our builder and are amazed at how much they have done in 30 days!

This week has been one of decisions....and purchases.  Mr. G and I love to figure out how much we can save so we can justify all of our little extras (his involving guns or electronics and mine have been sconces or fabric) as FREE.  It has become a sort of game for us over almost 10 years of marriage and now three major remodels.  What can I say, we love a good project, as long as we don't have to do the work ourselves!

I am declaring this week the week of Birkin handbags...yes plural.   NO, I did not go purchase multiple Birkins during a construction project, but I have chosen to envision a nice burnt orange calfskin, a good everyday neutral and a basic black one.  Now my Birkins are not the Hermes variety anywhere but my in my head.  In reality my Birkins are Kohler chrome and oil rubbed bronze faucets and shower heads, toilets and pedestal sinks, but call me crazy, I just cannot get excited about a toilet as much as a handbag!

A lot of you have emailed and asked about where I have purchased our house stuff from which leads me back to our family GAME.  We keep a running list of how much the project is costing and how much we have saved along the way.  This week we saved $2,200.  I am NOT JOKING on all of the above.  At least that is how much more we would have spent if we purchased everything at Home Depot.

Instead I spent about 10 minutes searching the Ebates websites for building supplies and hit the jackpot.  We ordered everything from Faucets Direct so in addition to saving the $2,200, we also are getting cash back in our Ebates account.

I am NOT being compensated for this post, but I am a big believer in not paying more than I have to for anything.  I realize that somethings do not go on sale and I am the first person to support small businesses.  I will not purchase shoes from kate spade when I can support my friend E's and purchase the same Kate Spade shoes from her store, The Shoe Hive.

In this case, I just thought it might be easier to do a post instead of answering the same email question over and over, which I promise I do answer email, but this way I can also answer anyone else who may have been wondering the same thing.

This is not my first, and won't be my last, I suspect, post on Ebates because I am HOOKED!  I thought for years it was a scam and no one would actually get money back.  Then I thought it would take too much time.  Now I realize that once you make it a habit to go to their site and click through it adds up!  I now average around $150 cash back a quarter or $600 a year!  See all of those pennies really do add up!  So if you have been on the fence about joining, just JOIN!  It took me a few months to get into a routine of going to my account first, but now it is habit and I consider my checks from Ebates FREE MONEY.  So while I cannot purchase a Birkin with my Ebates checks, I can still get a day at the spa every quarter for doing what I would have done anyway.

So my decision for next week is paint colors and purchasing beds...if you have any favorite shades or furniture stores PLEASE share!

Gameday

I realize I probably should save this title for college football, but today has been 3 years in the making.  When we found out I was expecting Baby C we started to think about moving.  We looked at more houses than I care to remember, but kept coming back to our own.

You can call us crazy as everyone else has, but we decided to follow our hearts and stay in our house and add on.  Well another story has now turned into a story and a basement and more changes on our first floor.  We have been working on the plans for 2 years and tomorrow demolition begins.

Mini K is still hoping that our builder with give her a pink sparkly bathroom...it's not going to happen as she is sharing said bathroom with her brother, but she is pulling out all of the stops to lobby him to her way of thinking.

Mr. G and I ran out today to confirm some of our tile selections and decide on an exterior paint color.  These are two different shades and we were going back and forth.  They are only one shade apart, but when it is going to cover your entire house, you want to make sure you like your choice.

While we were gone, Mini K convinced her babysitter to bake cookies for the crew and she left them a note that said: I will make cookies forever for a pink sparkle bathroom.  I have to hand it to her, sugar and chocolate might be the way to get our project finished sooner!