Sink Hole

Last weekend, Steve and I decided we needed to get out of  town for a bit.  We headed up to Minneapolis to explore (and of course, check out Ikea).  We had a sink picked out that we were hoping would work for our laundry room.  I also had a long list of picture frames and other accessories to help get our house feeling more pulled together.

We got to Ikea and were greeted with this sight in the marketplace:

Yeah…apparently they are doing some renovating of the marketplace.  Quite the let down to this girl…so, we didn’t pick up any fun things to decorate with.  Boo.

They DID have our sink and cabinet in stock though (I checked that before we went), so we brought this lady home with us:

Our new sink love is the LILLÅNGEN from Ikea.  It has a very slim profile and as a bonus, comes with 2 hooks to hang towels on and has a small shelf inside to set hand soap on.  While we were there, we also spotted a faucet that complemented perfectly:

GRUNDTAL faucet from Ikea.

We took our purchases and headed home…where we got started with the worst part of buying ANYTHING from Ikea…

Luckily, we weren’t missing any pieces, we didn’t get in any fights, and we got it assembled in under an hour.  Win.

Here it is sitting in our laundry room.  You can see the outline of where the old sink was…this really helps you get the scale of how much smaller this is than our old sink.  We have a bit of an interesting situation since our hot and cold water pipes come up through the floor instead of out of the wall like usual, but we’re brainstorming ways around it.  Details to come once we are at the sink installation point…

Anybody else have the  LILLÅNGEN sink?  Embarking on an European/American plumbing conversions anytime soon?  Sink stories to share?  Let’s start the week off on a good note

Our Favorite Things: Pink Toolbelt Edition

Yes folks, you read that right.  My parents gave me a pink toolbelt for Christmas and I could NOT be more excited!!!  Since embarking on our front of house redo this summer, I discovered that really do need a good toolbelt.  I’d have to try to hold assorted tools in my hands while climbing the later or stick them in my back pocket only to have them fall 2 stories and wait on the ground for me to come retrieve them.  I’m excited to have my very own tool belt (and now I always know where my tools are!  It drives me crazy when I can’t find my hammer or tape measure…and yes, we have his and hers tools…I prefer mine to be hers only since the mister has a tendency to never put tools back QUITE where he found them.  So you could say the toolbelt is multipurpose for both tools and marital sanity.  Don’t worry, I’m not going to refer to it as my marital sanity belt, because that would be weird.  Digress much Elizabeth?  Back to the task at hand…

Feast your eyes on this!

I’ve found it to be quite handy (though the hammer loop leaves a bit to be desired) and I’m ready to get to work!  I do like that it’s nylon instead of pink leather, I’ve seen reviews that the pink the leather can sometimes bleed on to your clothes, which is clearly not a feature I’m seeking.

If you are searching for a pink toolbelt of your very own, my parents got this one via amazon.  All in all, highly recommend!!

Then, to add to my love of new tools, I won something very exciting at work today (yes, at work).  What you ask?  A Retract-A-Bit  screwdriver!  It has 6 bits in one screwdriver that you can change out the bit like one of those ink switching pens from when you were little.  I couldn’t seem to locate a link to such awesomeness (except for an awesome pink version here, notes for work tomorrow — suggest we begin giving away pink tools for prizes).

I love this thing.  It now lives in my toolbelt…but don’t tell Steve, he’s on the hunt for it

If you need me, my tools and I will be off fixing…something…

Anyone else get some handy presents for Christmas??  I’m always looking for new tool ideas!

Our Favorite Things: The Shop Vac (part 2)

For Christmas this year we got an AWESOME gift from my sister and her fiance…a mini Craftsman shop vac!  It’s 2.5 gallons and super handy for those quick clean-ups.  You can easily carry it anywhere and it fits through the door without worrying about banging up the door frame.  We still love our full size version, but until we owned a mini, we had no idea how big of a pain the full size guy was to use in the house.

Steve used it earlier to vacuum off the fan…and yes, that IS an air compressor in our bedroom…

We also used it to empty the remaining water from the toilet bowl so we could remove the toilet to replace the wax seal (and yes, we’re also replacing that gross toilet seat because believe it or not, I cleaned it right before this photo).

The events portrayed in this photo are based on real events.  Dramatization and re-inactment done for blogging purposes.  :-)

If you are looking for a good “welcome to home ownership” gift or maybe an upcoming handy person birthday gift, we highly recommend the Craftsman Shop Vac.  I just realized this is the 3rd post I have written about a vacuum so some sort since I started this blog…can you tell I hate to sweep?!!!?

And if you were wondering, I’m nerdy enough to blather on about a Shop Vac completely un-sponsored, so this is definitely not a perked post.

Anybody else get any fun (or fun nerdy) gifts for Christmas?  Wagers on how many more posts I can possibly write about vacuums (or vacuum products)?

Happy Sunday!

Hoarders — Landscape edition

We headed to Lowe’s to get some bolts this weekend and stumbled across an awesome deal, composite landscape edging, normally $25.00 a piece on sale for $1.00.  That’s right, a buck!  We bought enough to go around our entire yard (this will be the summer of the landscaping) for $18.00 for a savings of $432.00!  Definitely our most random impulse buy, but landscape edging is always so expensive, we definitely felt it was something worth storing for the winter.

We even took a picture to capture the moment.

Color us excited.  As a bonus, we had a gift card from our credit card rewards, so $0.00 out of pocket for us.  Woo hoo!  Anybody else score a random New Year’s Day deal?  How excited do you get when you make a secret score??  We giggled the entire way home  Happy Wednesday!

An owl, bowls, and a candle

Remember a long long time ago when I won a $25.00 HomeGoods gift card in a giveaway from My So Called Home?

Well, I’m finally here to tell you what I got!  To back track a bit, I have been to Home Goods no less than 6 times since I won and I haven’t been able to decide on what I wanted to get.  My bestest bud Melissa and I headed to Minneapolis this weekend for a girls shopping trip.  One of our preplanned stops was at Home Goods.  She had never been, so it was a must stop.  I must say it didn’t disappoint!  I found some great stuff.

First up — I have been searching, since we moved, for a fire scented candle.  We don’t have a wood burning fireplace so we were hoping for a scented substitute this winter while we have our gas fireplace on.  Having worked at Yankee Candle in college, Melissa has all the ins for me on candles.  Sadly, the fireside candle for Yankee Candle was discontinued a few years back.  Well, walking through the aisle of Home Goods what did she spot for me?

That’s right!  The fire candle.  After determining it was the right scent, it headed straight into the cart….for only $7.99.  Cheaper than Yankee and I can’t even purchase it there, so it’s a double bonus.

Next up, we headed to the fall section where I found some owl tea lights.  After some deliberation, we decided that I wanted only 2 of them and Melissa only wanted 1, so the pack of 3 was perfect for us.  Grown up friendship bracelets if you will

Sorry for the bad picture, we’re having a lighting situation in our kitchen.  I think they are adorable for fall and I’m so excited about them.  All 3 were also $7.99.

Finally, not this trip but a prior Home Goods trip, I picked up some blue ramekins.   I’ve been loving the individual sized desserts and dishes and for $8.99, these were an excellent addition to our kitchen.

I can’t wait to show you where the owls end up and what fabulous things I make in my new ramekins.  Successful Home Goods trip.  Hurray!

Don’t worry, we didn’t just get a few things at Home Goods, you’ll hear about the rest of our trip very soon!

It’s here!!!

Guess what appeared in our yard Saturday morning??

Give up??

Our brand new lovely tree!

It’s already hard at work blocking views.  I can’t wait to watch our favorite new yard addition grow!

Gettin’ Twiggy With It

I’m constantly surprised by the weird things that excite me now that we are homeowners.  For example, this evening we purchased a tree…not a free tree, but an actual, from the nursery tree.

Our back yard has been in need of something a bit tree-y since we moved in.  We had 3 small trees in our yard, but one of them was not fairing well.   We decided to get rid of it in lieu of something bigger and more privacy inducing.

The tree in the left of this picture is the one that is no more.

In it’s place, (in a week or so) we’re going to have this guy.

We liked how full it was at the top and 3 of the bottom trunks are very straight (since it will be in the vicinity of the fence, we don’t want to run into issues later on) and one curves out a bit more.  We are going to have this one planted towards the house to provide extra shade and a little somethin’ to look at.  I have never been so excited about a tree before!

They do the planting and everything, so all we have to do is stake our little flag in the yard and then they come plant.  After the amount of work we’ve been doing on the front of the house, this was music to our tired ears.

Why did we pick a river birch you ask?  Excellent question, see our backyard is pretty damp, basically all the time, so a lot of trees don’t do well with that much moisture in the soil.  They are also known for growing quick (6-12 inches the first 2 years and 12 inches a year after) and look nice year round.  Since the house behind us sits up a bit higher, this gives us just a bit of a shielding from everyone and I think it’ll finally make our back yard look finished.  On top of that, I love the peeling bark, it’s one of my favorite things!

Me and the new tree!  (Sorry for the cellphone photo, my camera died in the middle of the tree photo shoot)

After this month is over, it won’t even be the same house over here  Anyone else taking advantage of fall nursery sales?  Get excited over a random house purchase?  Who is starting bets on if I kill this?  (Good news, it comes with a 2 year replacement guarantee…)

Happy Earth Day….

Remember Earth Day…ya know, like last April?  Well, you may not have heard, but last April, Lowe’s gave away trees in honor of Earth Day.  As luck would have it, Earth Day weekend fell in line with Easter weekend and my whole family was in town.  Saturday morning we loaded up the van and headed to Lowe’s where we secured 6 free trees (one for each of us).The trees were really small, and sadly I didn’t get any good pictures of them in their newborn tree state.   You’ll have to believe me, they are the kind you got in 2^nd grade on Arbor Day, a small stick with some pine needles attached.

Now, you know my history of plant neglect (here), so I wanted to be really sure I knew my tree strategy before I stuck my free saplings into the ground. I read the package and it said that the trees should really grow in a pot for their first year.  Wanting to break my streak of plant neglect, I went to Target and bought 6 pots, one for each tree. Now it may come as a surprise to you (I know it did to me), that once I got them potted, these trees GREW fast.  I couldn’t believe the rate at which they sprouted limbs in their safe pots.

I noticed a few weeks back that my trees had seemed to stop growing and I really was at a loss for why (ya know, since I was so studiously keeping them alive).  A quick glance and I discovered they were outgrowing their pots!  Not wanting to go buy 6 new larger pots for my trees to grow in, I decided it was time to plant those puppies in the ground and see who takes flight.

With my mom in town to help us fix the Hole In the House of 2011, I decided to take advantage of her green thumb to help me transplant the trees and hopefully start them off on the right foot.  We also had some leftover chicken wire and stakes that we had pulled out of the old garden, so we reused that to prevent the trees from getting ran over by the dogs.  We don’t really have a wildlife problem in our yard because of Kirby and Lucy, but they have a running problem, so to avoid being trampled, fence was in order.

Some day, you know, like in 20 years, some one is really going to thank us for the view blocking properties of these trees.  Until then, I’m going to do my darndest not to kill ‘em (and yes, that is still a hole from the former playset’s sandbox, baby steps).

The biggest of my baby trees.  Did anyone else take Lowe’s up on their free tree offer?  Am I the only one who gets really excited at no cost (and therefore low risk) plant projects?  Does your dog insist on being in any picture you ever try to take?

Happy Saturday, hope it’s less rainy near you than it is here!

Deal Alert!

If you love bargains, Pier 1 has $10 off a $10 purchase as their daily deal today. Hit up their facebook page (Pier 1 Imports) and “like” them to get the deal. (No, not perked by Pier 1, just love coupons and discounts on awesome home things!)

So what did I get with my $10 off?  Well, I went there to get some bright colored fun summer accessories for our house.  As I was taking a lap around the store to make sure I checked out all the awesome clearance, I stumbled on a giant basket.  Now, some back story into my basket hunt…We’ve had a problem with with laundry since we moved.  Every basket I’ve picked up hasn’t worked.  Steve’s clothes take up a surprising amount of space (I guess that makes logical sense, but it was still weird to me), so after a few days, the clothes basket was full.  Now you might be thinking that I should do laundry more often, but my general philosophy is that if we’re not out of undies or socks, laundry does not need to be done.

The laundry baskets I have found that were big enough were in the 3 digit range, which is ridiculous for a basket in my opinion…so back to the basket at hand.  It about came up to my waist and was marked down from $125.00 to $45.00.  With my $10.00 off coupon, it was only $35.00.  This was extremely affordable and I went to snatch it up.  I discovered quickly it was FULL of blankets.  After a quick blanket removal, my new basket and I headed to the check out.

Woo hoo!  Not the fun summer accessories I was expecting to find, but a complete victory nonetheless!

Check out this mega basket (said in my best Dwight Schrute voice…I love The Office)!

How about you?  Did you get in on the Pier1 deal?  Find anything awesome (including a mega basket of your own)?

Work That Bench

In our quest for organization, we knew we would need to do something in our garage.  Between the 2 of us, we have a decent amount of tools that were in need of a home.  We were on the lookout for a workbench, but hadn’t found anything that really struck our fancy.  During a random trip through Lowe’s, we discovered this kit from 2×4 Basics.

The kit included all of the brackets and corner pieces and we would supply the wood and build it ourselves.  The kit was around $65.00 and the wood would have been around $50, so we estimated $120 for the whole work bench.  Not bad…but also not great.

As I was visiting my friend Craig’s List, I found a guy selling his garage workbench/cabinets for a grand total of $50.00.  This is much cheaper than a build it work bench.  I anxiously emailed him to see if it was still available.  As luck would have it, Nathanael was in town with Kimberly, so he could go with Steve to help him load it up and get it back to our house.

Some of the drawers stuck, so Steve took his sander to them and it solves the problem.  While he was at it, he sanded the whole workbench.  I’m going to paint it a glossy deep gray to class it up a bit.  The storage is absolutely perfect!  The drawers are shallow and plentiful, which is perfect for a work bench.  It also has the wide spaces to store larger tool boxes.  The countertop that came on it was in bad shape, so we bought a new piece of particle board and had Lowe’s cut it in half for us…Voila, we had a new countertop.

The peg board already came with our garage, we just adjusted it so it would go all the way up to the ceiling.  Steve is so excited to have his “toys” organized and at his fingertips…and I appreciate that we have all the stuff we need to get our various projects done.  In fact, Steve is in the basement right now working on the latest project…what is it you ask?  Storage shelves for the basement!  Don’t worry, I’ll post all the info and photos once he gets done.

Breakdown of the bench-
$50.00 for the cabinets
$33.00 for the new counter top
$5.00 for a gallon of gray glossy paint from the Lowe’s mis-mixed rack
Grand total- $88.00

For the amount storage and room we have in our garage, we’re sold!  What do you use in your garage?  We’re thinking we might need a few more storage options in there…

(You aren’t crazy, I haven’t actually painted the bench yet…that will also be coming soon).