Do you remember the table I wrote about in this post? Well I’m going to look at it tomorrow. I’m hoping I love it and that I will come home with it!

Also, do you remember how our faucet wouldn’t work ? Well, we found out that the faucet was faulty. So we took it back to IKEA and got a new one. Once it was set up I promptly decided I hated it. It was just too flimsy and shaky. It seems that a lot of things from IKEA are that way. So we bought this faucet online:

I’m hoping it will do the trick. The estimated arrival date is sometime between this Friday and next Tuesday. If it does come on Friday I may have a functioning kitchen by this time next week! And here is a short tip: we found this faucet at HomeDepot.com for $230(ish). It was about $50 more than what we paid for the IKEA faucet, but I decided it would probably be worth it to get something that would last. At the last moment I Googled the faucet’s name to see if I could find it cheaper somewhere else. And Amazon.com was the winner! We bought it for just a few dollars more than the IKEA faucet. So, I learned that good things can happen if you do just a bit of shopping around on the internet before buying.

Tags: Advice, Uncategorized by Tricia
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I think a lot of people know that a good trick to saving money when they want to remodel their kitchen or bathrooms is to keep the cabinets and either paint or stain them. Well, I just wanted to show you proof that this is true.

In my old condo we wanted to redo our guest bathroom because it looked gross. Seriously it was bad. People would come out with their nose wrinkled, and I just knew they were thinking their body was probably infected with some horrible fungus just by stepping in there. However, we didn’t have a big budget. After finding a beautiful black-framed mirror for cheap ($17.77 in the clearance section at Furniture Warehouse on Redwood Road!) we decided to paint the water-warped cabinets to match. We had tried to stain the cabinets a few months earlier, but it just brought out the flaws even more. I was very pleased with the outcome of our paint job.

Here are my tips if you decide to paint your cabinets:

• Make sure to take the hinges off the doors and frames when painting. Nothing says tacky more than half painted hardware.
• Sand and wash each piece so there isn’t any gunk and so the paint will stick.
• Prime your cabinets and doors. Don’t skip this step just to save money. It always helps the finished product look better and stay nicer longer.
• Choose either semi- or high-gloss paint. Why? Because your cabinets are going to be around water and food. These finishes clean up real nice and won’t stain. (PS I hate flat paint in all it’s forms. I painted a front room with it once…big mistake.)
• If you want to do this to your kitchen but are a bit nervous, try it in your bathroom first, just to make sure you like the outcome. A lot of houses have the same type of cabinets in the bathrooms, so once you paint or stain them you will know exactlywhat to do differently if you don’t like it. I’m so glad we did this in our condo. We were going to stain all our kitchen cabinets, but once we saw the outcome on the cabinets in the bathroom we knew it would have been an ugly mess in the kitchen.

Enjoy the before and after pictures!

Here are a few things I would have done to this room if I had stayed in this condo a bit longer: bought some sweet handles for the cabinet doors, replaced the faucet, and actually have bought a toilet paper holder. Those seem to work well in bathrooms for some reason.

Tags: Advice, DIY, Home Decorating in Utah--Tips!, Interior Design Ideas, Uncategorized by Tricia
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My husband and I have done a lot of painting in our day. I don’t mind it so much; it’s the taping I can’t stand. I really wish I could say we were one of those couples that works as a great team when we are in tedious situations, but it would be a big lie. After hours of taping we start getting really snappy and mean to each other. (The last time we painted I’m sure I called Seth a lame-o and jerk face a few times. Gasp!) So when Seth saw the Smart Masker Pro at a home show he grabbed it. It is supposed to make taping around windows, doors, and trim a breeze.

So we whipped it out this weekend when we painted our kitchen and…it worked! When we pulled the tape away there were still some leaks we had to touch up, but no more than usual. The taping was done so fast–I would guesstimate it took about a quarter of the usual time. I totally recommend it!

Kitchen pictures coming soon…I still have the handyman down there working on a few things.

Tags: Advice, Uncategorized, Very Interesting by Tricia
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I have an Ace Hardware store just a few minutes from my house. It is fantastic. I absolutely recommend going to and Ace if you have one anywhere near your house. I’ll give you a list of reasons why, but to be fair I’ll list the bad things too.

Pros:

• Helpful! There is always someone standing there right as I walk in who will show me to the exact thing that I need.
• They actually pick out the thing I’m looking for and send me on my way. I don’t have to just hope I’m buying the right thing.
• They know me. They have started saying my name when I walk in the store like the people at Cheers did with Norm. (Well, not quite. But I’ve been there so much it is almost like that.)
• They listen to problems, analyze them with me and then help me find the things I need to fix those problems.
• Free popcorn. Very buttery. Yummy.

Cons:

• They may be a bit pricier than the big stores. But on most things it isn’t by much.
• They don’t have as big of a selection as the big stores. (But really this could be a pro because I hate walking miles in those huge stores, and sometimes it is just plain intimidating.

So decide for yourself, but I would suggest stopping by to give them a try (and get some free popcorn).

Allred’s Ace Hardware, 330 S. Main Street in Pleasant Grove.

Tags: Advice by Tricia
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When you are looking for new living room furniture, try not to fall into the trap of going into R.C. Willey and picking out a "nine-piece set." You know the ones: sofa with matching love seat, two matching lamps, matching side and end tables, and matching pillows–but only two matching pillows so if you want four you have to buy two more. (No offense to those out there that have done this. I know there are many, many of you out there. In fact a few years ago I’m sure I would have done it, if I had the cash on hand. That dang RC Willey is just so enticing!)

You see the problem with this is that anyone can come into your house and see that you felt the need to redecorate, and you did. In one fell swoop. Poof, new front room. And if anything gets broken, or spilled on (stupid rubber cement! yes, mom it was me that spilled it) then you need to throw the whole set out and start over again because, dang it!, it doesn’t match.

The most well put together homes are the ones that look like it has taken a lifetime, where it seems every piece has a story to tell. And thank goodness we have KSL.com and Craigslist so it won’t really take us a lifetime to put together a front room that has some character. I suggest starting with a couch from a store (if you must have something new), and then fill in the rest of the house with finds from the classifieds, thrift stores, or garage sales. It is amazing how nice a home can look on a small budget without buying the "nine-piece set."

Tags: Advice, Home Decorating in Utah--Tips! by Tricia
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I’ve just recently started getting the Martha Stewart Living magazine. I had never actually read the magazine before, but had heard so much (maybe too much?) about it. I have seen some great ideas from her website and just expected her magazine to be chuck full of things I would want to do. I was way off! So far I have received three magazines and have yet to find something inspirational. And the article Martha writes is ridiculous. In the past two magazines she gives pointers on how to grow acres of flowers likes she does on her farm. I’m pretty sure that most the people reading her magazines will never grow a single acre of daffodils, let alone many. However, (to end on a positive note) the magazine is beautiful; the photography and design is awesome. I’m hoping that I will learn to love the magazine as much as the rest of the world seems to. I think that maybe my expectations were just a bit unrealistic.

If you want to start a magazine subscription I would whole heartedly suggest Better Homes and Gardens. There is something in every issue that I love. I completely devour each issue and then go back and read it more slowly later. It gives great interior design ideas and seems to be more on the level of “average American” rather than “east-coast yuppie.”

Tags: Advice by Tricia
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When you are remodeling, put your plants in a place where it will be easy to remember to water them.

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