We have been in the new house for about three weeks now and finally everything is pretty much put away. We still haven’t bought much to improve on the house, but we plan on doing so pretty soon. Our first plan of action is to address our lack of window coverings. The house came with metal blinds that were removed when the house was painted. We decided not to use them and instructed the painters not to re-install them. So now, all of our windows are pretty much open to the world, except for the few that have temporary paper blinds. We feel pretty ghetto now and will be for a while, since we cannot even decide on what to do with the windows.
I’ve come to the realization that anything having to do with home decorating is freaking expensive. I’ts a little difficult for me to comprehend all of these prices not having to deal with them before. Of course, we want to find that balance of affordability and good looks. Considering there are all these home improvement shows on TV promising to redesign your house for a hundred bucks, it’s a pretty difficult task. Last week we received a quote for plantation style shutters for all 17 windows in our house. Yes, plantation shutters are very nice and I knew that they were expensive. But I was just taken aback at the quote. $8300 for our whole house. Now, I still don’t know if that is a good price or not. It was our first quote and maybe these shutters are really that expensive. Even if we were able to afford that, we would have really nice window coverings but also an empty bank account. So now our dilemma is to re-evaluate this affordability versus good looks ideal. Are we just way over our head and should head down to the local IKEA? That will be decided in the next weeks or so.
We are also in need of a couch along with some living room furniture. These will probably the next items up for purchase. We haven’t had much time to look around, but intend to do so in the next few weeks. We are planning on getting a sectional for the front living room and would love to get one similar to this (minus a few thousand).
Our New Couch ???
So after these two things, we will probably sit back for a while and get back to the home decorating stuff after the new year. I don’t think I can take this furniture purchasing and Christmas gifts at the same time. That’s a guaranteed ulcer.
I feel ya, Jan…had to buy some melatonin to get some sleep last night. I think my ulcer is right around the corner. ;)
September 26th, 2005, at 8:25 am #sheesh! just make sure your house/furniture is not just baby-proof, but koda-proof as well! :-)
October 3rd, 2005, at 9:01 pm #I agree with Jenna — I feel for ya!
October 29th, 2005, at 9:17 pm #Okay - hit the enter button just a bit too soon!
My brother, living in California, has the shutters you’re talking about and they weren’t cheap — I think they might have been something like $12K.
Maybe you can do a room at a time?
October 29th, 2005, at 9:20 pm #