The Housekeeping, Decorating, and Furnishing Thread • Page 25

Thanks for this, truly.

It's getting a little easier as more gets done. I stopped everything cosmetic to address more mental health type things; getting my bed frame moved so I can sleep on a real mattress instead of the couch in the cold basement or on an air mattress, cleaning out the kitchen cabinets so I can start buying glasses, silverware, etc. so I can eat (been just snacking on chips thus far). It's little things here and there and I have more of my clothes in this house instead of the other two, but it's getting there. This week I need to get a bed frame for my 3 year old so he can sleep in his own bed at night and not mine.

 

I just ordered tile for my new kitchen backsplash. Unfortunately, because it's custom tile, the lead time is 6-8 weeks. Also, because my wife and I took our sweet time deciding on colors and such, we didn't order it when ordering the rest of the stuff. My new counter, sink, and cooktop have all been in for a week, so the old tile is long gone already.

 

anyone decorated a small patio, specifically a patio/balcony for an apartment. Trying to search ideas for patio decorating but I haven’t came across anything I felt works. Downstairs patio gets wet during rain from the upstairs people. Also it’s pretty shaded because of the location it’s facing

 

My wife ordered this TV stand from Wayfair on Monday and it shipped in two days so we started to put it together last night, and one of the pieces was all fucked up in the sense that they put the holes on the wrong side of the front leg (which just so happened to be the front of the stand - so instead of smooth wood, there were holes showing). It's just one small piece that is fucked up out of the 30+ pieces so now we have to wait two more weeks for them just to ship us that one piece.

Stuff like this ALWAYS happens to us.

 

Offer accepted on my first house a week ago with my girlfriend. I am pretty pumped about it. It is right in the area we were looking for (5mins from our work, gym, cinema etc) and at the end of a cul-de-sac so no through traffic which is not something I considered as even being an option in the area. The inside is recently renovated and maybe only one wall we would change the paint color on.

The above sounds great, but up until that house we were getting to the stage of 'yeah... we might need to expand the search area' as we weren't getting far or when we did we got outbid on our offers (which were already over ask). It was even at the point when I would recommend my financial advisor and lawyer to folk and they would use them before me!

But to furnishing ... any mattress recommendations? Are casper any good?

 

What do you guys use for outdoor furniture? I've been looking at those wicker-like couches with the cushions cause it looks super cozy, but wondering if I should just stick with a metal set.

 

We just have a metal set with cushions we got from home depot. I then put them under the covered deck or cover with a tarp for the winter to try and reduce the amount of weather damage.

 

Yeah, living in Cleveland, I don't bother with anything fancy because at best, I get like 4 months usage out of it, so I went with a metal table set ($350 maybe?) that has lasted through five winters now and is still going strong. I don't even cover it. If I had a shed, where I could store things, I'd consider buying nicer stuff - but I just don't have the room to store anything during the winter time.

I actually sold four of the metal chairs my table came with and just bought 4 Target patio chairs for like, $12 each. I did keep two of the metal swivel chairs and put cushions on them. The Target chairs, I stack and place in my garage for the winter.

Outside of that, I also bought a couple of Target $25 heavy plastic lounge chairs for the patio.

 

Yeah, I've just got plastic lounge chairs in my backyard right now. I still need to get a table or something, but it'll probably be plastic or fiberglass or something. It's just not worth getting something I'd have to store 8 months out of the year.

 

I really want to get something comfortable/lounge based, like this from Ikea. But my deck is only 9'x10' so I think these pieces are much too big.

 

This is more advice I’m seeking. Where I live anyone can barely afford to live on their own. A one bed apartment is average 1200/month? But it’s over 1000.

I’m kinda stuck and need to move out on my own. Don’t want to get in the details

So for those of you who live places where you barely make ends meet (and have a pet) how do you do it? I also would have to commute to work because the city I currently work in rent average is 1500. I also would have my cat with me. So rent (the lowest I can find) is more than what one pay check is

 

I live on my own, I have a house. Mortgage payment is $1600/mo, plus electric, Internet, etc. It's tough, but you sacrifice some other things to make it work.

 

I'm not sure what it is like in your area but I was able to find a studio that is basically the garage of a house converted and it is significantly less than if I would get a studio/one bed from an apartment complex. Maybe look at individual owners that have shared living spaces if you haven't already. There are a lot of places here that look like a single family home but it is actually 4 apartments in that house. Not sure if that is super helpful but it's the only way I can afford to live on my own and I know I got lucky with this place. If not, maybe look into roommates or renting a room from someone.

 

After spending money on so so much stuff for the new place, I finally decided to start decorating my room. Happy with how it's turning out so far! Waiting for my prints to come in the mail from an Etsy shop.

 

My wife and I randomly looked at a house yesterday.

We've been in our current (first) home since April of 2014. Our neighborhood is awesome but we've pretty much outgrown our home now with two kids and houses are selling now in our neighborhood for WAY more than what we purchased it for. My wife has been sending me zillow links to homes every day now for like, 6+ months, so finally we went and saw one.

Not sure how deep we'll get into this but we'll see what happens. Also kind of terrified to try and sell my house and buy another at the same time. Sounds like you need to get pretty lucky for both to happen at the same time.

 

We’ve been looking too, but just on zillow. Same reason too just need more space for baby #2

 

It is terrifying and very stressful trying to sell and buy at the same time

 

We bought our house for 330 in 16, and it’s apparently worth 418 now

 

My sister got SUPER lucky when she sold her house in Vegas and moved back home (ironically also in my neighborhood). She sold her house in a day or two, then flew home to look at like 15 houses for a few days and had everything wrapped up in like a week. Same with a close friend who just sold his house this summer the same week he purchased one.

Knowing my luck, my house will sit on the market for 10 months and I'll get fucked out of buying homes I really want.

 

I fear putting my house on the market now because if it doesn't sell in the next two months, it probably won't sell during the winter and the next thing you know, those who are looking to buy in the Spring will see that my house has been on the market for 9 months and assume something is wrong with it. I said that to the realtor yesterday and she told me that she's sold more homes in October than any other month in the year over the course of the past 20 years. Kind of think she may have just been saying that though.

I just think most families who are looking to buy will do so in the Spring/Summer so it doesn't affect families moving during the school year.

My wife and I initially were looking at homes in February and March of 2014 and the market sucked. There were no great homes listed in the winter so we didn't have a lot to choose from.

 

yeah, we got lucky when we moved 2 years ago. We got an offer on our house in like 4 days and found a new house about 2 weeks later and they were ok with us closing on the same date as the closing of the house we were selling

 

It's reaching the time of year where I do some work on my apartment. It's a scary one this time, because I'm replacing crappy convection heaters with big, ceramic filled German radiators. I am scared because they are heavy and I have to wire them into the mains. Will also require some filling of walls and painting some patches where I'm totally removing old units.

Also going to replace all the white plastic socket and switches in the bedroom with chrome ones instead (including a very cool looking toggle switch for the lights). Going to try it in the bedroom first and see how much I like the look versus how much it's costing me to replace them. Each plate costs about £10, so doing every single room gets expensive quite quickly.

Not like I'm exactly flush right now, given I've just bought four massive heaters...

 

Massive German radiators are actually amazing though, so good

 

Someone in my work got stuck in a chain of people for moving day. I.e. people selling and buying on same day. She was 7th in the chain waiting on the person buying her house to have concluded theres. It didnt get it cleared until 5pm on a friday. Sounded stressful.

 

I'm hoping for a big improvement. The convection ones were just so bad. Once it was properly cold (minus outside), they just couldn't heat the apartment anymore. Particularly the bedroom, which was pretty horrible.