Rug Buddy – cool things I want!
We went over to some friend’s house last week for a movie night. After being encouraged to take of our shoes, we stepped onto a rug and it felt like heaven! They had recently purchased a Rug Buddy.
This is basically a heated rug pad. It was seriously amazing. They are pricey at nearly $300 but for a family room with 2 little ones, it was definitely a good purchase for them. It got me thinking, why couldn’t you use a heated mattress pad for something similar? I think the concern would be that you could scald your floor but if you sandwiched the heated blanket between the rug and the pad you shouldn’t have that problem. It is possible that you would be able to feel the heating element though. Hmm.
I think our best bet is to wait for these to catch on in a big way for the price to come down. It was awesome enough for me to write this post so I’m guessing they’re going to be the next big thing. You heard it here first.
Sarah
Remodel Lessons Learned: 10 pieces of unsolicited advice
1. Plan for breaks
We worked non-stop for nearly a year and a half. I needed to schedule in weekends dedicated to relaxing and having fun with our friends. Our friendships have suffered and our sanity has suffered from over-work.
2. Plan for normal home maintenance
When you’re trying to get a bathroom done, it’s easy to let cleaning the existing bathroom fall off the list. Allocating time for cleaning the bathroom, doing laundry, sweeping the stairs, organizing the winter/summer clothing switch is critical to maintaining a sense of normalcy through the whole process.
3. Buy lots of extras
Home Depot and Lowes take returns….use it. Buy extras of everything. We have plumbing fittings all over the house and one of every variety of electrical box. Since PVC is now DONE!!! we will be taking a big box of fittings back to Home Depot. As soon as electric is done, we’ll take back most of the boxes. It’s much better to store them in the house than to have to make 100 trips to Home Depot.
See numbers 4-10 including some cute cat pictures here!
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Weekend Update: March 9&10 Not much and some seedlings
Stefan has been having a busy time at work and worked 2 10+ hour days Saturday and Sunday. Getting home the no-longer wee hours of the morning. Daylight savings didn’t help. With Stefan gone and me fighting off a bit of a cold/allergies, I did what any girl would do, I read and baked. I finished the 3rd Game of Thrones book and made Daddy’s Cookies and these delish Coffee Cake Cookies. I don’t think I’ve mentioned Daddy’s cookies before. My sister and I made these cookies nearly every week with our Daddy starting when we were teeny tiny. To this day, these are the cookies I make when I’m happy, sad, excited, or just homesick. They taste like home and love and they are the best.
The Coffee Cake Cookies are a sweet bunch of yummy. Next time I’d add pecans to the crumbly topping. I meant to and completely forgot. I also just made some simple sugar cookie recipe since I didn’t have a tube of Pillsbury slice and bake handy. I’d go with a dryer, less buttery cookie to offset the sweetness of the topping.
Also, a bunch of seeds sprouted!
Mostly Roma and Cherry tomatoes and cilantro. The Peppers and Shasta Daisies will take a little longer as will most of the herbs. SO exciting!
And since this is such a weak post, here’s a picture of Vector on the way home from the Pound on June 10, 2012. Cutie-Pie!
Have a good week!
Sarah
Foundation Plantings
I’ve got a plan. I even sketched it out:
I’m planning on a big hydrangea on the corner. I don’t know why exactly but I want a Hydrangea there. Stefan isn’t convinced but I’m set on it. I want a mix of evergreen and deciduous plants to give it plenty of texture. What I don’t want is the stereotypical 2 dwarf alberta spruce and a row of boxwoods. We need something that will complement and show off our awesome porch.
This is what the front looked like when we bought the place. Huge Yews were overtaking the front and there were Trumpet vines taking over the porch.
After removing all the vegetation and re-building the porch:
Does my bad drawing make more sense now? I’m planning on a Hydrangea on that corner, with 3 equally spaced Hollys. 2 round boxwoods and 2 globe arborvitaes fill out the rest of the space. We’ve got a lot of texture which I think will make it look full and finished without having anything that grows up in front of the porch. With the Holly we have shiny, the boxwood is smooth, the globe arborvitae is more yellow-toned. They hydrangea is soft. I’ve also got either some taller, more casual plants like Phlox or Roses tucked in the back of the bed. I need to give this some more thought. I could even do something more cottage-y like Hollyhocks or Daisies but I’m not sure they’ll get enough light there. Some hostas to add blue and white tones and some very low-growing flowering groundcovers (creeping thyme) finish out the look and edge the bed.
As far as sunlight, we get fairly good sun on the front of the house.
You can see the front faces northwest which is not super sunny, but sunny enough for most of these plants I think. We do get good afternoon sun even if it isn’t blazing. The boxwoods are sun/part sun and they have been there for a summer and look great.
What do you think? Good plan?
Eventually I want to get rid of our front yard. There is so little grass that it almost isn’t worth it to have it. I’m planning on starting on the corner between the sidewalk and the driveway where I’ve planted a bunch of bulbs. From there I’ll slowly expand the bed and eventually, we’ll head over to the yard-less side.
Any thoughts about what other plants would add some color and spring/summer interest? The Yews left the soil quite acidic so something that doesn’t mind acidic soil would be ideal but we’re going to have to supplement with lime either way.
Sarah
