Monday, June 20, 2011

Home Project Challenged

I know I've mentioned it on twitter, but not sure on here, we're selling our condo, horray! I love our condo, especially the location, but I'm ready for a bigger place. Ben bought it three and a half years ago, so we didn't buy it at a sky high price, and I feel good about selling it.

Here's the thing though, I'm not a home projects person. I would pay Nate Berkus or whatever to come in, re-do everything, and leave me with the bill if I could. I don't feel the accomplishment that makes a person puff out like a proud rooster after huge home projects. Sure, I feel good when I accomplish some things around the house, like I love doing cleaning and organizing, but I just get SO frustrated SO easily with the long, and usually over budget, things that happen with home projects.

But, because I'm a middle-class American, I can't pay someone to do these projects. So, I go to Home Depot, I ask questions that most people probably know, and then stare back at the sales clerk like they just told me I need to go home and skin a cat.

Ben and I tried to repaint part of our common area once. It ended up taking an extra day than planned, and the paint didn't match up. We did successfully install this super power toilet that can apparently flush 18 golf balls at once, or lawn sod (we haven't tried it) though, with the help of my Dad of course.

Anyway, we had to do a few improvements before we put our condo on the market. Last fall my parents came up and painted (with our minimal help) and then we had our carpets shampooed, put up these picture ledges to display our wedding photos in a clean, concise way, and did some major de-cluttering.

This past weekend though, I fell trap to the store West Elm. I've gone in there before, and bought a pillow or two, but never felt like this. I found something, I HAD To have. This lamp:

Round Upright Table Lamp

Thanks to my friend Molly, who is so much braver than I am when it comes to re-decorating and documents the process of making over her house on her blog, I found out they had 15% off the clearance, and I decided to go for the lamp. After all, currently, we had two mismatched lamps on our bedside tables, and we need nice lamps to show the condo, right? RIGHT?!?

I bought two of the Hammered Metal, and I love them!

So, two lamps purchased for $50, that were, originally $60 a piece. I'd call that a successful home project--at least a project for the challenged home owner like me. It's reasons like this my friends, why we own a condo, and not a full fledged home and are looking for a place that has a low maintenance yard!

And in the true spirit of house projects, remember that show "Trading Spaces" on TLC where neighbors would switch up and re-decorate a room in each others homes? Yup, here's one of those not so great reactions, that makes me laugh!

P.S. If you would like information on our condo, shoot me an e-mail at: AlexaTaleof2Cities@gmail.com

2 comments:

Mrs. B said...

Thanks for the blog shout out, dear! I love those lamps and think it'll make a big difference in the room. That clip is pretty funny, too. I've often wondered how many times design shows get that reaction. Priceless!

Just Brandi said...

Thanks girl!
I don't realize I have an accent until people tell me. haha.

And you're right, it's LC from Kohls!