Learning to Remodel

Which is harder building a house or a gut rehab?  Well, I don't know about building a house.  I do know that trying to decide on everything for a house is overwhelming.  Just when I thought I knew what I wanted, I saw something new and better.  Building supplies are going green and we want to be on the edge with them.  We want eco-friendly flooring, we want energy star appliances, we want the latest and greatest.  However, the price tag attached is often high.  So where do we go to purchase?  I have been scouring online venders for the perfect flooring.  We want cork, it is resilient, soft on the feet, and best of all can regrow in a short amount of time!  Or maybe we want bamboo flooring, it also can be grown quickly.  At what price, is it a good price? Its hard to tell.  So you can see that I am having a hard time deciding on the interior cosmetics for our gut rehab house.  Once I getting this flooring matter settled, I will be moving on to the kitchen.  I can't even think about that right now!

Time To List

This week I will be posting new items. I have a few coffee sleeves that are ready to go. I am in the middle of a custom order for 10 bags. Between shopping the local thrift stores for great vintage fabric, I have spend some quality time with my sewing machine. For this order there were a few specific requests, so I am working hard to get it done. Keep any eye out on Threadbeaur's eco-friendly shop so that you can see the new coffee sleeves that are coming this week. I have cut out several bags too and I hope to get them listed in the shop sometime soon.

We have been very busy on the house too. It is up for sale, and over the weekend we did some cosmetic improvements, to help make the house great for showing. We will be having an open house on Saturday. Anyone in the South Chicagoland area, if you know someone looking for a house send them our way! We are hoping for a good turn out, as the weather is improving with every day!

Lighting is Everything

We have very few switched lights, built into the ceilings. It is a challenge to get enough light without cluttering the house with lamps. It is a decorating challenge, especially now that our house is up for sale. We want it to be bright and cozy looking, but we don't want the buyer to just see all the accessory lights as clutter. Lighting can create a mood, bright and cheery, or dim the lights for an intimate dining experince. There are so many options when it comes to lighting, for now I will stick with what I have.

We did not have space in the entry for a floor lamp so we had to find a ceiling fixture to install. The one we choose is now my favorite light fixture. It is a motion light, it only turns on when you walk through the foyer. It is fitted with a compact fluorescent bulb and throws enough light to highlight the space, but not over power it. The fact that it is a motion sensor light is great because we don't waste energy by forgetting to turn it off. After several seconds it goes off on its own.

Upstairs we installed a ceiling fixture that has a fan and light. It is high on the energy efficiency scale, and with the remote, you never have to get out of bed if you forget to turn it off. I was able to move the two table lamps out of the bedroom, and relocate them to the craft room where I need much more light for my quilting projects.

Every time we have a showing for the house, I go around turn on all the lamps and all the switches to create a warm inviting environment for the prospective buyer. When it it is cold and dreary outside lighting is everything on the inside!