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decorating, DIY, garden

Forget Flowers! Use Plants to Liven Up the House

03/03/2014

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The best thing about hosting house guests while your house is still a work in progress is the chance it gives you to clean up projects and add some finishing touches. The house is still rather sparsely furnished and it’s definitely still going through a style evolution, but it’s nice start hanging art and introduce accessories. I wanted to bring some life to the house so I went out for flowers the morning before the guests arrived. Instead of flowers, however, I opted for a few cheap house plants. The plants were not only cheaper but they’ll last longer too!

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decorating, furnishing, furniture, secondhand stories

Perfectly Imperfect: Our $29 Dining Room Table

02/27/2014

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I’ve been looking for a dining room table for a couple of months now but have always bulked at prices. This is our first dining room in many years and, knowing that we’ll frequently entertain in the Dream House, I want a rectangular table to will seat six. I fell in love with a couple of tables from West Elm but I couldn’t justify spending upwards of $600 on a table right now. So imagine my delight when I came across a rustic old table for $29 at the antique mall!

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dream house, history, Our Story, small town life

The Town Grocer Used to Live in the Dream House

02/26/2014

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Food has played an important role in my adult life. My first jobs were in the food service industry, as a short order cook and later in a tiny sandwich shop near the university I attended. When I met my Mr. Blandings I wooed him with home cooked meals (proving that the way to a man’s heart is indeed through his gizzard). After we got married, my love of food and cooking increased as we began entertaining as a couple. I like nothing better than preparing a hot and hearty meal for friends and loved ones. So it really seems fitting that the town’s grocer used to live in the Dream House.

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secondhand stories

Secondhand Stories: I Found All the Answers at Goodwill

02/25/2014

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There’s a big new Goodwill store that’s about halfway between the city apartment and the Dream House. No matter which direction I’m going, whether to or fro, I make a point of stopping at this particular Goodwill. It’s a big store, nice and clean in its newness, and I usually find at least one interesting thing. On yesterday’s visit that interesting thing was this answer canister.

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dream house, Our Story

A Visit to Mr. Blandings’ Fictional Dream House

02/24/2014

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As you might have guessed from the name of our humble little blog we’re old movie buffs. When we decided to name our blog after the 1948 film Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, paying homage to one of our favorite old Cary Grant screwball comedy, we had no idea that we would one day have the opportunity to see the very house that was used in the movie. And yet last weekend on a little jaunt to Los Angeles, we made a detour to Malibu and stood in the exact spot where Cary Grant and Myrna Loy had filmed over sixty years ago.

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