One of the best things about furnishing the Dream House with secondhand goods is coming across things like this cabinet. We were browsing around an antique mall in a nearby town and came across the old wood cabinet with glass door. The little tag on it said something simple like homemade cabinet. How charming, right?
What do you use to start a fire? Those store-bought fire starting logs? Well, hello, Mr. and Mrs. Moneybags! Crumpled up newspaper? Yep, that’ll work (and will perhaps keep print media running). Top secret documents that you need to destroy? Um, yeah, that’ll work too (although I worry about the kinds of people you associate with). Have I got a better fire starter for you! And it’s two things you would throw into the garbage anyway!
This fireplace is a perfect example of how Mr. and Mr. Blandings make the best of what we have. We haven’t been able to get the fireplace inspected due to all the snow and cold so we’re not able to build a proper fire yet. Still, that dark boxy hole in the wall is just begging for some flames! Thank goodness for cheap IKEA candles and a cordless drill.
One of my first posts here on the blog was about our search for an American-made sofa for the Dream House. We’re trying to decorate the house with mostly secondhand goods, but we decided to splurge on a brand new sofa (and mattresses, too). After toying with spending way more than our budget would allow, I stumbled upon a sofa in a local furniture store one weekend day. The sofa was not only in our price range (under budget even!), it was made in the United States. Sold!
As a blizzard roared by the Dream House last night, I was hunkered down on the sofa, trying to stay warm. The winds last night were brutal. Sitting inside this big, old, quiet house, it sounded like a hurricane was raging outside. It was so windy, in fact, that if it were summer I would have been preparing my tornado evacuation plan.
Despite my multiple layers of clothes and two pairs of socks, I was still feeling the effects of the cold. It was almost as if I could feel the cold air drifting across the hardwood floors and right across my feet. And in some ways, I could! As I walked past the front door a little while later, I noticed that some snow was blowing through the crack under the door and collecting in a little puddle inside the house. No wonder it’s so damned cold in the living room!
