Since moving a few months back I've learned a few things about home improvement/making your house a home... some learned the hard way... but always a few laughs along the way...
Less isn't more when home improvement is involved:
Always buy more than you think you need! I simply cannot stress this enough! When going into a project I'm extremely bad about buying just what I think I'll need and well, it never works out that way, I always end up needing more! Take floor tile for example... my kitchen is 9x9 and I thought for sure when I purchased the stick on floor tiles that 2 boxes of 25 (12x12 inch) tiles would work (funny thing, I thought I'd for sure have some left over too)... obviously I didn't measure... we had to go buy 2 more boxes! Haha, we ended up only using 3 and a half boxes but its always better to have more than you need than not have enough and end up making another trip to the store that could have been avoided in the first place... especially when it involves a 30 minute drive to the nearest target because I thought 2 boxes of cafe lights would work for our sunroom (we needed 3). Lol.
Always buy more than you think you need! I simply cannot stress this enough! When going into a project I'm extremely bad about buying just what I think I'll need and well, it never works out that way, I always end up needing more! Take floor tile for example... my kitchen is 9x9 and I thought for sure when I purchased the stick on floor tiles that 2 boxes of 25 (12x12 inch) tiles would work (funny thing, I thought I'd for sure have some left over too)... obviously I didn't measure... we had to go buy 2 more boxes! Haha, we ended up only using 3 and a half boxes but its always better to have more than you need than not have enough and end up making another trip to the store that could have been avoided in the first place... especially when it involves a 30 minute drive to the nearest target because I thought 2 boxes of cafe lights would work for our sunroom (we needed 3). Lol.
Never buy a toilet seat online:
I know, I know, you're probably like "whaaaat?!", well we needed a new toilet seat because lets be honest, who wants to sit on the same toilet seat that was on the toilet when you rent the place (lol), I found a rather nice one on amazon for less than $12 (on sale) and don't get me wrong, I love the toilet seat, but it just doesn't fit our toilet! I had a rather blonde moment when ordering and didn't think to remember that there are different shaped toilets, so now we have an oval toilet seat on a round toilet... lol. stop. laughing. now. haha.
I know, I know, you're probably like "whaaaat?!", well we needed a new toilet seat because lets be honest, who wants to sit on the same toilet seat that was on the toilet when you rent the place (lol), I found a rather nice one on amazon for less than $12 (on sale) and don't get me wrong, I love the toilet seat, but it just doesn't fit our toilet! I had a rather blonde moment when ordering and didn't think to remember that there are different shaped toilets, so now we have an oval toilet seat on a round toilet... lol. stop. laughing. now. haha.
Know your walls:
Before drilling holes/hammering nails all over your walls trying to hang things up, drill a hole in a more inconspicuous area and try hanging your item to see if your wall has enough enough thickness and support to hold the screw/nail AND whatever it is that you may be hanging.
Before drilling holes/hammering nails all over your walls trying to hang things up, drill a hole in a more inconspicuous area and try hanging your item to see if your wall has enough enough thickness and support to hold the screw/nail AND whatever it is that you may be hanging.
Command Hooks are amazing:
Nuff said. Pricey but definitely worth the money! You can use them so many ways you never even thought of! I hung a shelf with them in our bathroom as well as using them for towel racks on the back of our bathroom door and I also put a large one on the back of one our dining room chairs and I store Bella's bibs on it! So handy!
Nuff said. Pricey but definitely worth the money! You can use them so many ways you never even thought of! I hung a shelf with them in our bathroom as well as using them for towel racks on the back of our bathroom door and I also put a large one on the back of one our dining room chairs and I store Bella's bibs on it! So handy!
Area rugs:
A nice area rug can completely change the look of a place! Can give such character and be so comfy and comfortable! We've purchased 3 large area rugs (dining room, living room and sunroom) and our place looks completely different! Purchasing area rugs though (especially large ones) can get extremely expensive! My advice: shop sales, use coupon codes, and don't buy another rug you don't like just because the rug you really like is too expensive! We purchased the rugs for our dining room and sunroom both at target, target has free shipping on any order over $50 and with both rugs we recieved $15 giftcards (a promo they were running at the time) which made them a decent price overall. The rug I found that I wanted for our living room almost $400 on Amazon! Just a little out of our price range for something that goes on the floor! I watched the price and it went down almost $100 one day but for some reason didn't purchase it and decided to wait till the next day, well, the next day it was even more expensive than it had been before so it was a no buy; But after hubby and I searched for a week trying to find a nice rug in our price range that we liked I finally found the exact same rug we had originally wanted, this time with overstock.com though and was just a little over $200, with free shipping AND a 10% off coupon for signing up for their emails! I would have liked to have had it a little sooner than we were able to find and purchase it, but it most definitely pays off to wait for sales and look around! :)
A nice area rug can completely change the look of a place! Can give such character and be so comfy and comfortable! We've purchased 3 large area rugs (dining room, living room and sunroom) and our place looks completely different! Purchasing area rugs though (especially large ones) can get extremely expensive! My advice: shop sales, use coupon codes, and don't buy another rug you don't like just because the rug you really like is too expensive! We purchased the rugs for our dining room and sunroom both at target, target has free shipping on any order over $50 and with both rugs we recieved $15 giftcards (a promo they were running at the time) which made them a decent price overall. The rug I found that I wanted for our living room almost $400 on Amazon! Just a little out of our price range for something that goes on the floor! I watched the price and it went down almost $100 one day but for some reason didn't purchase it and decided to wait till the next day, well, the next day it was even more expensive than it had been before so it was a no buy; But after hubby and I searched for a week trying to find a nice rug in our price range that we liked I finally found the exact same rug we had originally wanted, this time with overstock.com though and was just a little over $200, with free shipping AND a 10% off coupon for signing up for their emails! I would have liked to have had it a little sooner than we were able to find and purchase it, but it most definitely pays off to wait for sales and look around! :)
Hope you find these tips useful if you are a renter or new home owner!
smartness comes with age, i think so anyway, seems the older i get====the not so smart i get===ha!ha!
ReplyDeleteSo funny about the toilet! Great tips, love. All fantastic reminders. We get in a hurry and want it all done instantly and forget to double check most things! Love the blog :) :) :)
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