The dining room comes full circle.

Since we started putting down hardwood floors, I have been on the lookout for area rugs for the dining room and the living room. I've been trying to prepare Jeremy, too, by mentioning how expensive rugs are when we talk about the flooring project. But, "expensive" is relative. He'll probably think I mean like $150. That's the low end. As a matter of fact, that would probably be a steal.

I would be interested in wool, and something that can be spot cleaned easily. Also, I'm not big on the traditional-looking rugs. Not too much floral, either. I'm not afraid of a busy pattern, since the rest of the room has clean lines. It has to be mostly brown, off-white, green and a bit of blue. That's a tall order.

Target has some nice ones, actually, at reasonable prices. And with free shipping and 15% off orders over $125, that's not to shabby. This is one of the rugs I'm thinking about. And, at $199 for a 5x7' rug, it's really not a bad deal.

I like the Dwell Studio rugs, too. They look kinda modern to me, but not over the top. That's probably good since I don't want my house to look like a time capsule house from the late sixties, just heavily influenced by mid-centry modern. Here's another one similar to the first that I like.

Then, this morning, I get an email about Layla Grace. I'm not familiar with this company, but at first glance, it looks a little to "girly" for me. But something in the email mentioned Amy Butler rugs. I LOVE Amy Butler fabric--and I don't really care for floral prints. That's saying a lot. It feels a little bit bohemian to me, but depending on how you worked it into a room, it could fit with a lot of styles--romantic, modern, Southern.

As a matter of fact, I matched the paint I picked out for the dining room to some Amy Butler fabric I wanted to buy to make curtains out of. Well, I should have pulled the trigger and bought the fabric when I first saw it on Reprodepot.com. When I went back, it was sold out. I even tried ebay, but there were only small pieces of it available.

I gasped out loud when I saw the pattern again--this time as a rug.

Sadly, when I couldn't get the fabric, I moved on with my plans for the dining room. Instead of pink, there are hints of blues from the plates hanging on either side of the window. So, I won't be buying this rug. But, I think it's meant to be that I buy one of these. Only problem is they are substantially more than the Target rugs--$676 for a 5x7' rug.

Facelift almost done.

After the both the legislative session and spring fire season ended, we attacked home improvement like we've never done since we've owned our house. Just as an aside, we COULD have possibly bitten off more than we can chew.

The first day it was warm enough to get outside, I got to sledgehammer the trellis on our stoop. I've been waiting for this moment. I hate that thing. And the English ivy around it.

Look how gross it is.

These pieces of wood have a new life as tomato stakes.

It only took a few hours until the trellis and the ivy were all gone!

And now, after a few weeks, a few coats of paint, and some grass seed, it's almost done.

It's hard to appreciate from this far back, but you get the whole picture.

The shutters and door are now navy blue.

Most importantly, the ivy and trellis are gone.

We have a light fixture to hang up. We'll get to it sometime soon, I guess. I bought some marigolds and some kinda white flower. I thought the orange would be a nice contrast with the blue. Also, today, Jeremy's mom offered me three hostas she wants to dig up, so I'll put those in the bed to the right of the door. That bed doesn't get much rain, though, so I'll have to remember to water them occassionally. Hostas are pretty tolerant, though, so hopefully they survive the summer.

Left hangin'

Left hangin' without a couch, that is.

Right around the end of March, I did a random google search for "white leather sectional." I do this sometimes. Especially at work. When I'm bored.

Low and behold, one of the first couple hits I got was for one on CLEARANCE at JCPenney dot com.

It was perfect, except it was a little closer to beige than off white. The exact color was "bone." I was willing to live with this as it was on CLEARANCE. I'm talkin' crazy CLEARANCE. Like $2799 marked down to $1199. I. Could. Not. Pass. This. Up.

But, I didn't have $1200. Think, Jennelle, think. I need to buy this couch. NOW. You know, my mom has $1200 and she does moonlight as a loan shark. Just kidding about that last part. Sort of.

So, my mom bought me the couch and I made up an amortization schedule for the payments. Like I said, she's a loan shark. The couch was supposed to be delivered on May 3rd.

In the meantime, I listed both of the couches and two chairs that were in the family room on craigslist. I sold one couch and two chairs and am in email negotiations for the second couch.

On May 3rd, I called JC Penney's to ask if it was still on schedule, since I hadn't received a call to set up a delivery time yet. They told me it was supposed to leave the factory that day at noon, and the trucking company (a third party) would call me sometime in the next few days to set up a delivery time. I didn't hear anything, so on Friday, May 7th, I called JC Penney back to double check. Yes, the couch already left the factory, and I should hear from the trucking company by no later than May 21st to arrange delivery.

Then on Monday, this week, I get an email from JC Penney. "Our manufacturer has notified us that the item you ordered is no longer available." What? It's en route! ... supposedly. So, I called JC Penney back to ask them "WTF?" and relayed the whole situation to them. The lady was SOOOO nice, I couldn't be really mean, which really took the wind out of my sails. Apparently, the people I spoke to BOTH times the week before misread the information. It never was shipped. Yeah, right. I don't know what's going on but JC Penney is on my shit list.

Anyway, I need a white leather sectional for under $1,600. STAT. Is there one out there? Who knows. Google hasn't turned up anything yet.