LetaB's Profile

On trend or not, fake brass is tacky. I think the 1991 dining room really would have been fine without the wallpaper border and fake brass chandelier. Actually, I think fake brass and wallpaper borders should just be outlawed. I do like the 2012 redo, but the painted sideboard makes me cry a little.

This is fantastic. I do wonder where they keep their clothes, though.

http://www.target.com/p/Mocha-Thompson-Sofa-Bed/-/A-13624165

I like this. It also comes in dark brown and dark grey. Our couch is to' up, we are pitching it, and when the bed is out of the living room (surgery recovery on the horizon), we are going to replace it with one of these.

It is from Target, so has none of the snob appeal of the storm trooper couch, but I've seen it live, and it is refreshingly small- so many current couches are Shrek sized that I was delighted to find something to fit our small living room.

It folds down, easily, into a twin bed. The arm cushions aren't fastened down at all, and the seat and back are one giant hinged piece so there's no cushions to shove back into place.

And it is $49,771 cheaper than the storm trooper couch, so there's that.

One of the nice things about cloth is how early the kids potty train. Oldest (13) was a full time sposie baby. He was three years, nine months old when fully trained. Middle child (5) was in cloth 90% of the time, and was fully trained at 30 months. Youngest (2) never had a sposie on him, and was fully trained at 18 months.

Also, to do this really cheap ($100 or less) buy some fleece, and make little shorts. Get a couple of Snappis. Thrift some wool sweaters (cashmere is NIIICE) and make little shorts out of those. (I did this by hand before I learned to sew. Took me three epis of Mad Men to make four pairs.) Buy some lanolin and a bunch of floursack towels at Wallyworld. Look online for tutorials on diaper cover making, lanolizing, and flat folding. You now have a one size cloth diaper system for under $40. If you want to get really fancy, get a few hemp inserts for nighttime, and make sure to use the cloth covers,and spend another $50 on the one size, MIC pocket dipes on eBay- Sunbaby. Those are great for traveling.

After buying and reselling a zillion things with Middle Child, we landed on this system and kept it for Youngest Child. The advantage is that everything is one size- it all fits from birth to training, except the covers, but those are cheap because they are thrifted/homemade- and it all dries really, really fast, like 20 minutes on an outdoor clothesline, or an hour on an indoor clothesline with a fan.

Before I painted or stained them, I'd remove the wall cabinets, possibly replacing some of the wall cabinets with shelving- or not, depending on the look you are going for. Then I'd clean and oil the base cabinets and consider new countertops and/or cabinet hardware. Once that's done, only then would I consider paint/stain, since that's a much more labor intensive project with a greater level of commitment.

See, when I bought mine, I *had* to have e-ink. Oh so easy on the eyes.

I'm fine with magazines on a laptop, though,

I used to use this recipe, but it left things cloudy. Now I use a pound of generic OxyClean with four or five packets of Lemon Kool Aid mixed in, and it works great. The Kool Aid can be generic, but it has to lemon because of the citric acid content.

Especially if you have a household of more than about five people, this is a great idea. My dad (a builder) has done a few double dishwasher kitchens. The two big pros are that you really, truly don't need to chew up another couple feet of counterspace with a dish drainer- if you have kids, you know that by the time the dishwasher is done, there's another pile of dishes to wash- and, what with the price of cabinetry, you may as well go for a second dishwasher. A dishwasher will hold more than the same sized cabinet, and you will need to put stuff away less.

The top photo of this post looks so much like my bedroom that I did a double take. Freaky.

This is awesome. I think we might need a bigger one, considering the amount of Legos we have, but since it's DIY, that shouldn't be a big deal.

The Lego tables in the store are atrocious both in terms of utility and attractiveness.