Kaete's Profile

If you're the type to be tempted to ignore it rather than make a fuss, they sell very cheap asbestos test kits at home improvement stores and even on Amazon. That way you can get piece of mind easily. Our worse case scenario, it is asbestos and you have proof they have to deal with it.

To be fair, commercially sold sofas probably have just as many horrible chemicals/etc on them, especially when you factor in pesticide spraying and fire retardant fabric treatments. So heck, I'm not going to criticize a DIY project while sitting on a couch that's probably full of PBDE's and Chlorinated Tris.

Small spaces can kill game systems and etc. (especially Xboxes!) so always remember to install ventilation! I've seen a lot of people stick old computer fans in their furniture to help with exactly this problem. If you can't deal with fans, I'd at least cut open as much of the back off as possible without compromising the furniture strength and keep the dresser a good bit away from the wall to encourage air flow.

If you're going to have the drawer fronts open a lot of the time to operate the systems too, it might be fun to paint or paper the insides with some really cool pop of color too. :)

I love the white knobs. I hope the old hardware was in good enough shape to keep for another project someday - it looks fun too.

Dinty Moore beef stew. God, it's so disgusting - probably inferior to some dog foods in today's market - but every once in a while the third grader inside me breaks out and forces me to buy a can.

Never eat the "meat"balls in it, though... I hated them even as a kid.

My husband and I use different blankets because we run at different temperatures. (key to a happy marriage bed!). Because I'm lazy, I like to drape a big thick comforter over the end of the bed, even if we don't use it at night. I just flip it up and over the bed in the morning. The comforter is thick enough to hide any lumps from the mismatched sheets underneath, and that way I don't have to make the sheets tidy.

The best way to keep kids from fighting over the top bunk is to get creative! My mom let me put up sheets that turned the bottom bunk into an awesome private fort whenever I wanted. I thought it was the bees knees, and it was the best way to share a bedroom with a sibling ever. It's such a wonderful experience.

If they're willing to trade it, heck yeah! Go for it!

And I agree with the others that the photo is probably the reason your current sofa isn't selling. Even if you don't own any camera besides your phone, sometimes it's worth it to get help from a friend that has a real camera.

And even camera phones can often take very good photos, but there are tricks to it. The most important is to use sunlight for the lighting, because that almost ALWAYS looks so much better. If your hand is shaky, pull over a tall lamp or something to help prop the camera so it's more steady. Be aware of everything else in the shot, but also try to get the whole piece of furniture in the frame if you can - cutting it off at the corners just adds to the bad picture vibe. :)

I would be embarrassed to serve a deck of cards worth of meat at a dinner party, no matter how healthy it is. I'm not my friends' dietitian! I find it better to go a bit overboard and just make something I'm happy to freeze/store and eat later. You don't have to put on a decadent feast or anything, but I definitely believe a smart host tries to have two plates worth of extra food just in case of surprises. (someone brings an old friend, someone drops their plate, etc)

How are you at hospital/military corners? My mom can tuck sheets in so tightly they won't move an inch. As a bonus, that means you can just keep a lot of flat sheets and not worry about messing with fitted sheets.

Ack, those puppies are so cute it hurts. :)