rodent

Amazon.com: Regency 300 Thread-Count Havana Floral King Sheet Set, WaterBlue: Kitchen & Dining the sheets (but they were less than $40 when I ordered them, so shop around if you want them) Amazon.com: Jc Penney Cool White Sateen King Size Duvet Comforter Cover: Everything Else duvet cover we haven't bought an insert yet. Right now there is just an old king comforter in there. the chairs (left=before right=after sanding) colors for the chairs The seat will be stained dark. Things are moving along!

updated picture of the bedroom Still not done, but getting there. I want to bring in the orange either with curtains or shams. I'm thinking about also using cobalt blue as an accent. maybe a throw at the foot of the bed. I'm loving the new bed Walmart.com: Edenvale King Platform Storage Bed, Espresso - Prepac Furniture: Furniture We are going to put up crownmolding (where you can see the bad paint job). I didn't bother because I knew we'd add molding soon. We bought a miter box (~$5) for cutting at a 45 degree angle for the molding.

We are going to do 20x20 tiles in a brick lay pattern

we are going with #1

Quote: Originally Posted by jamisoncollette we're waiting for pictures Morgan! I should have known better. It looked really different in person

I looked at so many options & they all looked too commercial. The commercial stuff is also really expensive. So we are sticking with porcelain tile. I have the tile picked out. Now i'm getting estimates on installation.

Quote: Originally Posted by tbrwn250 Wow, truly amazing! Thanks!

Quote: Originally Posted by jamisoncollette Have you thought about cork or bamboo? Duh, this is why one should read the whole thread before responding! haha, love your reason for editing. Love the idea of both being that they are so sustainable, but I really want to find something lower maintenance. I do buy bamboo for other things in the house when I can. Lately I've just been buying all used. I found some more recycled rubber floors that might look nice. I think i just need to stop googling & go to some stores.

hmmm a cork rubber hybrid expanko | products I wish it didn't look so commercial. It's also pretty expensive & doesn't look great.

reply from place in town: I have several options to look at. I sell two different rubber floors, Marmoleum, cork, tile and many hardwoods. The Marmoleum, cork and Rubber would be my suggestion for softer, warmer floors and the Marmoleum or rubber would be the most durable. We have samples of all of them in the showroom if you would like to check them out, or you can look them up on line. There should be links for Xpanko and Marmoleum on our site.

Quote: Originally Posted by becks I like that Morgan! It has a vaguely slate-like texture, it's too bad it's not just a little bit more mottled in color or it could pass for slate. And where you wanted to dress it up, just put an area rug on it. But wow, I didn't realize that rubber flooring was so expensive! $8 for a square foot is a lot - you can get tile for less than half that. yeah, it's high. But, I imagine the installation costs would be a lot lower. Tile gets so expensive for the install. Maybe we could even DIY. We will definitly lay tile ourselves across 1000 sq feet. I'm a DIY by nature, but not crazy. I also didn't shop around, so i could likley find it a lot cheaper than that website. I emailed a green home supply place in town for ideas. If I lived in the house alone, I'd probably put down a bright colored rubber tile.

I wonder if something like this would just be weird Roppe Rubber Tile 900 Series (Slate Design 991) Tan 991-P120 Style Rubber at FastFloors.com http://www.facilitiesnet.com/buildin...s.asp?id=3549&

here it is- white rubber floors HOMEBUG : homes, interiors, art & design - ireland & elsewhere: WHITE RUBBER FLOOR

I found a website last night with a beautifully decorated house with white rubber floors. We can't do white in our place, but maybe a brown floor. I'd like a little pattern in it. The other option is staining the concrete & then putting down pads where we need softness. and I looked into marmoleum. But, i read bad things about the seams.

Quote: Originally Posted by becks I personally don't like vinyl. My mom does. She likes the fact that it's easy to keep clean (especially if it's regular vinyl with no cracks). She also likes the fact that it's cheap to replace. Personally, I've seen it curl, discolor, stain, get cut, and the cleaners and stuff you have to use to keep it looking nice and shiny are often toxic to pets. Don't get me started about the swiffer wet jet. There are so many other options - ceramic and porcelain tile, stone, bamboo flooring, cork flooring (which is really awesome, especially if you're after something a little softer), hardwoods. They even make flooring from recycled tires. My suggestion is to go to a really high end flooring shop and look at the stuff they have - and then buy the same stuff somewhere else for cheaper. thanks for the info. I definitly do not want something I have to use toxic cleaners on. I've been trying to keep the air in the house really clean & just clean with vinegar, etc. I thought vinyl was like linoleum, but I'm learning it's not at all. So I'm pretty sure vinyl is off the list. Linoleum sounds great for it's environmental qualities, but I haven't found any online that looks good for a whole house. I'd love an attractive recycled rubber if it exists. bamboo & cork both sound good, but I have some concerns there too. I've heard bamboo scratches really easy. My SIL had it in her old house & said she'd never do it again. I also want a low maintenance floor. I don't want to do all the cleaning that it sounds like wood takes. porcelain tile will likely be what we stick with, but I just wanted to look at all the possibilities. My dream floor I think would be made of recycled rubber & look just like porcelain. I could do aerobics on it, clean it easily, drop stuff, not worry about dogs scratching it up or peeing on it...and it's environmentally friendly. Great tip about going to a high end flooring place & looking around. I'll probably do tht this weekend. I'm meeting with an interior designer at this thing my real estate agent puts on.

Quote: Originally Posted by Morgan It's also more environmentally friendly. OK I'm not sure now if that is true. It's plastic which is made from petroleum. I'd really like to find a good looking recycled rubber floor. It's bound to exist. I'm still searching. Or maybe a nice looking linoleum.

We were planing on putting tile all over the first floor of the house (living room, bathrooms, kitchen, dinning room & sunroom. 1000 sq feet. But, I'm starting to think about doing a vinyl with a tile look. I've heard some really great things about this stuff. It's not like the vinyl currently in the kitchen that looks like a picture of tile. They are individual tiles. If one was cut, it could be pealed up & replaced. It's not so hard like tile, which is why I'm interested in it. It sounds like its easier to clean, too. I want a really low maintenance floor. It's also more environmentally friendly. I don't mind how cold tile is. I just want something softer. A guy just dropped off his sample boards & I'm impressed. This is the brand of his floor NAFCO® By Tarkett > Products > PermaStone other brands Mannington Flooring ? Adura Vinyl Floors Congoleum Corporation Does anyone have this in their house? What do you think? Did you have it grouted for that look or leave it ungrouted? Also, we plan to stay in this home 20+ years so I'm not so worried about resell. I figure what ever we do now could easily be out of style in 20 years anyway so we might as well do what we want.

Quote: Originally Posted by Kristy! I will also say though that my friend found her originally on theKnot.com and her reviews were outstanding. I don't get it because I can guarantee that not one of the five of us would recommend her. Could she have been a former knottie? I've seen people rave about someone who really isn't very good just because they are a friend. Sorry you had such a bad experience.

Quote: Originally Posted by crsperanza I love your colored fans! Where did you buy them? I've only found them in tan oriental trading. The color does rub off on sweaty hands. I wrapped the black ribbon around for that reason, but it took a lot of ribbon. I should have bought it in a larger package, because i had to keep getting more. i also probably wrapped too much.

Quote: Originally Posted by PhillyBride09 Wow...Thanks Morgan! I never thought of getting a Mortgages for Dummies book! Thank you for all the info, I do understand things a little more. We are getting together with our broker in the next few weeks, so hopefully between talking to him and also reading the book & website you clued me into, I will feel more confortable. Congrats on being a home owner! no one knows what they are doing when they start. it's really not that hard, it's just a lot of new stuff to learn about. there is also fixed vs adjustable to decide on. And then 15yr vs 30yr. We went with a 30 year fixed. I love the dummies books. They are such a great way to learn what you need to know about any topic. You can buy a house without really understanding what you are doing, but the more you know the better decision you can make & the less likely you'll make a mistake. Also, it was important to me to work with people willing to answer my questions. Some lenders I talked too acted like I couldn't possibly understand what they do & I should just take their word for it. I hate that attitude. A professional should be able to break things down where someone not in the business can understand. One mistake i made was not keeping an eye on my cell phone minutes & after all these long phone calls about mortgages I ran out of minutes. Luckily just by $30 by the time I caught it.

Quote: Originally Posted by PhillyBride09 I just wanted to Bump this thread, Rather than start a new one I am in the begining process of being a First time home buyer and I feel like an idiot! I don't understand half of the crap that I am reading. We originally went through a broker to get Pre-Approved, and we did (yay) But I was wondering....Is it better to go through the lender directly or a broker? I don't have alot of money saved, we are hoping to get the FHA first time Home buyer loan and then combine that with a PA grant (still in the process of reading up on all of this though) I know it's a long shot, but I don't have thousands in the bank saved up ready to put down on a house (unfortunately) We are going to try our best. I am hoping to have a house by the summer...If it doesn't work out, we may just rent for a while longer. Either way, I need to move. I am currently renting from my cousin. It's good a thing money wise since we didn't need a security deposit & etc...But bad because it's like pulling teeth to get in touch with him to fix anything!! Basically I just want to know some opinions on buying a house without a lot of money saved up. Is it possible? Am I just kidding myself?? Help! You can get an FHA loan without a lot to put down. I think it's 3.5%. But, you will have to pay PMI until you have 20% equity in the house. there were ways people got around it before, but things are stricter now because a lot of these loop holes helped us get intot eh mess we are currently in. We got our first mortgage a few weeks ago. I heard things were about to really change to make it easier to compare rates. Those changes should have taken effect. You can't just look at the interest rate. There are loan origination fees & points that change the rate. We got a rate at 4.85% with no loan origination fee & no points. The loan orinination fee & each additional point is 1% of the loan amount. So for our $180,000 loan it would be $1,800. Each 1,800 we would have paid would have reduced out interest rate by 0.25% We opted for the higher rate to save the money upfront for a few reasons 1. it would take about 7 years to recoup the 1,800 in lower monthly payments 2. after putting 20% down, we really needed to save that money to keep our emergency funds alive 3. we closed in december & wouldn't have been able to take advantage of the tax breaks from paying that money anyway. We don't itemize right now because as renters, the standard deduction was better. There are calculators to see how long it takes to recoup money paid in points, but they are often oversimplified. You have to also take in account the time value of money knowing that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar in 10 years. i hope this made sense. i was pretty confused when we started. i spent a lot of time talking to someone from goodmortage.com & i read motgages for dummies and house buying for dummies several times over. i ended up going with a local broker my real estate recommended. i had a great experience. she answered all of my remainig questions & the day of actually getting the loan was great. it was a lot of fun. never expected that. so my tips: read the dummies books & dont expect to understand it all. talk to some lenders & ask questions reread the books. you'll see you get a lot more, but probably still have questions. Mortgage Loans at goodmortgage.com - internet mortgage lenders - where loans click! i found their website to be pretty helpful. the rates with & without loan origination fees & points are listed. also, the rates are pretty much the same wherever you go. rates bounce around each day. You can lock in the rate before closing. We locked in our 4.875% rate nov 10th & closed dec 15th. If someone has a too good to be true rate, it probably is. You could end up with issues when you try to close. The rates won't deviate much from what you see on a website like goodmortgage's. One thing that can vary a lot are the fees. mortgages for dummies has a breakdown of what the fees are for & a fare range. Some places may try to sneak in unneccessary fees. I had a few places send me a list of all their fees so I could make sure the place I went with was in line with what we should pay. you also want to go with someone who can take care of you when you need them. My broker was always available & quick to get things done. I had to call her at 8am some days to email something so we could move forward with buying the house. She always got right on it. My real estate agent works with her a lot so they were able to get things done together fast. I had a pretty wonderful first time home buying experience. I kept waiting for it to be difficult, but it was a great process from start to finish. Hope this helps!

Quote: Originally Posted by Princess402 Morgan I LOVE (like really love!) the wall colour you chose! I think it feels very Carribean, and will look great with the other room details you've mentioned Thanks! I need to take a better picture later once the bed is in the room. It's hard to see how nice the white looks when I posted a picture where it looks grey. I want to take a sunset picture while we are in hawaii this summer. I'm hoping for bright orange sky with some blue. I can already tell I'll spend my vacations looking for things to photograph that match the house . We are holding off on painting other rooms until we get things more settled to have an idea of what we want to do. I'm refinishing some furniture & making it bold, so that might be enough color for those rooms. It's so neutral right now. I think some rooms will be decorated once I have the right vacation picture for them. We have a 1/2 bath that I want to make really bold. I'm pretty sure I'll pick the colors for that room based on a vacation picture. I'm about to go back to working on a dinning table set. it's this and I'm doing something like this (from rooms 2 go) I am using softer shades of my fiestaware colors. We got the table off craigslist & it was pretty beat up with crayon marks & dings. The table should be awesome with some work. It's solid wood & really heavy. I have a lot of sanding left. I cant wait to start adding color. PS. great photographer choice

thanks for all the advice. I realized that it was going to be a PITA to try to get my money back for the carpet install in the closet, so I just had them do it. It wasn't very expensive because it's not a huge area. It's kind of nice because now I can get the tile quotes with & without doing the closet & decide then. I'm leaning towards heated tile in the closet if it's not too expensive.

depopcorning the ceiling took a lot of time, but it wasn't that bad. It made a huge mess though. I probably won't do any other rooms, because we wouldn't be able to shut them off & let them get messy like the master.