I am so tired. I’ve been up since 8:30 this morning (I know, it’s sick, but that’s early for me) and it’s been nothing but go-go-go until about an hour and a half ago. I went out to Home Depot this morning for paint, but that actually took stops at two other hardware stores as well before I could get all four gallons of all four colors of paint that I need. I also had to get MDF, paint brushes, cabinet handles, etc. And believe it or not, I’m going back to Home Depot tomorrow. I need to get hinges, piping, and some other miscellaneous stuff.
After that and a few other things, I went out to Ikea for the accessories for the room. Gagh, I love that store! I swear, the fates have been intune with this basement plan; everywhere I went today there was some kind of special deal that I happened to find by accident. For instance, my brother and I had both – independantly of each other – thought of getting the exact same rug from Ikea for the basement, but when I looked at it online it was something like $85. I worked it into the budget, but just barely. But guess what! I get there and they have it marked down to $24.95! And it’s just perfect. I was so excited, it was hilarious. I kept petting my rug, saying over and over, “I just love my rug.” It was fun; I’d never bought a rug before, all on my own. My mom still hasn’t seen it. She was with me, but I kept sneaking off then dumping things in the cart when she wasn’t looking. She saw a lot of it, but thankfully I only got obscure accessories and the big stuff (like end tables and the rug) were packaged up so she couldn’t tell what they’re like.
I also got a cool aluminum trash can for half price, absolutely *perfect* picture frames for about $1 to $2 each (hallelujah!), beautiful glassware, art-lights (for attaching to the wall just above artwork – you know, ambience lighting), and really fun other wall art stuff. And it was all dirt cheap! I think after all of today’s shopping I’m about $100 under budget. Woohoo! I should have a designer room for just over half what they spend on Trading Spaces. Where does all their money go?!
Well, I suppose we’ll find out when I finish the basement. If it still looks empty I think I’ll be able to answer that question. 🙂
I was going to type out a list of random thoughts that struck me throughout the day (shopping is a philosophical experience for me, even at a hardware store [tee hee]) because I thought I would be too tired to make sense, but I think I got my general message across. And that was; I’m really *really* psyched about the basement. I can’t wait to get it done. I’ll be taking tons of before and after pictures so hopefully within the next two weeks you’ll have a virtual tour posted here somewhere. Exciting, eh? Now I just need to get to work.
But first, sleep. Emails, decorating, and conquering the world will have to wait until tomorrow, cause I’m about to fall asleep sitting at my computer. Lyle Lovett is just too easy to fall asleep to. (And that’s a compliment, Mr. Lovett, I swear.)