LABOR DAY should be Labor Week

Labor Day weekend has been a big labor of love on the new castle:

I no longer have a big, gaping hole in the ceiling and wall of my kitchen where we removed a row of cabinets. No, now I have a big, gaping pile of wood filler and drywall joint compound that is waiting for me to sand, recoat, sand again, prime, and paint. Dan made beautiful cuts on the scraps of paneling and drywall, just like putting together pieces of a puzzle. A very messy, dusty, I want my kitchen back puzzle. When we finish all the sanding and painting, Dan has some really cool amber pendant track lights to install (bought on sale at Lowe's for about $12 for the whole track system).

We have curtains in the master bedroom now. YAY! I bought some Ikea chocolate brown drapes at a yard sale (NEW) for $5. Then I bought a sheer sky blue panel at Goodwill for 99 cents, cut it in half, and used it as a tie-back for the drapes. I found drapery rods on sale at Lowe's for $11.00 and, voila, we have two window treatments for less than $30.

Oh, I also bought some bar stools for the kitchen (we're going to expand the counters to make a breakfast bar) at a yard sale (three for $40). They're kind of an orangey-brown which will look great with those amber lights. All the money I've saved being extremely cheap, ahem frugal, will allow us to hopefully get granite countertops in the kitchen in a few months. I LOVE getting a good deal!

I got some ledge shelves for the bedroom (two for $1.00). Now I just have to figure out where to put them. Last week I bought some brown and blue pottery (Goodwill--99 cents each) for the bedroom, so I might display them on those shelves.

I still have to paint the mailbox, a curtain rod for the kitchen (on which I will hang my 50 cent curtain from the Lowe's sidewalk sale), and all of my patio furniture. I have a coffee table that my PawPaw made and my Mom and Dad's old kitchen table and four chairs that I need to get from my Dad. Then we need to reorganize the Man Cave and Dan's work shelves. Then clean everything in the whole house from top to bottom.

This weekend was NOT long enough!!