THANK YOU Hand-Me-Down Dresser Gods

Back in April, I pleaded with the hand-me-down dresser gods for, well, a hand-me-down dresser! One that would be inexpensive and I could pretty-up and to put in our guest room. I definitely could've gone to Ikea or Target and bought a semi-inexpensive dresser for the room, but I wanted to get something that had a little more character, was even cheaper, and one I wouldn't feel bad about painting (especially if it didn't turn out well).

Well, the hand-me-down god of Craigslist answered my pleas and I scored this 9-drawer beauty for a cool $100.

For some reason I only took one "before" shot. With my phone...

Ok, so the $100 was a little more than I wanted to spend, but the dresser was perfect for what I was looking for and, honestly, I was already getting impatient with my search.

Of course I didn't want to keep the dresser as-is. While I'm sure it looked really nice back in the day, it definitely needed some TLC for my taste in the form of a fresh coat of paint and some new, updated (and matching) pulls. Now, I'm not going to give you a how-to on how to paint furniture because 1) this is the first real piece of furniture I've painted so I'm definitely no guru by any means, and 2) there are other great how-to's online by much more experienced DIYers like Young House Love and Centsational Girl that I would definitely recommend consulting over me (I pretty much followed their steps anyway)! But, I will tell you what I did. I painted the dresser Behr's Powdered Snow and added some 4-inch oil-rubbed bronze (even though they look black) cup pull handles. And, let me tell you, 4-inch pulls are hard to find! I ended up having to order ours online because there was a very limited selection of 4-inch pulls at our local hardware stores (I guess 4-inch pulls are a rarity?), and I definitely did not want to drill new holes and fill in the old ones (that's waaaay too much work for me!).

Anyway, instead of a how-to on painting furniture, I figured I'd show you some pictures of how this little hand-me-down dresser really helped (begin to) complete our guest bedroom. Here's a view of the room opposite the dresser . . .

. . . and here's the dresser!

Now, to "complete, complete" the room all I have to do is find a large mirror to go over the dresser, accessorize the space a little better, and the guest room will be pretty much done! I know it's been a long process to read about since we painted the chevrons on the wall waaaaay back in August, but thank you for being patient readers (and some of you, visitors) and know that it's almost done! (and we can move on to do projects and write about other areas of our house! Yay!)

Thrift Store Therapy

First of all, I got my snow day. Except, it happened on a Saturday, boo. So, not only did I not get a day off from work, but I had to do my long run of 7 miles on our treadmill because the roads were too icy for my clumsy butt. (I'm particular about my snow-day parameters!) Keep your fingers crossed for me that we get another one, this time on a weekday . . .

Anywho, you know the phrase "retail therapy"? Well, Chris and I definitely love some "thrift store therapy." After a disappointing trip to Michael's for some craft stuff (they didn't have the framing mat board color I needed), we decided to stop by a Goodwill and, one of our local favorites, Value Village, for some cheering-up. As I'm sure you know, sometimes thrift store shopping is fruitless and other times you hit the jackpot. Today was a jackpot kind of day.

I nabbed some cute brass cut-out tea lights. I think I'll spray paint them a fun turquoise color and add them to our guest bath or bedroom.

I also spotted a small glass serving dish for $1ish that I couldn't wait to use as a tray for some of my chunkier jewelry. (And, I forgot to dust, sorry!)

We couldn't resist these tall silver candlesticks that were $4/piece. They'll go great with the shorter candlesticks my Aunt gave us!

I've been thinking I needed a little bowl to put smaller bathroom items like chapstick and nail clippers and then I saw this dark wood bowl, for $1. Yes, please.

Chris spotted this gem - a "United States of America" mug. Definitely a perfect social-studies-teacher mug, no? I can totally picture myself drinking some tea out of it while teaching my future students about Ameri-cuh. Now, I just need to get the job!

I couldn't pass up these wall-mounted candle holders either. They look a little grandma-y, but I think with a little spray paint and some crisp white candles they will look fresh and fun! I just can't decide what room to hang them in . . .

And, lastly, we scored this AWESOME Budweiser mirrored-clock. Even Chris, the AB-hater, lit up with excitement when I showed it to him. For some reason it reminds me of my parents' basement too (did they have something similar?).

Chris also bought a statistics book for $2.50 that apparently was a "steal." The book didn't even make it out of the car because he's going to take it to work. Dork. :)

I know these probably seem like a misfit of knick-knacks, but I'm really excited about using these new, and cheap, treasures to decorate our house! Now, it just has to warm back up so that I can spray paint some of it. Well, it has to warm up after my snow day!

Post-School Weekend

Well, we finished our classes for the semester! And passed! Sometimes, Chris and I lament on how sad it is that we are late-twenty-somethings and we are still taking classes, doing homework, and worrying about finals and grades, but what can I say, we lurv learning!

Anyway, this past weekend was our first weekend free of the burdens of school work, and big home projects (like water leaking through the roof and an unfinished basement bathroom). So, naturally, we did whatever the heck we wanted!

The weekend started with a great dinner with friends at Parkway Deli. Gosh I love that place and their humongously delicious desserts. Mmmm eclairs and cannolis! If you come in town and visit us, remind me to take you there!

Saturday and Sunday we did a little bit of everything and a little bit of nothing. For instance, we decided to go to Goodwill to donate a few bags worth of stuff that have been piling up in our house, and ended up buying these two gorgeous Pier One chairs. For $5 each. FIVE DOLLARS, EACH! They are even more beautiful at that price, huh?

Right now they are just siting in our living room and I have yet to decided where I want to put them... any ideas?

We also visited DC Brau, one of the first local breweries in DC that started selling their beer last spring. I wanted to buy a couple of "Sixers" for Christmas gifts for people, but Chris couldn't resist taking the quick tour. It's decent beer and fun to tour a local brewer. Again, if you are a beer-lover like Chris, this is a good, free place we can visit when you are in town.

But, while we ran some random errands and did some fun stuff around town, we were also lazy. Lay-zy. Let's just say, we are now both obsessed with Breaking Bad. If you haven't watched the show, you should. It's dramatic, funny, and even nerdy.Yes, it's about "cooking" meth, but it's not your average drug show. Although, I don't really know what an average drug show is like....?

This was a really random post, sorry, but this is what our Washington life is like, a little boring, and a little interesting, mixed with some natural and home disasters. ; )

Weekend Wrap-Up

Well, since I've done my run for the day, I've finished my readings and assignments for this week of class, and Glee isn't on tonight, I figured I'd update you on our Washington Life.

I have to say, I'm pretty proud of our past weekend. I went into it just planning on running a few errands (and run a few 8 miles), but I didn't have any plans beyond that.  Usually weekends of errands (and long runs) don't end up being anything worth writing about, but for some reason this weekend was different. It can most likely be attributed to the awesome spring weather. Or, my successful 8 mile run (4 weeks until my half marathon!) in the nice spring weather. Or, the bargains we scored shopping in the lovely spring weather. Did I mention the awesome spring weather?

Yes, we experienced our first nice weekend day of 2011. So nice that we were able to walk around on Sunday without coats on! It makes me really really look forward to the rest of the warm spring weekends up ahead, Yipee!! Here's what we did on our nice weekend:

• Succesfully completed my 8 mile run in Rock Creek Park! It's like running through the forest following a creek, but with plenty of other runners, walkers, and cyclists to "people watch"!


• Bargain-shopped at Michael's for pictures frames and a mat for a house project I am working on. Hopefully, I can finish it this weekend to share with everyone, but, as a teaser, it includes nineteenth century maps of KC and St. Louis and a vintage postcard of Washington, DC . . .


• Bargain-"ate" at Chipotle thanks to the BOGO (buy one, get one) given away at the America's Next Great Restaurant Facebook page just for watching a 1:31 video. Easy, shmeezy! Do it!!


• Bargain-shopped at Goodwill. It was a spontaneous stop on our way home from Chipotle, but we ended up scoring 9 books for $1 each AND a 2-drawer filing cabinet for, get this, $10!!


• Enjoyed an IHOP breakfast. Although, our IHOP has started including the caloric values of the menu items. Which is really depressing. Especially after conquering those 8 miles the day before...


• Bargain-shopped at Bed, Bath, & Beyond for a humidifier and other home goods. Chris was able to finally get his "dream" humidifier, thanks to a 20% off coupon, and now we can stop shocking our kitties when they demand lovin!


• Checked out an open house in our Petworth neighborhood . . . getting ideas for our own home, and scoping out the "competition." (We think our house is better, and it cost less!)


• OH, and we got Girl Scout Cookies!!!! (Long story, but Chris owed me some Thin Mints.)


• We capped off our weekend by watching the Oscars. The critics didn't like it too much, but I didn't think it was any worse than previous years . . .

How was your weekend? I know it's Tuesday already, but I hope everyone's weekends were as nice as ours . . . If not, only 3 more days until the next weekend!