$pending Money (making up for lost time)

Our house is mainly laminate with the exception of our two bedrooms being carpet (as well as the basement but that is a whole other story).  Tyler & I aren't the biggest fans of carpet - even though I think it helps a home feel home-y, so it was on our To Do list to replace them somewhere down the line. The carpets looked relatively new and in good condition when we bought the place but when you get a closer look - well, they've seen better days. With Dexter's health being an issue recently, and my allergies bugging me I decided to ask my dad if he'd have some time in the near future to change out the carpets. He said he could do it on Easter weekend and then he did one better and said he could get us a deal on our flooring. We have to go look tomorrow, but chances are we will be able to afford some hardwood - which is pretty exciting. It makes sense to redo the whole upper floor for continuity, plus the laminate we have is kind of cheap & not well put in and it's only 450 square feet anyway. I'm also looking forward to being able to screw Dexter's subfloor down better as it is SUPER squeaky...making bedtime sneaking out so hard to do.

When my friend Diana came to visit a few weekends ago, I was showing her our place and I realized I am feeling pretty blah about it. I bit the bullet and finally picked a paint color out for our bedroom. I was stuck on the fact that we have blue bedding and brown furniture, thinking I had to pick one of those two colors to paint. But I got a little crazy and painted "Pinot Noir": a really pretty purple color on two walls. It's balanced by some beige walls. I feel it compliments the bedding and I also bought some purple curtains.  The whole effect is a bedroom that I now LOVE the look of, though I still want to find some lamps that add a little glitter to my room. I found some beautiful ones at Homesense but I'm not ready to pay that price yet.  Besides, I should try to savour this buying journey.

I also decided to jazz up my bathroom a little.  When we were at Kim's on the weekend, she had a really cute and bold shower curtain that was white with dark blue, apple green and turquoise circles on it. I liked it so much that I asked her where she got it (Zellers) and decided to go buy it for myself. I bought a co-ordinating bath mat and painted a small section of the wall a light blue color. I don't love the paint color but I do LOVE the curtain & mat. Perhaps I'll repaint the wall...we'll see as the bathroom will eventually get reno'd once we finally put our 2nd bathroom into the basement.

In case you're wondering, yes Tyler is freaking out about my spending spree.  It does sound a little crazy, but I did shop around and get some good deals. Plus all the stuff I did wasn't impulsive so much as it was something I've been thinking about for months but felt I couldn't do as we didn't have any income and I didn't want to risk spending our savings.  While Tyler just started work, we also got his tax return this week which was higher than normal with our moving expenses factored in, so we have a pretty good cushion again. Which feels SO good compared to worrying how long your savings is going to last :-)

For Dexter's room, we are thinking about stealing some of his closet space to make a hall closet (currently our towels are stored in our master walk in closet - & who wants their guests to see their laundry?). I'd love to get started on this but I'd probably electracute myself by sawing into a cord so I'll have to wait for Tyler's expertise. I would like to paint a castle on his wall as 1) I'm inspired by my friend Shannon's playroom & 2) I love castles.