Minnesota or Bust Again

After shopping at Ikea in May, we knew a return was inevitable.  We started getting the itch about three weeks ago, and almost pulled the trigger a couple of times.  But we decided that it would be best to plan ahead.  During our hunt for sofas (which we still haven't received) we discovered Room and Board.  We were even more excited to discover that they had a store 5 miles from Ikea!  Then we busted our seams when we learned that they also had an Outlet 10 miles from Ikea!!  Well, this past weekend was the Chosen One.  So we decided to leave on Friday after work and spend the night in Des Moines.  This gave us more time to shop on Saturday.

LD has this funny way of making things come true.  The day before we left, she warned me that if she saw a white leather walnut Eames lounge chair and ottoman at a good price at the Outlet store, she would have to buy it.  So guess what we saw, when we walked into the Outlet - a white leather walnut Eames lounge chair and ottoman.  I couldn't believe it, and it was a great deal!  However,  we were really not planning to purchase one this weekend.  So we decided that if it was still there on Sunday, it was meant to be.  In the mean time we spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday morning shopping at Ikea and REI.

As luck would have it, REI was having a Members Only Scratch and Dent Sale that weekend.  We picked up a few items at REI, and continued our shopping expedition at Ikea.  At Ikea, we bought a media bench, end tables, cool table lamps for our buffet, and a few other things.

On Sunday morning we returned for a bed, some groovy print fabric (which LD promised to turn into a cool headboard), and a cowhide rug that LD had been wanting since last year.  It took us awhile to figure out how to fit everything into the Element - we almost had to return the bed.  And we had to leave room for the Eames chair (of course if it was still there).

The Outlet didn't open up until noon, so we drove to the Room and Board store.  Our whole purpose to shop at Room and Board was to test out the Amos swivel chairs.  A nice salesperson directed us to the chairs - of course not after walking us all around the store!  Which is really dangerous because we found more things that we LOVE!!!  I couldn't help it, the problem is I tend to have champagne taste, but a beer budget.  The chairs, however, are something we will be ordering once we recover from this shopping spree.

Then we drove to the Outlet to see what Fate had decided for us.  Well, the Eames chair was still there! But one more hurdle had to be overcome-would it fit into the car!  After measuring the chair from all angles and some discussion with the staff, it would fit without disassembling it.  The cashier told us that they had just put it out on the floor on Saturday.  So the Eames chair that was in our 5-year plan ended up coming home with us this weekend.  Is it possible that they read LD's mind?

You know, Minnesotans are very lucky.  The have Ikea, REI, Room and Board, Room and Board Outlet, and to top it all off my newly discovered favorite chips, Dutch Crunch.  They were so good that LD (who is not a big fan of of salt and vinegar chips) kept eating my chips!  The chips alone are worth going back for.

Odds and Ends

We have not blogged for a couple of weeks because we have not worked on any major projects, but have been tying some loose ends.  Steve came back last week and added another coat of mud to our new ceiling drywall, and I primed the new areas.  We followed that with a couple of coats of ceiling paint; the last of which we just rolled on Friday night.  We reinstalled all of our ceiling fixtures after spray painting them with silver paint, the gold finish was just not working for us.

 

I purchased some new door knobs about a month ago, but they had been sitting in one of our cabinets waiting to be installed.  Last weekend I finally got around to replacing them.  All of the downstair knobs have been replaced, eventually we intend to replace all of the door knobs upstairs.

This morning we applied a coat of Tried & True Original Wood Finish to the walnut wall in the master bedroom.  It is a mixture of polymerized linseed oil and beeswax.  It is non-toxic and had very little odor.  The finish gave the wall some real depth, and we are quite pleased with the results.

After taking some time to appreciate the beauty of the wall, we took our two labs to Porter Park in Prairie Village to attend "Amanda's Dog Festival".  It was a benefit started by Amanda and some of her friends to raise funds for KSDS, which is a non-profit organization that assists disabled people by providing trained canine assistants.  Katy and Morgan were lucky enough to have their photograph taken with Scooby Doo, Clifford, and Amanda herself!