You don’t have to replace all of your furniture to get a different looking room. You can change the look of a room by replacing or repositioning your television. If you have a tube television one thing you can do is reposition it. Take it off of the piece of furniture it’s on now and put it on a different one. There are many styles of tv stands out there at all sorts of price points. Alternatively, you could upgrade to a flat panel tv, which could be placed on top of furniture or on the wall. There are nice aspects to both, so only you can decide what will work best for you and look best in your home.

Times are tough. With the economy the way it’s been people are spending cautiously. I hear on the radio every week that unemployment rates in my state are on the rise. I know a lot of people that looked into mortgage refinancing, just to save any money they could. For those that don’t know, mortgage refinancing allows you to pay off one mortgage in order to create a new one, as well as combine two mortgages into one. Sometimes people combine other bills into their new mortgage, to cut down on monthly spending. The oddest thing I ever heard of someone adding in was a minivan. Have you ever refinanced a mortgage? Did it help you?

I recently took a trip to Florida. I spent one night in the Boardwalk resort, which is a resort with an old fashioned seaside resort style. The room managed to make everything look like it was from the period without using antiques. The sofabed was really modern furniture, it unfolded in a way I’d never seen before and the pillow stowed away within the frame. I liked the color of the décor, all tones from the sand and sea. This is one of my Mom’s favorite resorts, because she can go right into two of the parks directly. I liked the appearance but think I would have enjoyed it a bit more in warmer weather, as the wind was really whipping off of the water.

I’ve heard of heated floors but I’d never heard of heated doormats until recently. Did you know that there are doormats that have a heated electrical element built in that will help keep your porch safer? A mat like this one says it will melt two inches of snow in under an hour. That would cut down the time you spend shoveling snow and preventing ice from forming. I’d love to know if it works well. If you have one please leave a comment and let me knowhow you like it.

Digital cameras have become increasingly popular and highly affordable. You don’t have to be a photographer to use one, they’re also pretty user friendly. Something some people don’t think of using the camera for is for the home. If you’ve ever seen a look you really liked you know that you try to keep it in your head until you can adapt it to use in your own home. Forget remembering, we’re human and our memories aren’t always clear. Just take a picture and you’ll have every detail. Then when you’re ready to design you’ll have a picture of your inspiration to work from.

Need an affordable and stylish storage option in your kitchen? Maybe in another room? Consider a bakers rack. I got one at Target a couple of years ago for the kitchen and love it. I love it so much, in fact, that I got a second one for the living room that is part of my work area. I also picked up a second smaller one for the dining room. My husband calls them bread racks, and teases me that one day he’s going to just fill them all with bread to shock me.

A while back our living room ceiling fan broke. I loved that fan, it had tiny lights in the top that worked as a nightlight and regular lights in the bottom. When it dies I went out and bought the exact same ceiling fan to replace it. My Dad installed it and guess what? It’s not the same, they changed it! It looks the same but they changed the actual lighting. The tiny night lights are still up top but they are now brighter than the regular lights on the bottom. The room looks dim and I hate it. I really want to replace it, and saw a couple of Minka Aire fans that might do the job nicely. The replacement won’t happen right away, we have a couple of other things that take financial priority over replacing a new light that we don’t like.

I found the type of window I’d like to put in my kitchen. Whether we ever get to remodel or not, we definitely will be replacing the window in our kitchen because it’s in sad shape. I found a beautiful garden kitchen window online and fell in love. I’m sure it isn’t the easiest thing to keep clean but I really like the way it looks. I have to start pricing.

I’ve always dreamed of living in a big house. I mean a really big house. Right now we live in a smallish to medium sized ranch. We do not have enough room. What I’d really like to do is remodel and add on. I’d like to add on a second floor, and move all bedrooms up there. I’d turn our bedroom into a small office. I’d turn CJ’s bedroom into a playroom. I’d change TJ’s bedroom into a combination pantry and storage area. I’d like to enlarge and enclose the back porch and turn it into a rec room, with a pool table, a pinball machine and a couple of game tables. I’d knock down the wall between the kitchen and the living room and make it one giant eat in kitchen. I can picture it all in my mind. It’s nice to dream, isn’t it?

Two men in a pickup truck drove into a lumberyard. One of the men walked in the office and said, “We need some four-by-twos.”

The clerk said, “You mean two-by-fours, don’t you?”

The man said, “I’ll go check,” and went back to the truck. He returned in a minute and said, “Yeah, I meant two-by-fours.”

“All right. How long do you need them?” The customer paused for a minute and said, “I’d better go check.”

After a while, the customer returned to the office and said, “A long time. We’re gonna build a house.”