SOLD!

Those, my friends (my figurative friends as no one reads this blog yet as I haven't advertised it at all), are the greatest two words I've heard in a year.

That God forsaken house is finally UNDER CONTRACT!

I purchased the property in December of 2010 and put it up on the market for sale in June of 2011. And it sat there, month after month, until May 7th, 2012 when someone FINALLY made an offer. Of course, on Saturday, May 5th, I decided to put it up for rent and went through the hassle of paying for advertising and scheduling 5 different couples to come look at it. So I wish this buyer had come forward two days earlier! But I'm not going to complain because I can't WAIT to sell this house. I just hope the buyer doesn't fall through. What a bummer that would be. Maybe I shouldn't get my hopes up right away....

The purchase price was $26,000 (Loan is only $19,500) and I put approximately $20k into it (closing costs, down payment, improvements, carrying costs, etc.). The original list price was $69,000 in June of 2011, which would have yielded me a mega profit and I would have done a happy dance for hours. However, over the past year that price dropped, and dropped, and dropped until it reached $49,500.

So the profit I will make will not be significant, especially after taxes. But I will make SOMETHING so it's not a total waste. Not yet anyways... Still gotta hope that buyer's loan doesn't fall through.

June 29th is the closing date. Fingers crossed.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Normally I do not post about things unrelated to home decorating or renovations but I had to share this.

I've been on a strict 1,200 calorie a day diet since February. It's not the quickest way to lose the weight but I like it because I can pretty much eat what I want. If I want a big mac I can have one...... I just won't be able to eat the rest of the day. Haha.

I haven't had fast food or pizza in months. Most of the time I am ok with that, but then there are times when I just crave a huge slice of pizza. But with pizza containing like 400 calories a slice I've always talked myself out of it. If I'm gonna waste 400 calories I'm going to waste it on vodka, if you know what I mean.

Yesterday I was surfing around on Pinterest and saw this recipe for a cauliflower crust pizza. Yeah, my thoughts exactly. cauliflower. Gross right? But apparently it's the new thing with everyone eating cauliflower mashed potatoes so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Since the calories from pizza come mainly from the crust, using cauliflower drops the calories per slice down to 150 or so!

Last night I decided to make it for dinner. I had my doubts. I definitely raised an eyebrow as I was grating my cauliflower to turn it into a fake crust.

But after baking for 15 minutes, the crust didn't look half bad. I like thin crust pizzas so the fact that it didn't rise didn't bother me. If you don't like thin crust you might have an issue with this. But hey, do you want to eat pizza or not!?

After it baked for 15 minutes, I took it out and added my toppings. I made it just like in the directions below, only I added fresh pepperoni from the grocery store. I then broiled it for about 5 minutes. Voila!

Let me tell you what, it was amazing. Now I don't know if it's just because I haven't had pizza in so long I forgot what it tasted like but you really can't tell that you're eating cauliflower! The only negative is that the crust itself isn't thick so it's kind of flimsy. You probably will end up eating it like I did using a fork. Or rolling it up like a burrito.

But I got to eat pizza and now I'm happy.

I wonder what else you can do with cauliflower?!

Here is the recipe:
http://www.recipegirl.com/2012/01/16/cauliflower-crust-hawaiian-pizza/

As a side point, you can tell I'm a single lady. Tin foil central in my fridge.

- Emily

Granite!

It's been awhile since I last posted! I suck at this whole blogging business. I haven't been doing many home repairs over the past few months. I've pretty much run out of space in my 1,000 sq foot condo and because of that I can't go out and buy any new furniture pieces to refurbish because I have no where to put them!

Anywho - I finally pulled the trigger and bought granite countertops. I figure it's about time. For the past 2 years I've been using a "fake countertop" made out of plyboard! I found an excellent granite dealer out of Manassas. Their name is Natural Stones, Inc. They definitely had the best prices in the area. I purchased the Santa Cecilia Light for $30/sq foot. Everything, including the sink, was only $1,400 for my entire kitchen. And they delivered and installed it within 4 days!

Here is a picture of the countertop color. I love it!



Next I had to figure out what kind of backsplash I wanted. I bought a few samples from Lowes and Home Depot and decided I wanted a tumbled marble subway tile and a glass/stone accent strip. I want it to be perfect so it's taking me awhile to lay the tile and cut it. So far this is what I've managed to accomplish.

So to recap the past 2 years..... here are some progress pics!

Lucy

On a side note, my cat is really flippin' cute. She is my decorating side kick. I love this little fur baby more than I do my pink tool belt. Ok, who am I kidding? It's a tie.

Crafting seat covers out of table cloths

I can't remember if I talked about this in a prior blog entry or not, but if you need to recover something or you need a sizeable amount of fabric, do NOT go to the fabric store and pay $$ per yard. The easiest, most cost effective, way to go about this is to purchase either a fabric shower curtain or a table cloth and use that. This works because there are so many different styles and designs to choose between and a shower curtain, for instance, gives you over 60" of fabric for less than $25. Target has a great selection of both shower curtains and table cloths.

I had purchased this table cloth from Crate and Barrel's store because I loved the design. I have been using it as a table cloth for a few months but I have found I'm not a table cloth kinda girl. Since I needed to recover the dining room chair seats, I decided to use the table cloth. At least it's not going to waste, right? And I get to use my new staple gun.





Before and after:

Black and white preview

My black and white guest room is still a major work in progress but here is a sneak preview.

I love power tools

So the old staple gun I was given by my father finally kicked the bucket. The stupid thing is jammed and I can't figure out what the issue is. Not to mention it was so loud that every time I shot a staple my cat thought a gun shot was going off and bolted under the bed.

Last night I said enough is enough and went to Lowe's and purchased the Arrow Heavy Duty Electric Staple/Nail Gun for $29.95. It's wonderful! And quiet! And electric!



There was a project I was itching to do and I needed a staple gun in order to do it. It also is a brad nailer but only 5/8" nails so I don't know how often that will come in handy as I would use the air compressor nailer to do any type of crown molding/baseboard installing.

Anyways - my project. I have learned two things that are the simplest ways to get more bang for your buck.

1) The first is if you need a large amount of fabric, buy a SHOWER CURTAIN. It's cheap, you get a lot of fabric, and you can find a multitude of different designs. Shower curtains are perfect to recover those old dining room chairs you have (new blog entry maybe)?

2) Buy canvas boards at your local craft store and cover them with fabric. It's cheap AND you have art for your walls. This is where the staple gun comes into play.

I had these canvas prints I knew I wanted to hang on the wall only I didn't know what fabric I wanted to use. When I created the black and white damask table (see prior blog entry) I had a lot of left over fabric so I thought, ok, I'll cover the canvas with the damask fabric and hang that on the walls in the b&w guest bedroom.

The canvas:



The canvas with the new fabric. Very simple to do, line up your fabric so it's even, staple gun it on:



Voila!





Sneak peak - The b&w room is coming along. I just purchased these sheets to go with the decor. To be continued.....