Cute Shoes and All

The mother is addicted to shoes. For the most part, it’s not a weakness of mine.

Until recently.

I noticed that the same few pair of shoes that I wear to work during warmer weather have pretty much had it or else are getting rather battered. Two pair were purchased at least five years ago; another pair is two years old. The last one falls somewhere in between.

I don’t usually see shoes that I must have but I’ve seen more than my share in the past two weeks. The beauty is I paid less than $40 for every pair. In fact, I paid $30—or less, in most cases $25 or less after a 15 percent off everything sale– for every pair! As you can see, these are all in my “signature” colors: black and brown.

These were the ones that started all the trouble.

They’re black patent and I love the wedge heel. They are uber comfortable, too. The mother thinks they’re ugly. I get compliments at work though every time I’ve worn them. I’m not exactly a fashionista so that’s pretty cool.

The brown heels were the other “must haves.”


I’d seen a pair in the store in another color and wished they were black – or brown. Then, I got a “hat trick” email earlier this month in which they were on sale, I got a discount off my total purchase and shipping was free. To top it off, those brown thong sandals just above them? Well, I got those in-store, too, but the same ad that had the heels also had the sandals in BLACK. (You can see them at the top of the first photo.) They didn't have them in the store in my size, but they did online. Yes, pinch me!

So, I’m all set for summer now and probably for a summer or two to come. Unless something else comes along. I can justify it. I do have a birthday next month …

Everything AND The Kitchen Sink

You’ve no doubt heard the old line about throwing in everything but the kitchen sink … well, today I have managed to purchase everything and the kitchen sink.

The refrigerator was purchased at the beginning of the month. We bought hardware for the kitchen cabinets last year. Likewise on the sink fixtures. The ceiling panels and coordinating egg and dart molding were purchased a few months ago. And the mother bought a new light and microwave a few weeks ago and I bought the floor tiles last week. We picked up the special order stain for the cabinets on Monday.

That took care of quite a bit. Even so, that still left some items hanging. Namely:
· Range
· Range hood
· Kitchen cart
· Sink

Since we aren’t getting new countertops, that pretty much wraps the items we’ll need to finish the kitchen. (Except for the backerboard, grout, and adhesive for the floor tiles.) The range and range hood are coming from an online outlet. Shipping is free and the range was hundreds of dollars cheaper than anywhere else. The hood was about $40 less than the best price I could get locally.

We were going to buy the sink from Home Depot where it’s on sale but it was hard to pass up free shipping --and a price about $25 cheaper than HD’s.

I’ll name names and let you know how my experiences were with these places once the goods arrive next month. For now, I like them as they’ve collectively saved me just about enough to buy the kitchen cart and the materials for the floor installation! My theory: Why should I give it to them when I can keep it and use it for another part of the project?

It’s been tough to piece-meal buy all this stuff but it’s given me time to not only add to what I’d already saved toward their purchase, but to look for the best deal. I’m hell bent about making every home improvement dollar go as far as it can, and, except for maybe the refrigerator, I don’t think I could have done any better.

We'll soon see just how well I did ...

The Birthday Present

There’s a birthday coming up at This D*mn House! The problem has been trying to ensure that the birthday present doesn’t go to This D*mn House – until I take it there.

I bought the mother, whose birthday is next Friday, a Bose Sound Dock. The crappy little speaker/charger I bought with her iPod Shuffle on Mother’s Day has died. Rather than replace it with an equally ineffective piece of junk, I decided to look into a serious upgrade. And when I found one online at an amazing price, I decided to bite the bullet. (Even so, this is going to count for some of her Christmas, too.) I still have to buy an adapter for it, also. Ugh.

Ordering was no problem. The difficulty came with trying to have the item shipped to My D*mn Office. (It would kind of ruin the surprise for it to show up at home. Where the mother is. All day.) I regularly have things that I buy for her shipped to work as there really is almost no other way for me to retain the element of surprise.

Three emails and two phone calls to and two more from the credit card company and I think we’re finally clear. At least I think we are. Or, I hope we are. I did get an email this morning telling me that the item had shipped and should arrive Friday. Whew! I was beginning to think that a week wasn’t going to be long enough to get it here.

I do appreciate that both the merchant and my credit card company want to be sure I’m me. I guess that hassle beats the hassle of trying to prove I didn’t buy something, right?

Ever had difficulty buying something online and having it shipped anywhere other than home?

Got Rugs?

For those of you familiar with last year's flooring saga, you know that there is no longer any carpeting upstairs at This D*mn House. There are just a few area rugs.

But with major overhauls planned for both bedrooms, a few new accent/area rugs are needed. Target and sometimes even Kmart can be places to get a good-looking rug without spending a fortune. (And when you have Yorkie feet and cat litter that are going to trod all over it, it's just not worth plunking down big bucks for such things.)

You are by now also familiar with my penchant for online shopping. So, a few weekends ago, I spent a good deal of time checking out online rug outlets. Mom had seen some rugs in a catalog (one of the millions that This D*mn House receives each year) but thought they were too much, especially when you added in the extra shipping charges the company wanted. I discovered RugsDirect.com.

They had the right sizes and colors at a great price AND with FREE shipping. It's hard to pass that up.

Rugs can be really expensive. (I was shocked and I'm not shocked that easily.) So, suffice it to say that I got two rugs for less than what one would ordinarily cost. And since they seem to always be running a sale of some kind, you're bound to find a bargain.