Frugal Thinking Part One

Today we had an appraiser come by and I am praying that all my cleaning, decorating and organizing made a small impact on her opinion for the appraisal. You see, we are trying to refinance our house, we want to take advantage of the lower interest rate and hopefully payoff our house in 15 years instead of 30. We are getting older and don't want to have to pay into our twilight years.

During this massive cleaning, organizing and decorating frenzy, I was thinking about what I needed to make this house what it should be. I wanted to run out and buy the curtains and pictures that we need to finish decorating the house. The dinning room table, chairs and buffet that I absolutely need to finish off the eating area, were just crying out from the Ethan Allen catalog. I really need to get more baskets for the closets and of course new towels for the bathrooms since mine are so ratty. On and on the thinking went until I realized that I really needed to think frugally. Okay, how am I going to be frugal yet make a good impression?

Repurpose, Recycle, Reuse...

I went down to the basement and pulled up a couple of old pictures that I had laying around. I really don't like these pictures, but you know what? They looked good in the bathroom and cozied it up a bit. The old towels were just rolled up, nasty areas in the middle, and put in a basket that had originally held magazines in the study, they looked spa like. Silk greenery that didn't fit above the cabinets in the kitchen when we moved in and were also banned to the basement, were brought up and put in a few bare corners of the house. The closets really were not that bad and I had them fluffed and neatened up within an hour. Extra pillows were brought out of the linen closets and put on beds. I found a vase that I forgot I had and filled it with lemons for the counter. Lamps were moved from one room to another as well as books and candles.

One of my favorite shows on HGTV is Free Style. It is a program that have decorators come into a dull or nasty room and use all of the owners items from the other parts of the house to make it beautiful. I think I did that. The appraiser said our house was lovely, that was a nice compliment.

Now, I want to continue to improve the house the best I can with what I have available and I think that when I am out and about I will stop into thrift and antique stores or even go the local flea market. No telling what I can do!!