megdanielle

This 4th of July, Freddy and I celebrated the nation’s birth the most American way we could think of: By stimulating the economy.

When we bought this house, and even some time before, I started signing up for every department store, home improvement store, and home decorating store that would put me on their e-mail list. As a result, I get approximately 10,000 e-mails every day. Admittedly, most of them are junk…

Every so often, however, my Inbox receives a gem. A super sale! A flash sale! An end of season or holiday sale! And that, my friends, makes all of the spamming bearable. Because on days like those, I can find deals for up to 50-60% off regular price!

This 4th of July provided such an occasion. Sears, whose stores have become sad skeletons of department stores with empty shelves and bare, awkward spaces, undeniably has some of the best sales around. I’ve tried to pin-point whether or not this is a new marketing strategy to train their loyal consumers away from brick-and-mortar stores to the considerably lower overhead Internet stores or simply a symptom of a closer-approaching bankruptcy to no avail. Quite frankly, it matters little to me.

What does matter to me is savings. Oh, how I love savings!

Now I must interrupt my Independence Day story to admit that I have not kept up with my picture taking of the house changes. That being said, let me remind you quickly of what my reading room looked like when we moved in:

Remember the ceiling paper? Remember the hours of hot steam dripping down on lifeless arms while circulation was suspended? Of course you don’t, but I do!

And then we painted:

And the reading room went on to host a slew of chairs and friends gathered in front of the fireplace in an otherwise empty room, all of whom were too busy playing made up games, filling the room with laughter and shouting to notice the nakedness of the room. The room then took on patio chairs and a makeshift coffee table for a safe haven for two and then a full patio dining set which lovingly supported the plates and plastic cups of a Cinco de Mayo housewarming.

Need I remind you that this is my favorite room of the house?

And then, Independence Day came along and with it the sale we had been waiting for! Although completely enclosed and properly heated, the reading room has a sun porch feel with the big slider over looking the deck, lawn, and lake. We debated for a while what furniture would be at home in the room and finally decided that patio furniture was much better match than couches and overpriced armchairs.

When we found the deal, we immediately drove to the store to see the furniture in person. After a thorough sit test, we made the purchase (these holiday sales happen quickly!) and proceeded to remove every puzzle piece of our patio set from its box in order to fit it into our Jeep Grand Cherokee (Who would’ve thought to remove two sets of golf clubs anyway? We certainly didn’t!).

The assembly process was a synch…aside from a boxer-mutt with red rocket who thinks anyone on the floor is offering him a seat and a nauseating dingle berry clinger which rubbed off from said boxer’s behind onto my very white T. Eww.

We put the last caps in place and stepped back to admire our work. My friends, my reading room is now exactly what it ought to be:

Blissful heart ❤

And don’t worry, our patio dining set hasn’t made its way to the great outdoors yet 😉

The angle isn’t the same but I think you get the idea: