Sweet deals!

Although we were supposed to find out the results of the appraisal two weeks ago, we've hit a little roadblock.  Our lender said the appraisal company has decided to do a desk review of the appraiser's findings.  Not really knowing anything about home buying or appraisals, at first we were quite concerned about this, thinking that the house's recent foreclosure and subsequent listing at twice the price was raising some red flags.  However, after a bit of Googling to learn a bit more about desk reviews, it seems like maybe in this new environment of stricter lending, it might just be standard operating procedure now.  Or at least that's what we're telling ourselves.  We were told they should have the final results for us by Tuesday, so now more waiting.  Thrown into a fit of despair and frustration, what's a girl supposed to do except to turn to shopping to heal?

Pie safe!  It's pretty huge.

I've been compulsively checking Craigslist just about every day, picking through the horrors and atrocities that someone at sometime thought was a good choice of home furnishings.  My ultimate goal is to find a dining table and set of chairs at a sweet price, thus saving us hundreds if not thousands of dollars off the set I'd die to have from Creative Classics.  However, with so many things that need to be done and us about to go horribly further into debt, we need to stretch our dollars as far as they'll go.  Besides, nothing warms my heart more than knowing I got an awesome deal.  I think I must have got that from my Grandma Korroch.  Anyways, after hours of searching, I stumbled upon something called a "pie safe".  No, it's not a pie-shaped bank, like someone who shall remain nameless (john) thought... Looking back on it, I'm not entirely sure why I thought our new house needed a pie safe... but it is pretty awesome and I think will add some valuable storage in our little old house built with small closets.  Best of all, we got it for a cool $120.  Who wouldn't buy it?

Classy!

A few weeks ago, we snagged another sweet deal from JC Penney.  Actually going into a JC Penney is right up there on my list of places I dread going (for some reason, they always smell musty and earthy, like there's a secret mushroom forest growing in the walls and all I can think of is dying from some sort of toxic mold), but luckily, I can enjoy their website from the comforts of my couch and they almost always have some deal on shipping.  We were in desperate need of some sort of entry way storage as we'll no longer have a coat closet.  I really don't know what people did with their stuff back in the 1940s and 1950s.  I guess stored it all in pie safes... I love the look of Pottery Barn's hanging shelf and matching bench, but just couldn't stomach shelling out almost $600 for the set.  Luckily, we were able to find this similar set from JC Penney for way less and saved more than $50 on shipping alone!

So, those are our first pieces bought just for our new home.  It's pretty exciting.  I've put off packing long enough, so that's that.  At least for a couple more hours until we pause to watch MSU destroy U of M.  Go Green!