As you all know, we've been working on getting our bedroom put together. We've posted about it before here and here. One big piece that is missing, however, is the headboard.

Bedroom by JeniRae on Polyvore.com

Here are some of the beds I've been stalking online. Now, if were were millionaires, we would buy Pottery Barn for all of our stuff (that and Restoration Hardware). The bed below is gorgeous, and I'm sure well-made, but seriously, who buys this stuff??

Pottery Barn Hudson Bed - $1,599

Here's another PB product, a comparative steal at $400 cheaper...

Pottery Barn Farmhouse Bed - $1,199

Let's come back to reality now... here's the Tar-jay knock-off. We're now down in the 3-figure price range instead of the 4-figure (a place I'm a little more comfortable). This bed is well-reviewed and popular but being from Target, the quality and durability may be questionable.

Target Avington Bed - $199

It seems to be a good price, so this is actually a viable option for us! But, there's one more option below...

Farmhouse Queen from www.knockoffwood.blogspot.com - ~$120

Knock-Off Wood is a website written and maintained by a woman named Ana. She posts step-by-step plans and materials lists for wooden projects with simple designs. Basically, she reverse-engineers the plans and often bases her designs off of Pottery Barn originals. She claims the bed above can be made from pine for about $120. In this way, you can be sure what your product is made of, and finish it however you see fit (like the antiqued look above).

Byron and I are actually considering taking on this project. We'd have to rent an air-nailer and buy a few other things, but it seems simple enough. Take a look at the plans in the link above and let us know what you think. Do you think we can do it?

China

I recently took a trip to Shanghai, China for work. There was a trade show in Shanghai where we had a booth, so I went over to set up some equipment and help out with the exhibit. This involved a 13 hour flight from Chicago to Shanghai, which was not as bad as I anticipated. I thought it was going to be thoroughly miserable, but it actually wasn't too bad. I slept a little, read quite a bit and watched part of a movie.

The hotel I stayed in was a very nice Four Points by Sheraton in Shanghai. It was a very western hotel- the staff spoke English, there was western food, etc. The only odd feature was the window into the shower, shown below. I have never seen that before.

I had a chance to see a little of the city while I was there, which is unusual for a trip like this. I saw an exhibit about the urban planning and development for the upcoming World Expo in Shanghai. I also went to the Yu Garden to see some Temples and other local culture. For the entire album on picasa, go here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/byron.fruit/ShanghaiMarch2010?feat=directlink

I definitely recommend that you go to China if you have the chance. There is a great deal of history and culture there to see, much more than is possible in a single trip. I was lucky enough on this trip to have some local guidance from some of my colleagues from the area.

I will post some more about specific parts of the trip if I have a chance.

As a new feature here at Fruits/Roots, we've decided to start an occasional series on wines we like to drink. Namely, cheap ones. In the words of the infamous Uncle Ed, "Anyone can find a good expensive wine. It takes talent to find a good cheap wine". Now, we do not have sophisticated palates, nor are we too picky. But for your entertainment and ours, we'll attempt a few reviews. :)

Up first: Funky Llama Cabernet Sauvignon. Available at your local liquor store for $6.99, but will be on sale for $5.99 next month in PA!



Jen's Thoughts: I like most all CabSavs (that's what the cool people call them). This one is pretty dry, medium-bodied (I don't really know what that means but medium is average so...). It's definitely drinkable, goes down smooth. I could see this with summer picnic foods. It's not too heavy and might go well with a burger or hot dog. :)

Byron's Thoughts: It's good, I like it. It's not bitter. I'd drink it again. I give it 3 llamas out of 4 (a totally arbitrary rating).

For our $5.99, we would drink this again. It's a good weeknight wine, inexpensive and drinkable.

Cheers!

If you remember from my post about inspiration boards, we want to have dark furniture in the bedroom.

Bedroom by JeniRae on Polyvore.com

We have that dresser, are planning to get that headboard and we had some nightstands that were scavenged from Byron's parents' attic at some point. They looked like this:

Not particularly interesting, but they are solid with clean lines and fit nicely in the space available in our bedroom.

Also an option were the nightstands that match the headboard we plan to get. They are from the Avington Collection at www.target.com.



However, being a cheapskate, I refuse to spend $149 a piece on those suckers!

That's where Minwax Polyshades comes in.

For about $12 (I think), I was able to get a quart of this stuff in "Bombay Mahogany". I used about 1/3 of the quart for two coats on two nightstands. The nice thing about this product is that it seals and stains in one step. It's not a fine furniture finish, but it does the job with much less hassle than the traditional stain + poly route. One cheap paintbrush, two brushed nickel knobs, and a few hours later, this is what resulted:

Not bad for about $16, huh? By my calculations, that's a savings of $234. Take it to the bank!

Need a neck pillow for your aching neck after work?

Don't want to spend the money at Target or in the AirMall catalog?

Adopt a Beagle!

All the support and warmth of a heated neck pillow, with the added bonus of lifelong adoration and occasional free ear-cleanings!

Happy weekend, ya'll! xoxo

You may remember from this post that we refinished all of the floors in our house before moving in. The floors are in pretty good shape, considering their age (50+ years old).

Here are some before photos, from our sanding/floor refinishing "party". This is in the living room. Note how we taped over the outlets and registers before sanding. Turns out this wasn't really necessary since we got the light-duty sander which wasn't really that messy! A drum sander would have taken more of the old finish off but for what we wanted to accomplish, this worked just fine.

Now here are the long-promised 'afters'!

The floors are lovely and shiny again! This part of the home makeover process really helped to 'freshen' the place up, I thought. It felt clean and rejuvenated.

Here you can also see our lovely rug from Pottery Barn clearance! It was a steal at $129, if I remember correctly! Byron carried this sucker through the Ross Park Mall for me!

And he even vacuumed it too! Isn't he a catch? ;)

Was there anything in your house decorating process that really made the space refreshed?

Now that we've talked about what we needed and wanted in our future house, let's compare our purchase to our list (made before we saw this property).

Our short list of neighborhoods was:
- Shaler
- Glenshaw
- Hampton
- Wexford
- McCandless
- Indiana Township
- Penn Hills

We looked at houses in:

- Shaler
- Glenshaw
- Hampton
- Wexford
- McCandless
- Indiana Township
- Penn Hills

plus Allison Park, not originally on our list.

The first category were "Must Haves". These were items that must already be present in the house or able to be added with little difficulty or expense.

Our house met the criteria in bold:

- At least 2 bedrooms
- At least 1 bathrooms (no outhouses for us!)
- Off-street parking for 2 cars
- Fenced or fence-able yard
- Central air conditioning
- Reasonable proximity to grocery/gas

Our next category was "Would Be Nice". These items were ones that, while not technically 'deal-breakers', would be icing on the proverbial cake.

Our house met the criteria in bold:

- Garage
- Finished or finish-able basement (see how I add -able to anything and everything?)
- Made of brick or stone
- Outdoor living space (deck/patio/porch)
- Young couples or families in neighborhood
- Semi-private yard (bushes and trees)
- Large closets
- Master suite

Now we head into the more negative categories. We called the next one "Prefer Not to Have". This was for items that we could live with, but thought we would want to avoid.
- Split-level or ranch style home

We ended up purchasing a "ranch over garage", which wasn't what we thought we wanted but was better suited for us than two-story houses in our price range (mostly cape cod-style bungalows). The two-story houses that we could buy often had a small half-bath upstairs and two bedrooms with slanted ceilings. They felt very small.

The final category was for items that would be deal breakers for us. We called this one "Must Not Have".

We avoided the items in bold:

- Dense neighborhood (no yards)
- Planned development (new construction)
- Home Owner's Association
- Major repairs needed
- History of water damage/mold

Byron blogged previously about our adventures with water and mold. To summarize, after we'd made an offer on this house, the inspection discovered mold in the basement and attic, and water in the basement. Luckily, our inspection was right after a huge rainstorm. We were able to negotiate with the sellers to have French Drains installed on their dime and to have mold remediation done in the attic, also paid for by them. We told our agent to tell theirs that if these problems weren't fixed, we would walk away. The sellers had lost a buyer previous to us (they didn't bother getting pre-approved for a mortgage before making an offer!) and were willing to negotiate. Thankfully, it all worked out and we haven't had any moisture issues since.

Overall, our new home lined up pretty well with what we thought we wanted. The list we made really helped us stay on track and get the best property for us.

When we first began searching for a house (I believe in late July or early August of 2009), we had to decide what kind of property and where we wanted to buy. We were pre-approved for our mortgage through PNC Bank and this set our upper limit for budget. We didn't want to spend this entire amount, so we picked a number slightly lower for our goal. Next we needed a realtor. My (Jeni's) cousin Sarah and her fiance Brett had just purchased a house in nearby Zelienople, PA (aka "Zeli"), so we asked for their recommendation. They wholeheartedly recommended Media Druschel of Prudential Preferred Realty. She also happens to be a friend of theirs and we trust their advice so we gave her a call.

We needed to give Media an idea of what kind of property we were looking for, so we told her our general area (north of Pittsburgh) and our budget ($1 million dollars... just kidding!). Then, she sent us the MLS listings for the properties that fit those criteria.

We looked at neighborhoods/school districts and asked for opinions from people we knew. Our short list of neighborhoods was:
- Shaler
- Glenshaw
- Hampton
- Wexford
- McCandless
- Indiana Township
- Penn Hills

We decided to focus on areas north of the city because of the uncertainty of my employment situation and proximity to Byron's office. Living north of the city means we can get north, east, west or downtown without having to go through any tunnels. For Pittsburghers, this is a major bonus. I won't know where I'll be working for another year or so and for this reason need to live in a flexible location.

We needed some way of narrowing down the properties and evaluating them systematically. We decided to devise a list of requirements and things to avoid in our potential house.

The first category were "Must Haves". These were items that must already be present in the house or able to be added with little difficulty or expense.
- At least 2 bedrooms
- At least 1 bathrooms (no outhouses for us!)
- Off-street parking for 2 cars
- Fenced or fence-able yard
- Central air conditioning
- Reasonable proximity to grocery/gas

Our next category was "Would Be Nice". These items were ones that, while not technically 'deal-breakers', would be icing on the proverbial cake.
- Garage
- Finished or finish-able basement (see how I add -able to anything and everything?)
- Made of brick or stone
- Outdoor living space (deck/patio/porch)
- Young couples or families in neighborhood
- Semi-private yard (bushes and trees)
- Large closets
- Master suite

Now we head into the more negative categories. We called the next one "Prefer Not to Have". This was for items that we could live with, but thought we would want to avoid.
- Split-level or ranch style home

The final category was for items that would be deal breakers for us. We called this one "Must Not Have".
- Dense neighborhood (no yards)
- Planned development (new construction)
- Home Owner's Association
- Major repairs needed
- History of water damage/mold

Other questions that we wanted to be sure to ask about were:
- Typical utility bills
- Taxes
- Flood zone status

I really encourage you, if you're looking to buy a house, to sit down with your partner and make a list about what you need/want/have to avoid in your future property. Next time, we'll compare the house we purchased to our list!

What would be on the "must haves" for you?