Guestroom Ready.

I spent most of my free time in the last week or so readying our study. While I have gone in there about once a week to vacuum and do light dusting, I haven't done any deep cleaning since right before finals in mid-May. I've avoided the room quite well thank you very much. Since turning an extra room into a weight room we don't have a dedicated room for overnight visitors. Until today. We took my paycheck from last week and blew it on a futon, an egg carton mattress thingy, two table cloths (we'll get to that) and a plastic mattress cover. We still have a bit left and we are thinking about a small lamp for the room but we'll see. I wanted to make sure that the futon was completely washable. Being that it's going to serve as extra seating and a bed for company (and the fact I'm slightly OCD) I wanted a removable, washable, durable cover. To fit the mattress. I looked at futon specific covers and the least expensive was $40 and not very pretty. Or durable. So we went to Bed Bath and Beyond. One of my most favorite places because they allow me to use as many coupons as items I am purchasing. I keep all my coupons because they don't care about expiration dates. I don't go very often but when I do I can stay for hours. They have fabulous clearance items, which I can use my coupons on. I was looking for clearance sheets or blankets or something I could make a suitable futon cover with. I wasn't having much luck on the sheets. We were on our way out when I spotted clearance table cloths. Yippee!!! They were perfect. The right color (dark blue to match the color in my rug from London) and they had two in the size I needed. I was pretty excited, David was skeptical. "Think outside the box honey!!" Also, they were 8.99 a piece. The least expensive clearance sheets I could find at BBB were 19.99 and the least expensive (read really cheap product) sheets I could find at WallyWorld were 10.99. The thing about table cloths is that they are designed for use with food. Which means they usually wash really well. Especially when you buy the cheap ones you don't care about messing up. I purchased a white, clearance table cloth many moves ago. We can't stain the thing when we try.... =) Put a good cloth on the table however, different story. Also these table cloths were woven tight and had sturdy seams. We found a plastic mattress cover also (futon mattresses seem to love collecting dust and smells). Armed with my 20% off and $10 off coupons I got about $40 worth of goods for less than $20 (and that's with the clearance price of the table cloths. I think that they were originally close to $40 each). Don't be a square!!! Think outside the box and re-purpose items.

I busted out my sewing machine. It was wonderful. I haven't had time to sew since I went back to school 19 months ago. I made a piece for our living room which should be hung this evening and sewed together my table cloths. I just laid 'em out front side to front side and pinned them together. Then sewed 'em up leaving one of the short ends and about a foot of a side un-sewn. I think I am going to get a zipper but am still debating about picking up some big beautiful buttons. For now I just slid the mattress right in, like a pillow into a case. I have the plastic cover underneath the table cloth. Now I can take the entire thing off for washings and the plastic will deter dust and stinks. And can also be sterilized (I know I'm one of a kind.)

David hung our quilt from my Grandma. She made it for our wedding in lieu of a guest book our guests signed our quilt. We purchased some poster-art for our bedroom which didn't leave room for our quilt so we hung it here. It's beautiful and we love having it up again. I hung up a few pictures and the Kansas clock a co-worker made for David. It's not working but it's creative.

David's grand-dad had given us a really nice desk. Once we got the futon in the room we had to take some furniture out of the room. I asked David if we could separate the pieces but leave them intact so we could put them together again if we wanted. Now we have the top half as a mini-desk in the study and the bottom half in the living room. The desk in the living room looks much nicer than our folding table set up. I hadn't wanted the desk in here originally because of the size. With the top half, the desk is quite large and I didn't want it to be the focal point of our living room. I didn't get pictures of the desk but I will soon.

I also cleaned. From top to bottom. Washing the curtains and light fixtures. The whole nine yards. Let's just say it needed it. I had dusted the top of the fan from time to time but hadn't bothered taking down the glass parts and washing them. Time was an issue. And then desire. But I had motivation and time....

With the blaring white walls the despised carpet is even more hideous but time and $$$ will prevent me from painting. I would, however, like to paint this room. At some point. In the future. Like maybe in one year when I graduate.

And so we have a guest room. And our first guest will be here this evening. It's the first time we have had visitors while I am NOT in school or preparing for the upcoming semester since we first moved in. Should be fun, fun, fun.