Donna Lundy » Home Improvement

For The Love of Aquamarive

Donna — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:55:30 +0000

My all time favorite color has always been aquamarine and I have found the perfect affordable home decor at the Z Gallerie’s website today. It must have been fate because I have been looking for some aquamarine decorative accessories and I just filed for my tax return and I should be getting some cash back in the next week. I learned to file my taxes online and it saves a lot of the time that we normally have to wait for our refund (if we get a refund) so I get my hands on my money in no time, as well as going directly into my checking account.

If you get a chance you really should check out this stylish home decor and chick furniture and see all the wonderful affordable furniture and the gorgeous accessories that they have there. Check out this beautiful piece of faux coral that would, and will, look great in the piece of art I am creating with pieces of the sea’s and ocean’s that I’ve visited at, along with all of the shark’s teeth that I’ve collected ever since I was a wee one. I’ve never seen a piece of aquamarine coral before, even though it is faux – so this is exciting.

My New Keurig B70

Donna — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:21:11 +0000

My weekends are supposed to be the time that I can sleep in a little late, rest up and relax some. Since we are having such unusual warm weather for the middle of January I planned on getting some things done outside that could be taken care of until waiting until spring and get me out for some much welcomed fresh air.

This morning started out just wrong from the get go. My phone rang at 7:45am and then my keurig b70 coffee maker, that I just got for Christmas, went on the fritz forcing me to break out the old jar of stale instant coffee in order for me to get some much needed caffeine to get me going with the outside business at hand. If that wasn’t enough to turn me to sour, my stupid van needed a jump start to get started.

I’m done and it isn’t even noon yet….

Country Scene

Donna — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:57:15 +0000

This photo was taken in Springfield at the home of a man and his wife that asked me to help them sell their property and their business. The man is called Popeye by everyone in town, where they have lived all their lives. They are moving to a new home being custom built for them on the same property but farther down the state road from their home and business. It is a beautiful farm and country property. I wish I could find the rest of the photos I took while there to share with you. I’ll keep looking.

Duck or Duct?

Donna — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:38:31 +0000

I have always wondering if it was Duck Tape or Duct Tape, so then I found this cute little blinkie! But the truth is that you can call it either name. Everyone knows what you are talking about no matter what you call it. They just know that you mean a silver tape with very sticky adhesive that comes in a large roll at hardware stores. It is used for duct work but has many other uses, including making wallets and other fun craft projects.

Moving to Tennessee

Donna — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:13:00 +0000

Thanks for the post from Barney Crosby

Moving her to Tennessee was the best thing I ever did and it’s mostly just because I love this house. Being a stay at home mom was never in the cards for me since I’m also a single mom so having a home that my daughter can grow up in even if it is with a nanny makes me feel good at the end of the day. I’ve got her a great little room with a nice set of windows (painted pink, of course) and I even looked into ADT security TN for her feeling of safety and for mine. I love being the mom but sometimes it’s a lot of responsibility wondering if she’s doing well and adjusting okay and I also feel guilty at times about working so much but I know that everything I do is to make her life and mine better at the end of the day. I hope she appreciates that but I’m pretty sure she does. Who could blame me for making a better life for us?

Lodge Furniture

Donna — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:16:43 +0000

Was looking through some old photos with my daughter today that I found in a box in my closet while stashing some Christmas gifts away where the kids can’t get their paws on them. These particular pictures were of my parents summer home on the water, back when they still had the log cabin on the property. I loved that old log cabin with all of it’s lodge furniture in it and the screened in porch that wrapped all the way around 3 sides of it. My father had us all convinced that Daniel Boone had built that log cabin. I remember how my heart was broken when I later learned that he had just made that up.

Water Heater

Donna — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:19:04 +0000

I’ve been taking a look at how to save some money lately. In these shaky times, I think it is important to save every penny we can! We recently received the electric bill, and that was motivation for me to start looking at ways to reduce our electricity usage, even now without the added extra expense of running a central air conditioner.

First thing I’m going to do is get a thermal insulated blanket for the water heater. Our family takes a lot of showers, and we run the dishwasher every day (yes, it is full when we run it, and we have it set on air drying!) and we do a LOT of laundry, so I think insulating the water heater better will help reduce our electricity usage. I’ve read that doing this will save 4-9% in water heating costs!

Insulating pipes

Donna — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 22:03:22 +0000

On my campaign to make our house more energy-efficient (for the environment AND our shrinking electric budget) I have decided that it is also a good idea to get pipe insulation for our hot water pipes. I’m going to have my hubby go to Home Depot and buy some pipe insulation and install it in the basement.

I’ve seen some little insulated boxes that fit over top of the outside water spigots to help protect them from freezing. I think that is a good idea, too. It would be awful to have one freeze and burst – especially during the day while we are not home to deal with an emergency like that.

I do try to conserve water and have always turned out the lights when I leave a room and other prudent habits. But I’m always on the lookout for more ideas on how to save money and also help the environment.

Awesome Fireplace

Donna — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:07:46 +0000

My house has a big problem with the fireplace – it is leaking. We can’t use it to burn wood, which I miss greatly. The chimney is deteriorating from water damage and wood rot, so it needs some serious repair work. So I’m calling for estimates and having trouble finding anyone who wants to work on it.

I love the fireplace in this picture. It’s like the fireplace in the Cracker Barrel near my house. I wish I had a working fireplace like that one in my house. It would be awesome – you would have to pry me out of the rocking chair next to it during the winter months.

Energy Saving Solutions

Donna — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 22:29:32 +0000

Energy efficient windows are a great way to help reduce our heating and cooling bills of course, but we all know that they can cost a pretty penny to purchase and have these particular energy saving solutions installed so in this case it takes money to save money, the old Catch 22 concept, sigh. I am really interested in having a home energy audit done here, last year the heating bill about broke us and I’m sure that this year it will be even worse unless we get some of these drafty house solutions going real quick like. It is getting colder and colder at night, last night we actually hit freezing, not happy with that at all.

I love my old house but it most definitely has real issues that have become a real pain in the pocket book. We roast in the summer and freeze during the winter, even though we have a fireplace that we use most of the cold winter months to help as much as a fire place is able to. But even the cost of fire wood has gone up ridiculously high these past few years. I’d really like to find one of the contraptions that you put in front of the fireplace that pushes the hot air from the fire into the house, I’ll have to seriously start looking into that option as well.