Board and Batten Bar

This was our project last weekend. The hubs was the man power behind this project. I was more than willing to hand it over after all the heartache I went thru working on the Dining Room. This took a few hours of work and we already had the supplies on hand so there wasn't any extra cost....finally a project that didn't require a trip to Lowes;o)

This is the before. I shared it with you guys the other day.

 The walls were a creamy yellow color with hints of Cheeto fingerprints dispersed thru out:o)  

I really love how it turned out. The hubs did an excellent job hanging the batten and I did a pretty stinkin' good job painting;o)

 Now if you'll notice, there are only 2 chairs sitting there. I am waiting for my new bar stools to get here so that I will have a total of 4. I really hope they get here before Sunday. We are having a White Elephant Christmas party at our house then. Can't wait!! 

On another note....the winner of the Toy Story 3 DVD will be announced tonight. Thanks for all the participation!

Kitchen Chairs Reveal and a Giveaway

Giveaway announced at the bottom of the post

 Last week I shared with you my Christmas decorations. I am still "tweaking" them. We are supposed to be apart of our neighborhood's Holiday Walk this year and I don't want to disappoint;o) Anyway, I showed you the "new-to-us" chairs at the kitchen table. I wanted to give you a close up of what I did.

I found this set on Craigslist for $40. I was so happy to find them. S.R. and E destroyed the other set b/c they have an issue with sitting on their hind parts and the chairs were hitting the floor and smashing to bits. The seat covers were atrocious. Very old and dusty. I think I even found a creepy crawly in one, so they went in the garbage.

 Using grain sacks, whether vintage or vintage looking, in home decor is very popular right now, and I had to jump on the bandwagon:o) I purchased my canvas from Lowes. (You wouldn't believe how cheap it is.) I covered the seat with the canvas. I then painted 3 stripes down the center of the seat with black acrylic paint. Super easy!  I will be making curtains to go over the kitchen windows with the left over canvas this week. Can't wait. Those poor windows look so barren right now.

Anyway, to keep these chairs in the condition that they are in right now, I put some more clear vinyl on them. Easy to clean and all of our guests won't be afraid to sit on the chairs for fear of ruining their pants:o) Sounds a little "Grandma-ish" you say? I think not..with 2 children under the age of 5 it's imperative since only 30% of the food that they fork actually goes IN their mouths:o)

 We have also been working on the area under the bar. This is the before picture. I will share with you guys the "after" within the next couple of days. 

I was hoping to catch all the nasty stains under the bar to show you why I was so excited about having this area redone...however the sun was shining brightly that day:o)

So I said that I wanted to do a giveaway. I have hit 150 followers...YAY! Big number round these parts:o) Since it's the season of giving, I thought I would give you guys a chance to win something fun...well at least I think it's fun:o)

I have a Toy Story 3 DVD to giveaway to one lucky follower.

This Giveaway is now closed...thank you for your participation!!!

Here's how to enter:

1st Entry: Be a follower or become a follower of Fussy Monkey Business and let me know that you are

2nd Entry: Tell all your Facebook buddies about this giveaway and ask them to join in on the fun

3rd Entry: Tell me who your favorite Toy Story character is....(mine is Ham...we sort of have the same humor;o))

The winner of the DVD will be announced on Thursday December 9th.  Good luck to you all!!

The bears are out in the OK

Central OK

Median SF Home prices are down 10.5% from this time last year

The days to sell is up to 330 days from 64 days last year

Median apartment prices are down 11.0%

21.5 MOI

North OK and Shuswap show such a big swings in the median that I suspect it is from the small sample size (40% drop in one case) so they should be ignored.

22 MOI for the North OK

27 MOI for Shuswap

...................................

Fraser Valley

8.3 MOI

from the FVREB report

SFH benchmark price November $504,848 down 0.2% MOM. Up 1.4% YOY.

Benchmark townhouses in November was $319,623, up 0.2% MOM. Up 1.2% YOY

Benchmark apartment $235,842 Up 0.7% MOM. Up 2.7% YOY

Basically flat prices YOY

+ see my previous post re YTD HPI for Vancouver. Have a great week-end everyone.

HPI YTD for perspective

Starting Jan 2010

SFH

$766,499

$800,796

$800,341

$818,403 April 2010- the month bears were lining up to jump off Lion's Gate bridge

$810,175

$795,025

$793,193

$795,076

$790,992 September 2010- the month bears prematurely celebrated the start of the correction

$796,883

$799,312

Apartments

$385,487

$390,899

$399,507

$397,779

$398,783

$391,528

$387,879

$385,968

$388,373

$390,074

$389,168

HPI flat

I could sense that apartments were weaker in price. They are basically flat YOY- however to be honest I thought we would have a significant drop in apartment prices.

Over-all

October 2010 $579,349

November 2010 $580,080

Up 4.1% YOY

SFH

October 2010 $796,883

November 2010 $799,312

Up 5.6% YOY

Apartments

October 2010 $390,074

November 2010 $389,168

Up 1.9% YOY

Attached

October 2010 $487,530

November 2010 $488,733

Up 4.1% YOY

Maybe the Bank of Canada can reduce rates to -1%, so that we can squeeze a little more juice of the property markets. I say lets bring back 50 year mortgages, and mandate cash-back mortgages..sheesh.

Yippee Average SFH prices are down 1.5%!!

Wait a minute didn't I say that average prices don't matter. Ah shucks..party delayed

Guess we will just have to wait for the HPI.

Average price graph

Lots of listings tonight.

BTW seeing some 20% price reductions in the stupidly priced houses ($2-3+ range)

What makes something as slow moving as RE worth $3.7+ Million one day and $3.1 the next?? It just shows that there is no clear metric to value these properties. They are of course well past rental return, replacement cost and all other normal parameters of valuation. They are into ..wishful valuation.

Victoria looks like it's party is coming to an end, with a probable drop in median home prices year on year, of as much as 5%.

My Home for the Holidays

I do realize that there are fewer days until Christmas now;o)

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a fabulous time and my eye twitching has ceased for now;o) I have a special request to ask of you guys. My father-in-law broke his knuckle while playing football with all the kids. He had surgery yesterday and they had to put 2 pins in his hand. It is going to take 2 months for his hand to heal and he's a diabetic, so there is a chance for complications. Please pray for a quick and uneventful recovery for him. Thanks in advance!

I, like the rest of you have pulled out all of the Christmas decorations. This house is extremely festive. I am sharing some of the decorations in my house today. 

Here is the long awaited and anticipated tree that I purchased from Craigslist before Turkey day...I told you it was big:o) The decorations are from Dillards purchased by my mother. She had intended them to be on her tree this year, but much to her dismay and much to my pleasure, they didn't look right in her living room. I think they look FABULOUS right where they are;o) Thank you Mother!!

The skirt has fur trim...It is so pretty.

My Sheet Music Wreath. I didn't work too hard on this center piece. So many other things took priority...one being S.R. with her croup....she is on steroids, and she is wacked out right now. No sleep last night and full of herself right now:o)

 Our dining room. I plan on changing out the table decor soon. I have some Pottery Barn gift cards to spend:o) I cannot wait to go shopping there! I just need to get everyone well so that I can:o)

The kitchen table....notice anything different? Could it possibly be those sweet little chairs at the table??:o) I'll share the seat cushions tomorrow.

I found this Amaryllis plant at Target today for $7. I think this would make a great hostess gift.

Upstairs bedroom...part of it, at least:o) I finally got this room cleaned. This is usually where I do all my cutting and ironing while sewing. It's also the dumping grounds for anything I really don't know what to do with but don't want to get rid of:o) I have gone on a major cleaning spree the past few days.

Close up of my little tree from Dollar General. This tree was $5. I have lights on it, but I need an extension cord so that I can plug it in.

The bonus room. Another "gift" from my mother is the garland across the entertainment center. 

And here is the tree in the bonus room. Yesterday the kids and I made gingerbread men ornaments. They are on the tree somewhere:o)

The sad thing about all of this is that this isn't the entirety of my decorating. I still have 2 more trees that I haven't shown you. The one is E's room and the one in our bedroom. I can share those another day. I must be off to go take care of my little ones. Have a great day, and Merry Decorating!

participating in

Miss Mustard Seeds Furniture Friday Linky Party