Living Room Revealed

I'm not sure if it's the moment you have all been waiting for, but I have been chomping at the bit to show you guys...The vinyl bible verse above was the finishing touch...for now;o) I'm gonna let the pics do the talking for themselves. 

Not sure if you remember what the before looked like...a little something like this:

and this:

But now it looks like this:

and this:

wait, it looks better without the blinding lamp on..

I will be changing out the wreath..too blendy, but it's all I got for now:oP

and how 'bout this?

Love the little pictures above the ottoman.

They are from an estate sale that my mother hosted.

A little reading nook...needs a small ottoman...putting that on the "list of future purchases."

Fireplace view...what's with the lamps glowing in all these pictures? And things are lookin' a lee-ttle fuzzy:o)

A different angle:

And I had to get a close up of these cuties. I bought them at Hobbly Lobbly for $1 each in their 80% off section. Thinking they may be "re-pigmented" soon;o)

And one last look with the Bible verse displayed ever so sweetly above the entertainment center:

O.K., so much for letting the pictures do all the talking. What can I say, I have a problem. I need a t-shirt that says, "I'm talking and I can't shut up":o) 

Hope you have enjoyed my living room makeover!! Would love to hear your comments....just so you know, there will more than likely be a few changes made...soon...just sayin';o)


Participating in The CSI Project Before and After Party


Linking up to Weekend Wrap Up Party over at Tatertots and Jello & Furniture Feature Friday over at Mustard Seed Creations.


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Make sure to check out the current giveaway here!!!!

Bit and Pieces

Nice jobs reports.

93,000 new jobs in June for all of Canada. Mostly in Healthcare and Service industries, which are not really revenue generators.

Also most of the new jobs came in Central Canada whereas BC actually lost jobs and the unemployment rates inched up 0.3%.

The Canadian dollar ramped up the last few days (probably on leaked numbers) and then finished it's foray up today- all on the expectation that the B of C will push rates up another dizzying 0.25% when they meet on July 20th.

What now? Can the B of C Not raise 0.25%? Does it really matter either way? Will it effect housing in the slightest.

Who knows? It may bring out the last chicken little's squeezed into buying by the rapid rate rise 0.25% all the way up to 0.75%!

In any case, whether they raise or not, probably depends on what happens to the stock-market and price of oil and Re between now and then (only two weeks away I know) , since Central Bankers main job has now become proper-uppers of asset prices.

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The BC Government has finally admitted that they spent 50% more than budgeted on the Olympics. Nearly a Billion bucks. Which is a lot, but is the same as the price tag for the do-nothing-G20-summit we had in Toronto.

Of course they did ignore all the money Crown corporations spent on the Olympics and the hugely expensive infra-structure projects because...well because...they could be ignored.

As Colin Hansen said - it was money well spent. Look at the huge rebound in RE because of the Olympics. Wait a minute, RE has been on a down-ward track since the big-O ended.

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Victoria's not-so-Secret

The numbers from Victoria are out too. Much higher inventory and Much lower sales while prices stagnate.

A very odd state of affairs. Imagine you go to buy a hand-made Christmas ornament at a fair. You see the fellow has five for sale and you ask the price. "It's a bit expensive..I will think about it".

So you come back next week and the fellow has sold one ornament and meanwhile he has made 5 more. So now there are nine. You ask him the price and he sheepishly tells you the same amount. What do you do:

A) Pay the price he is asking.

B) Bargain a bit since he is obviously asking more than the market is willing to pay and his inventory is building up rapidly.

C) Forget about buying for now and wait and see what happens next week, or in a few weeks even.

The buyers now are doing A! Counter-intuitive IMVHO.

Here is the report from the VREB for June 2010:

Greater Victoria home buyers have a growing number of properties from which to choose as inventory levels rose to 4,730 properties available for sale at the end of June - up 25 per cent from the 3,794 available properties a year earlier. Sales, meantime, softened last month while overall prices showed little change.

A total of 625 homes and other properties sold in June through the Victoria Real Estate Board’s Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®), down from the 695 sales in May. There were 946 sales in June of last year.

25% more inventory than last June.

10% Less sales than May.

34% Less sales than last June.

Bama Painting

Not all of you are going to appreciate this painting, but the hubs surely did:o) Remember my Dragon Fly Painting? Well I painted this little pup at the same place. There wasn't really anywhere to hang it in the office, so he took it to work with him:o) I hope that you guys are doing great. I am "planning" some projects for the weekend. I am absolutely DYING to paint another room. I've got the painting bug:o) Have a FAB day!

OKANAGAN in full-out bear country

I was waiting for the Okanagan numbers patiently and was rewarded.

Here they are

Here's what the board had to say today:

News
July 7, 2010 Shuswap Housing Market Shifts in Favour of Buyers
Sicamous, BC

July 7, 2010 Central Okanagan Housing Market Moves into Buyer’s Cycle
Kelowna, BC

July 7, 2010 Buyer’s Cycle Continues in the North Okanagan Market


Here are some high-lights for the Central region ie Kelowna:

1) +5.7 % more listings than last June
2) -21.7% less sales than last year.
3) 346 sales with a total of 5793 listings = 16.7 months of inventory

In the North Zone the number is 2824 listings and 130 sales = 21 MOI

In the Shushwap Zone we have 29 MOI.

These numbers are so astounding that I have checked them several times. Please feel free to confirm or refute them

Despite lots of graphs on the site, there doesn`t seem to be a mention of average price, HPI, Median price etc. I guess there are too many sub-indices and smaller communities to make it useful.

The bull sure looks to have been slaughtered and slathered in BBQ sauce and is being cooked to a nice sizzle.

Tuesday Tutorials-Distressing Curtain Rod Holders..& a Sneak Peak

Sorry that I am late with the tute:o) The kids have been a little sick, and I just now was able to muster up the energy to sit down and type. This isn't much of a tutorial, but I think you'll get the general idea. So....

Here are some curtain rod hangers that I bought at a yard sale last year. I haven't known quite what to do with them, until I realized that nothing is safe when there is spray paint around:o)

The before picture does not exist b/c I didn't take one, but I did not take the time to spray the back, so this is what the finish was:

A sort of dark cherry finish. I think I bought all 4 for $5, maybe??

Anyway, I spray painted them with some white that I had out in the garage and they all turned out like this:

Now, I thought that would be it...hang 'em and be done. Then I realized that I missed....a lot....which you can't tell from this pic:o) So I decided that I would distress them. That way you would never be able to tell the difference. All you need is some sand paper. Rough up all the edges and make sure to really dig thru the recessed parts. Take as little or as much as you please and you should come up with something that looks a little like this:

I didn't take too much off. Just enough:o)

All four beauts:o)

And now for a sneak peek of the wall color...

Oh yeah, and you can see the rod holders hung:o) I haven't quite got all of the accessorization done, so you'll have to wait  a tiny bit longer;o) I know the suspense is killing you:o)

Some Honey for the bears

The benchmark is out and it shows enough divergence for both bears and bull to be able to toot their horns.

Benchmark is down. So was the average SFH BTW. But a few big sales skew average, so benchmark is even more reliable IMHVO.

Here is the whole package from Mike Stewart's site:

REBGV site

Nothing too dramatic. House prices have stalled and we are now waiting for the next move. No crash. No run-up. Just treading water. Maybe Chad will be right and we just stay here for two years.

A few comments:

Looks like the specuvestors have left Squamish. West Van is now down for the last three years on attached and detached and Maple Ridge is also down over the last three years.

Once again, nothing too dramatic. The market has definitely moved into a different place, with MOI in the 6's, prices stable at best and a huge swathe of listings pulled off the market...

RE moves at glacial speeds. 2008 was an anomaly, a once in a life-time event. The denouement of speculation, which was quickly aborted by the governments coming to the rescue of their pay-masters.

Here are some excellent graphs, as always, from Mohican:

Mohican's site

A Winner and An Outfit

We have a winner! The camera strap cover goes to Jana! I'll be in touch with you soon to hash out the details! Congratulations!!!

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I hope that you all had a wonderful Independence Day....ours was "eventful." The babies are sick, so you can imagine how wonderful things are around here right now:o) We did have a moment last night though, that was serene, and almost perfect....back porch, lights were out, citronella candles lit, hubs was playing the guitar, fireworks in the background(so thankful we live out in the country and there isn't a ban on fireworks), and the kids were wrapped up in their blankies(with fevers) each snuggled up in someone's arms. It was perfectly imperfect. I wouldn't have traded it for any other moment. 

I know that I have been sharing a lot of outfits here lately, but usually in the summer time I make a lot of clothing. Summer clothing is much easier to make than winter. Some friends of ours that attend church with my family just had a sweet little one, and I wanted to make something for her. I had this project sitting in my "to-do" basket, originally intending for S.R. to wear it...she obviously got bigger and so there it sat....for over a year. Then baby Cora came along, and I new it had to be for her:o)

I love eyelet. The lace is vintage...something my mother handed down. I can't wait for baby Cora to wear it. Hopefully she will be able to wear it before it turns cold. 

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Tomorrow is Tuesday Tutorials. I'll be sharing a lamp revamp. Enjoy your day!

linking up to Just Something I Whipped Up Monday