Making it work

Steve and I bought our house at the peak of the Real Estate boom here in Northern California. I hear the absolute peak was August 2005. Well, we bought in May 2005. What that means is that the teeny tiny house we bought thinking we could get out of in a few years is now ours to keep (at half the value no less) for years and years and years – you get the picture.

So – to deal with the fact that we’ll probably own this home until we bequeath it to our grandchildren and have to stick it out for the foreseeable future until we can buy another, we’ve decided to make the most of it.

Steve got this “I want a new TV” idea in his head a few months ago. Up until this point we’ve always had hand me down TV’s. (Much like the rest of the furnishings in our house when we first bought it.) We’ve been slowly adding our own pieces – we bought new couches a few years ago and then a LaZBoy right before we had Allyson. All of Allyson’s room furniture is new (and she’s taking that stuff to college for the price we paid for it.) The rest, however, belonged to one of our parents (or grandparents) at one time or another.

Back to Steve’s “idea.” Steve turns 30 in May. Yeah – 30 – can you believe it? I like to remind him how much OLDER than me he is. (I won’t be 30 until 2011 – that sounds SO far away – I know I’m kidding myself.) He started talking me into the buying of a new TV a few months ago and use it as his birthday present. Now for those of you who don’t know Steve, he’s not a big “decision maker.” (i.e. it takes him a LONG time to make decisions) For this reason I knew that I just needed to let him go and maybe the idea would go away. Well, it didn’t. He researched and researched. He must have spent 24 hours on Consumer Reports figuring out which TV he wanted, which would fit in our teeny tiny house, which wouldn’t look totally ridiculous in a bigger house once we get there (and we WILL get there) and which wouldn’t cost us an arm and a leg to buy.

About three weeks ago he made the decision. He found a screamin’ deal from a link off of Consumer Reports. Samsung 50” Plasma TV for a little over $1200. Anyone heard of BuyDig.com? I hadn’t and was more than a bit skeptical. In my line of work (I manage the Card Services department at Addison Avenue FCU and debit and credit card losses are part of my bottom line) buying something from somewhere you’ve never heard of is not a good idea. (Right Mel?)

I asked around. Talked to my own personal Geek Squad – my brother – he’s not really a geek though, just a super smart guy. He should really start charging me for consultations. Maybe I’ll just offer to make him dinner. I digress. He checked it out, thought it looked pretty legit. So – we were off and running. I said “let’s do it.”

Here’s a shot of the new TV and the new entertainment center we bought to hold it.

We also bought some new frames for some more family pictures. Notice I put the picture of my brother in-law and soon to be sister-in law in upside down – haven’t had a chance to fix it yet. We’re also trying to figure out what kind of pics we want in the other frames. We’ll get there eventually.

We also put a picture up from Allyson’s 12 month shots. We’re running out of wall space, again – the teeny tiny house issue, and are finding spots where we can.

Who’s contributing to the economy? The Carroll’s are.

We do all this in a effort to make the house we're stuck in more liveable and cozy. We're making do and making it work. I need to remind myself that I have a roof over my head, two (almost paid for) cars in the garage, a husband that loves me (who I find dangerously sexy) and a daughter I can't get enough of. The house is just another "thing" and we're making the most of it.
~Becky