A LITTLE CATCH UP FOR MY FRIENDS

In August my daughter moved back to her house. I decided that I would move my bedroom downstairs and turn it into a suite for myself.

The house is an old split level and the lower level is always warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. This should definitely be an energy saving for me, since I spend most of my home time in this room. The Chi's will have to wear their coats this winter, as the heat will be set low.

Soon as the last of Amanda's things were out, I painted the walls and ceiling, tore out the old carpet and laid new carpeting. (I want to thank my young friend, Dustin, for helping me carry the carpeting down and getting it rolled out.)

By going with a rubber back carpeting, I was able to cut it to fit myself and saved about $300 on having to have someone install padding and carpeting. It is adhered to the floor with double sided tape, as the last carpeting. The sub floor is cement and always dry, so this works well. It is not very expensive, but it is only me and the Chihuahuas who use the room.

The windows are horizontal and very long and narrow, which was not easy to work around. Because I wanted a more formal room, I chose to hang long drapes. (They were purchased a few years ago on sale at Kmart for $10/ panel.) Unfortunately I had to work around a 3" wide ledge. By using curtain rods which protrude out from the wall about 3" the drapes hang very well.

For 29 years I lived with the same bedroom furniture, so when I moved to the lower level it all stayed upstairs in the "new" guest bedroom. Most of my "new" bedroom furniture is from other areas of the house, altho I bought a chaise, a round end table and decorator screen when I worked at the furniture store...f course, all of the pieces were at or below cost from the clearance area. For my birthday Amanda paid for a new matt and box, which was also a kind of a spiff from the furniture store. As it turned out it cost about 1/3 of the retail.

There is still alot of work to be done, but that will happen as the money is available and after all... decorating is an ongoing process.