A freak windstorm last night knocked out power (for a little bit) and cable for 24 hours....I'm back up and I have a few things to blog about.

Baby Room Remodeling

So we spent Friday and Saturday making a significant dent in the baby furniture decisions.  Once again, I'm so glad I have the baby bargains books.  But I'm also glad I live in Charlotte.  We have found a baby store that doesn't frighten or overwhelm us like Babies 'R Us does, plus they have good customer service.  We're digging Baby Town located pretty close to our house.  We're leaning towards an "entry level" Pali or Bonavita crib in a cherry stain.  Both of these cribs are the basic model, but they are only $299---$100 more than Baby Bargain's Cheap but Good recommendation and several hundred dollars less than  some of the other Pali's and Bonavita's we saw.  We asked what the difference was between the $299 version and the other ones...better hardware?  Better stability??? But essentially the sales person said that everything is the same within a line of cribs...just the stylish cribs cost more.  I can guarantee you that Bun is not going to give a flying dirty diaper if his crib has curved or straight legs.  Really.  I don't think it matters. 

Now the issue with the Pali and Bonavita lines is that although the cribs are cheap....the matching furniture....YIKES!  $869 for the matching combo dressing changer, which I'd like to point out will not last a lifetime as far as his or our tastes go! 

So Dave and I took a moment to think about what options we might have here in NC, the home of where most furniture is made in the US.  Not kidding--why order a dresser from Italy (e.g., Pali or Bonavita) when we can get some of the best quality furniture around in our own backyards.  Well, not literally.

So Saturday, we started off by hitting Clark's Antique shop in Plaza-Midwood.  Although we love all the stuff in there, we only found one potential piece of baby furniture so we continued on.  Then we went to the Boyles Furniture Outlet in Charlotte near Matthews.  This is not the place listed on the web site in the previous link, but is a discount warehouse with amazing prices on a whole host of really nice furniture.  It's located on Sardis road between Monroe and Independence for those of y'all in the 'hood.  For instance, we found a Ralph Lauren children's dresser for a final sale price $325 which had originally been listed around $1300 or so.  It was really nice, but we didn't like the stain.  However, we both agree that when we'd like to buy a new chair, we're heading here and finding something both nice and nicely priced! 

Although we had been to some good places, I was starting to get a little freaked about either paying a ton o' money for a piece of children's furniture or using mismatched furniture.  We kept referring back to the Unfiinished Furniture store in Pineville, but I also kept remembering that I didn't like the quality of the stuff we had found.  But we ended up in the neighborhood and decided to check it out.

And thank goodness we did.  Here's what I learned.  When we had gone there originally, I had been focusing on the cheaper-in-price furniture which definitely turned out to be the cheaper-in-quality.  First of all, wood makes a big difference.  Pine will easily scratch.  Oak is harder and Maple is generally harder than that.  Second, you need to really check out how the drawers are put together.  Stapling the drawer to a drawer-front panel is not as good as using pegs to put the drawers together which is not as good as the dovetail joints where the drawers are interwoven.  So, a hard wood like maple with dovetail joint drawers can be pretty good quality furniture.  And we found a nice baby dresser of this type designed by  Woodcraft Industries which we really like....for only $325.  We saw the Shaker style in the store, but after taking their catalogue home, I think I prefer the Cottage style, perhaps even the 4 door mule chest with the solid top. 

It just feels like a relief.  The furniture is good stuff, but with prices that are not out the wazoo.  There are still some problems we have to figure out.  No, the stains are not going to match exactly, but since Bun is going to use the dresser longer than the crib, making sure they match is not so much of a priority to me at least. If Bun turns out to have an obsessive compulsive disorder, he will hate the furniture and his life will be ruined.  More of an issue is that Maple is very hard to stain.  It also tends to show "imperfections" in the wood more easily, so Dave is going to have to get some advice on that. 

So that is mostly where we are on the baby furniture.  Yes, we are getting a Dutailier glider with ottoman and nursing stool.  We're getting that at Baby Town also, and has been the easiest thing to pick out!  We found a very cute monkey rug at Baby Town, too, which colors are going to match our room perfectly.  I don't know if we'll get it yet, but the price was right and it had a monkey on it!!!!  How can you beat that???

Tomorrow, I'll blog about the amazing plant nursery we found and the advice we received on our lawn improvements. 

I'm on Spring break now and my plan is to work on school stuff in the morning and redecorate in the afternoon.  Of course, after a 73 degree day on Sunday, they are calling for an inch of snow tomorrow.  That is bullshit.

8:05:21 PM