Updates

My sister Mary is coming to Chicago tomorrow!
She's the Bob Vila of the family  and we are going to get a few projects done. I'd like to finish painting the basement. Eventually I want to lay some stick on tile down there because that old brown asbestos tile is gross.

I bought a new-to-me sofa on Craigslist because as nice as yellow and green print is, it's killing my eyes to look at the sofas we've been using. (Previous owners left them for us, on our request.)
The owner lives in a condo in Sandburg Village (which sounds like a retirement community but it's actually a very tony part of town) but she hardly ever stays there. She bought the sofa in early 2011 and has barely used it.
It's a Macy's "Blake" sofa. Macy's is pretty well-known in Mid Century Modern fan circles as having a really nice selection of that style. No poofiness in the Macy's furniture department. Clean lines, tufted cushions, chrome feet. As a giant bonus, Macy's furniture is exceptionally affordable. Hundreds of people leave four and five star reviews on their sofas, most of which only cost $599 or so. I got a great deal on the sofa, which is a discontinued item.

You can see it here - it's three or four sofas down. I like some of the other ones better but her definition of "affordable" and mine are vastly different.

A while back, we bought a great Ikea Varde cabinet on Craigslist (Varde is their line of freestanding cabinets) to use as an island. It's this one.

It has a butcher block top. It was crazy heavy and it is a PITA to drive across town, take something like that down 3 flights of stairs, fit it in the van, which had to have the seats removed for that purpose, take it home, unload it, and bring it in. Dummy me, I just found a guy on Yelp who owns a local move/small move/in town delivery company where HE will bring you stuff you buy! He's picking up my sofa (from the 11th floor. I am not kidding) and bringing it across town to me for $65. Can you believe that? Wish I would have known about him when I bought the cabinet. Anyway...
Because it's meant to be used as a cabinet against a wall, the back of it is just plain white. I bought some really pretty aqua mosaic tile to fix that. See what these people did?



This is what I'm talking about. Joe also thinks it would be nice to use some of the same tile or a variation thereof for a backsplash. The aluminum looking tile backsplash we have now IS really fab, but it's outlived its use, I think. Hard to keep clean, some spots are damaged.

A writer from the Trib interviewed me about my money find and the story is going to run soon. She was very sweet and a fellow Southerner and come to find out she's the woman who wrote the "Use Sunscreen" song from the 90s. The lyrics were originally a column in the Trib. I remember the 90s well, and I'm thinking she must be a gazillionaire from royalties. Couldn't turn on the radio to ANY station without hearing that back in the day. It was a very catchy and fun and feel-good little ditty.
Anyway, we talked and laughed and made fun of the Chicago accent  and I hope she doesn't make me sound like a total idiot. I mean, I hope I didn't sound like a total idiot. Wouldn't be her fault.

Kids are up. Off to begin the day.