Happy Canada Day!
Enjoy your long weekend and celebrate Canada's 143rd birthday. We plan to enjoy the great weather, spend time outdoors and catch up on some gardening around the house. Here are some pictures from our trips in Canada. Happy 4th of July to our friends in the States.
We have been renovating our house room by room, and this year it's finally time to get the bedroom done. When we bought the house, we painted the bedroom but didn't buy new furniture at that time. Just recently, we decided to sell our old IKEA bedroom set, so that we can start designing our new bedroom. Pottery Barn is our biggest inspiration, so this is what we came up with using technology. As always, this is just an idea, we can get the furniture much cheaper.
Bedroom by Blueloom on Polyvore.com
It was about 1:45 pm this afternoon when I felt the earthquake for the first time in my life! I was at work, sitting at my desk when suddenly everything around me started to vibrate. There is a construction going on not far from our building, so I thought maybe it's the heavy equipment causing it. Then, my co-workers asked if I felt something. Then Joe called me from work. He works about 30 miles from my work. My friends got calls from family in Montreal, Ottawa and Michigan. The center of this earthquake (magnitude of 5.0) was at a depth of 12 miles, northeast of Ottawa. We are in the Greater Toronto Area which is only 4-5 hours away. Nothing has happened, it was just weird. I have never experienced an earthquake before. They were predicting tornadoes for this afternoon, no one mentioned the earthquake.
Apparently, people in Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, Connecticut and New York State felt it. Tell us if you did.
Today is my birthday. I'm the summer solstice baby!
I love summer and gardening, so I wanted so share some of the flowers from my backyard with you. If you click on each picture, you can save the full size and use it as your desktop wallpaper.
And happy birthday to everyone born on June 21!!!!
As part of our spring cleaning this year, we decided it was time to let some things go. We thought about a garage sale, but it seemed like a lot of work to get everything ready for one day, so we decided to sell some items online. We used the kijiji website (same idea as craigslist). We didn’t have any idea how long it’s going to take before someone will contact us and if we will sell it at all. We were very surprised when emails started coming in. People were looking for furniture and air conditioners! Overall, we had a great experience. We didn’t have to spend the entire day and worry if it’s going to rain during our garage sale. In just couple of days, we sold items for a total of $620 (extra vacation money!).
This AC window unit sold for $65 and another similar unit for $50. Both sold during a hot and humid weekend when people were looking for air conditioners. We had them since the time when we were renting an apartment.
In just one weekend, we sold the bistro set, IKEA dresser, and 2 night stands! Currently we have 6 more items listed and can’t wait to sell them. Online sales are great if you want to get rid of things you don’t use. You would be surprised what people are looking for. We were lucky with our IKEA furniture. The style we had has been discontinued so people who had matching pieces were looking for them.
One lady told us she was looking for this IKEA dresser for about a year. She was so happy we were selling it. We got $120 for the dresser.
This IKEA tv stand was not assembled because we didn't use it. We included a picture of how the tv stand looks like when it's assembled and told the buyer that we have all the parts. It sold for $40.
So how to advertise your items and attract potential buyers:
- Take good pictures of your items
- Include detailed description: dimensions, how long did you use the item, why are you selling it (for example, if you have installed central AC, you don’t need the AC window units). It will let the buyer know that there is nothing wrong with the items you are selling.
- Give them ideas where else they can use your furniture. We included comments like: great for cottage, kids’ room, family room, basement, guest room or dorm.
- Be honest. If your furniture has damage, describe what it is and show it on a picture. Some people don’t care if there is a scratch, but they should know about it before coming to see it.
- Reply to emails as soon as you get them. Buyers don’t want to wait 3 days to find out if the dresser is still available. The cool thing about websites like kijiji is that you can buy it and pick it up the same day. You advertise locally, so most people live in the same area.
- Advertise according to the season. Air conditioners sell best when it gets really hot. Christmas decorations are not in demand in July, so think about it.
- Give your address only when you are sure the buyer would like to come see you. All of our buyers bought what they came to see.
- If you don’t feel comfortable letting people into your home, set up everything in front of the garage just before they come.
- Remove the ad from the website as soon as the item is sold. You don’t want people contacting you for something that you have just sold.
It’s fairly simple to post your ads online and it makes you feel great when you get rid of things you don’t use.
Good luck with your sales!
It's been a busy week for us with work and house projects. We did some amazing sales on kijiji (just in case you are not familiar with this site, it's like craigslist). Hopefully this weekend, we will have more time to show you what we have sold. It was part of our spring cleaning/decluttering project. So stay tuned for the kijiji post.
For now, just wanted to share some pictures of our front yard plants and trees. Our lilies are blooming this week! The red mulch is from last year, didn't lose the color and still keeps the weeds away!
You know we love the sound of water. Check out our pond design post if you missed it. We also got a garden fountain which is actually in front of the house. With the windows open, we can hear the sound of water in the house. Birds love to have a bath there, it's fun to watch them.
There are many fountains on the market to choose from. We have another small one on the fence in our backyard. Check them out at Garden Fountains for more styles and designs. We bought ours on sale from over $400 to less than $200 about two years ago and we really enjoy it. So if you are shopping for a fountain, wait for a bargain. Prices usually go down at the end of the season. Our fountain was on sale because it was the last one and the store wanted to get rid of it.
Here is also our Welcome basket and another flower planter by the front door.
If you love Central Park in NYC, you will fall in love with Hyde Park in London, UK. We spent our last day in the UK walking around this huge park. Besides great open spaces, there are many attractions as well like the Princess Diana Memorial. We were there in April, so the spring was just starting.
Look Right signs are everywhere, so you will be ok!
A while ago we were shopping for a kitchen table. We knew we wanted wood, dark brown, not too expensive, but elegant. We thought it would be a challenge to find what we wanted. Furniture stores sell kitchen tables for couple hundred dollars, and they didn’t have what we liked.
Have you ever visited the As Is section in your local furniture store? We always check them out first. They usually have great deals on furniture that has been slightly damaged during transportation. We couldn’t believe when we found our dream table. The deal was: final sale and no delivery.
The original price of this table was $499.00 (way over our budget) but we managed to get it for $86 plus tax! And the funniest thing was, there was nothing wrong with the table, no damage at all. This table sells with a leaf to extend it to the oval shape and the leaf went missing on its way from the manufacturer, so the store couldn’t ask the original price. Table ended up in the As Is section and we got it!
We absolutely love it. It’s solid wood and it fits our décor perfectly. It’s exactly what we were looking for. So the next time you are shopping for furniture, make sure to visit the As Is section if there is one.
Did you know that you can have a great outdoor living space even if you don't have a backyard? If you live in a condo or have a small patio in your backyard, we have designed an outdoor space just for you. It comes with a list of items we have selected, but this is just a sample list. You can find similar pieces for much less. It's about comfort and relax after a long day at work. Treat your outdoor space just like a room in your home. Make it attractive, comfortable and inviting. Mix and match textures and colors. And the most important thing, enjoy your outdoor living space.
Outdoor living for small spaces by Blueloom on Polyvore.com
$175 - jaysonhomeandgarden.com
$130 - jaysonhomeandgarden.com
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