Home Ownership… the best of…

Best Paint: BEHR My dad is a painter and so we used Sherwin Williams and various other brands over the years and they seemed to be pretty good. Then I bought my house and I painted the walls with BEHR Pure Premium and it was awesome. It goes on smooth and thick and doesn’t run. (sounds like me!) I later repainted my house and use Valspar. What a lame bucket of paint. It runs, it’s thin, and it requires extra coats even if you have primered the walls. Unfortunately, Home Depot carries BEHR and Lowe’s carries Laura Ashley colors and I needed Laura Ashley Gold and so I was forced to use Valspar.

Removing Sharpie from a Pottery Barn couch – Hair Spray seems to work the best, but some people say it’s because of it’s high alcohol content that it works so well. My sister got almost every bit of the sharpie that Aiden used on my couch out with hairspray.

Best Inspirational/Informational Home Magazines – Traditional Home, D-Home, Architectural Digest. A lot of magazines are full of fluff or homes that are so modern that unless you have millions of dollars you could never duplicate even a single portion of the homes that they showcase. Traditional Home has lots of cool home ideas and they aren’t overly stuffed with advertisements. D-Home is awesome because I live in the Dallas area and so they have stores, homes, and events for home-owners in the Dallas area. How often do you get to read an entire magazine that is about the city you live in? Awesome.

Best New Purchase – I recently bought a Weber Genesis 320 Grill. I’ve never owned a gas grill much less a $600 Weber. Thanks to the generosity of my friends who gave me over $400 in Home Depot cards plus a discount provided by Home Depot due to the fact that I wrote the complaint department about lack of service and in the end I only paid about $130 for it!

Best Grass – St. Augustine. Half of my yard is Bermuda and then the sidewalk slices my yard in half and on the other side is St. Augustine. St. Augustine requires less water, lives better in the shade, and dominates Bermuda. It grows lush and green and weed free on one side of my yard and looks brilliant even when it is too long. Bermuda looks ratty when it gets long and then when you mow it short it dies.

Best Home Improvement Show – HGTV wins hands down. They have so many shows that have really helpful information about home improvement. Trading Spaces now seems like a joke, I mean, when you actually own a home you do not want Hilde coming in and destroying it. Also, it is almost impossible to redo a room and make it look quality for under 1000 dollars in less then 2 days. FLN is also good.

Best Customer Service – Bed Bath and Beyond. Linens and Things made me wait 10 minutes to return an item on a Saturday morning. Home Depot made me wait 30 minutes to buy a grill. Lowe’s people were handy, but the guy in the paint department was weird and the women in the fan department seemed more interested in talking to each other than assiting me. In Bed, Bath and Beyond I was greeted upon arrival and then asked if I needed assistance. Later, a guy from the Dish department who was standing behind a desk assisting people who were registering for a wedding came from behind the desk and asked if I needed help. It was so nice to get good customer service after repeatedly getting poor service at multiple stores.

Best Music to Work to – I’m really digging Breaking Benjamin’s new song Breath. It is great for mowing the lawn and then rocking out to with the broom as you sweep off your sidewalk. Best to do at twilight so you don’t scare you neighbors. Also, Kanye West just came out with a new song called Stronger. It is so good. I’ve been jamming to it while in the shower which is extra fun since I have one of those show heads that is on a chord and so you can use it as a microphone.  Special Note: Kanye West said he and Justin Timberlake are like Michael Jackson and Prince of the 80’s. He said that no one else is better than the two of them. 50 Cent said he would quit the music business if Kanye sells more records than him. Both 50 and Kanye released albums recently and if I had to pick between Kanye’s “Stronger” or Fiddy’s “Ayo Technology” I would have to pick “Stronger” – it has the freshest beat that I can’t stop playing over and over.

Best Furniture – I’ve looked everywhere for a great table, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Rooms-to-Go, Roomstore, Anderson’s. I found lots of amazing tables, but the best quality table for the price is World Market. Complete table and chairs for $800 with amazing new styles and quality wood materials. Same table at other stores is 1,500-3,000 if you include the cost of chairs.

I’m so crazy busy that I haven’t had time to put together some pictures, but I will soon!