April 16th, 2010
UPDATE: As of around 12:30 p.m. half the rebate funds are gone. Do NOT wait until tonight to buy!
Illinois residents: if you’ve been thinking about taking advantage of the 15% Energy Star appliance tax rebate that starts today and ends on the 25th (or until funds run out) RUN, don’t walk to a participating retailer. [...]
January 16th, 2010
I love carbonated water. I’ll drink much more water if it’s the carbonated variety and we all know we’re supposed to drink lots of water. But even though we recycle, I hated all the liter bottles of Poland Spring Sparkling Water we went through.
So I was ecstatic when I received the Sodastream Penguin Starter Kit [...]
January 7th, 2010
Continuing with our “clean theme” for the new year, we were able to start using the master bathroom back in mid-October even though it wasn’t quite finished.
As you can see here: no fixtures for hanging towels, toilet paper; no mirror or light above the sink; sink temporarily installed on a plywood countertop; no shower [...]
October 2nd, 2009
You may be wondering when it will ever end — when will they just finish their frickin’ bathroom and move on with their lives?
By this time next week, we hope to do just that.
But for now, we’re still in the grout stage. This photo was taken earlier this week with just the back shower wall [...]
November 26th, 2008
Thanks for your comments on the previous post. I made my decision and called the PO last weekend (sorry Christopher and Joanne!).
He likes to answer the phone by saying, “Joe’s Trucking” or something along those lines (he has caller ID). I said, “Say I had a couple of dining room cabinets that I was [...]
August 21st, 2008
We received a couple of great suggestions as to what to do with our True Value sweepstakes booty, such as a compound miter saw (which we don’t have) and a RotoZip tool.
Earlier this week we went to True Value Hardware in Wilmette to browse and see what they had to offer. The shelves were packed [...]
July 22nd, 2008
A couple weeks ago we went to the local garden center to spend our “Lurvey Loot”. For every $10 spent at Lurvey’s Garden Center between April and June, you receive $1 in “Lurvey Loot”, which can be used for up to 50% off your purchase between July and September. We had $116 in Lurvey Loot [...]
June 4th, 2008
I know I’ve been non-stop with the garden/patio/outdoor posts, so I apologize if I’ve turned you off or bored you to tears, but lately that’s all we’ve been doing.
If you live in a climate that is anything like Chicago’s then you can probably relate to the very small window of really good weather days we [...]
May 13th, 2008
Over the weekend I stocked up on a bunch of great native plants at the Lake County Forest Preserve District Native Plant Sale. The event took place Saturday and Sunday at Independence Grove in Libertyville, which is a beautiful place to go for biking, kayaking or hanging out — I’ve never been there before, but [...]
May 6th, 2008
It was an action-packed weekend here at Bungalow Chronicles. After a family obligation Sunday afternoon, Pete and I drove out to The Natural Garden in St. Charles. It’s not the most convenient nursery to go to, and it took a solid hour’s drive, but they are one of the few nurseries in the area who [...]
April 4th, 2008
Last Saturday we were the first delivery of the day from Abt, THE place to go in Chicagoland for appliances and electronics.
Good-bye crappy old Caloric-brand “Heritage Series” range — you’re not going to turn yourself on whenever you want any longer.
Hello, beautiful new Frigidaire slide-in range.
The fried eggs came out perfectly, and [...]
April 1st, 2008
I don’t like to shop just for the sake of shopping and I don’t go to stores just to “look around”. I rarely, if ever, purchase something on an impulse. I pretty much shop for things only when I have a need for something or a problem to solve.
So although Pete disagreed, I felt [...]
March 22nd, 2008
I know, I know. You’re not supposed to eat meals in front of the TV. But we do, and that’s that. I doubt we’re ever going to change that until it gets nice enough to eat outside.
What I’ve always hated about eating in front of the TV are the tray tables — they’re ugly and [...]
October 21st, 2007
No, I Love Upstate, it’s not a Chesterfield, but nonetheless I found the perfect sofa for our bungalow. I had been casually searching for a while now, so I was thrilled when it was right there under my nose all along. I’ve always been a fan of Room and Board, and I was browsing their [...]
September 6th, 2007
The third bedroom in our house is just off the kitchen near the back door. We thought it would be a perfect little family/media room, and I really like how it is turning out so far.
Originally I imagined the space as a TV/media/home office space, but it’s a small room and since I always use [...]
August 23rd, 2007
This is the dishwasher that came with the house.
Considering it sounded like a train roaring through our kitchen, you’d think it was hard at work scrubbing off those food bits and getting everything squeaky clean. But this is how our dishes looked after a spin through it.
Yuck. The glassware was even worse. The food bits [...]
August 15th, 2007
See that mailbox? Is this a mailbox that belongs on the lawn of a bungalow? I think not. A farmhouse perhaps, but not a bungalow.
And so began my quest for a new mailbox. I saw some worthy candidates on the web, but nothing really bowled me over. Finally, as we were making another fun house [...]