Well, we finally got a little bit further with Addies room, so I thought it warranted an update.

First of all, we got both coats of primer on the wall, and it really did make quite a difference. The walls were actually white again, and so any color we put down after that was going to look that much brighter just for having a good base, so I was very happy with how that turned out. There were several places on the wall where the paper had come up off of the sheet rock ... various reasons there - cats, old paper, you name it... and so I had to patch those before we primed. Well, after the first coat of primer I was still a bit nervous about how they were going to turn out. With the second coat, you could barely see them at all... mission accomplished! A few places were still sticking up where the paper was peeling away a bit, so I got some general purpose glue, and glued them right back... most of them were on the old border, which definitely had to stick down or we were never going to be able to put the new border up.

So with two coats of primer and a glued down surface, we decided for sure to use the Freshaire VOC-free paint in the Arbor Vine color that I talked about in the last post. It is just a bit pricey at $38.95 a can, but the difference in smell level even while painting is huge. The first coat is now applied, and although we will definitely need another coat, we are very happy with how the first coat looks. It took 2/3 of a can to paint the first coat, so we're going to need to buy another can, knowing we won't use 2/3 of it, which is a bit disappointing given the price, but it will also be very good to have some left over for any touch up work... kids are prone to putting marks on walls.

Well, I think it looks great... I uploaded a few photos of it to the  Scott Shot media gallery, but the light levels were terrible, so the photos are a) Not color correct, and b) Grainy. Both attributes that will kill the usefulness of a photo.

This week we were very fortunate, we received a huge blessing. We have been looking for a new dresser or tall chest of drawers for Adelaide for about a month now. The cheapest thing we could find was an Ashley 3 drawer "chest" for $160 at Mathis Brothers... it felt cheap, and we were very disappointed. Still, we thought that it would probably be enough, and we could always buy something later. Knowing that Grant works there, we called to find out if he would mind bringing it home one afternoon. Grant had a different idea. Basically, there have been a certain kind of dresser being brought back frequently that we happen to very much like the look of. Without any impropriety involved, Grant suggested that we wait until the next one came back, and he would hold it for us (with permission from his boss) instead of taking it to the As-Is showroom. The tall chest normally sells for $400, but had typically been getting marked to $160 because of minor damages.

We thought that being able to get one of those tall chests would be fantastic. We liked the dresser more, but if we could get the tall chest, we would be extremely happy. Besides which, the dresser costs $800, and would probably get marked at $400 for As-Is... and we didn't have that kind of money for a dresser, even if it was a great deal.

About a week later (last Friday) we got a call from Grant. They had not had a single tall chest come back, when previously they had been getting back 3 a week... but he had just gotten back a dresser and wanted to know if we were interested. Shannon and I talked about it and decided if they could price it at or below $350 we could probably afford it somehow... so we said sure, find out, and we'll see. A few hours went by... and finally a call back. The merchandiser had looked at the dresser and set an as-is price for it. With the damage considered, they were willing to sell it for $200!

I left work and was at Mathis Brothers in under 20 minutes despite Grant's protestations that it could probably wait until after 4 when I got off work. No way was I letting that dresser sit there any amount of time without being paid for!

So we are very grateful... to Grant for getting us such an amazing deal on a very beautiful piece of furniture that we could never have afforded otherwise, and foremost to God who saw fit for us to receive it.

OK, I know what you are thinking ... what was the damage that could knock six hundred dollars off of the price??? So I will tell you.

• One of the screw-in legs broke. Not to be repaired. Oh well, I like it better without the feet anyway.
• One of the drawers refused to close all the way.

Woah... that drawer ... that could be a deal breaker, right? So we get it home expecting to have to buy new drawer runners, and decide hey, let's change out the color panels on the front of the drawers to green like the room is, and change the handles to the bear ones instead of the concentric circles. We do that, and then decide to look at the drawer to see what is wrong with it. We pull the drawer out of it, and what do you know ... two of the feet are sitting behind it and are the reason it wont close all the way. We pull the feet out, and the drawer closes all the way. Amazing.

There are no dents on it, no scratches, no breakage ... nothing except the feet had to be taken off.

We are trully blessed.