Roll Out the Red... (I Mean Berber) Carpet!

My fiance and I are still renovating our home, and we have made so much progress! We're now ready to start thinking about floor coverings, and with perfect timing! UFS actually has many types of laminate wood flooring, vinyl flooring, and carpet-- and carpet remnants are 50% off right now! I was pleasantly surprised by the low prices and wide selections.
Our house has hardwood floors in almost all rooms (which we plan on refinishing), but the bathrooms need new flooring. We'll probably put vinyl flooring in the bathrooms-- something similar to these.
There is another room where I think I'd like to have Berber carpet installed. UFS carries three brands of this tight loop carpet, and prices per sq. ft. start at $0.69! I think this carpet will give the room a softer, cozier feel than the hardwood floors, plus it's comfortable all year round, and best of all-- easy to clean!

Let's Go Fishing!

My mother always says that right around Mother's Day is the best time of the year for crappie fishing. As a child I remember fishing in the spring at our lake. For a few weeks, crappie fishing was really great and we could reel in several fish each hour. I love that feeling of excitement when you feel a fish bite, and the fight between you and the fish begins.

Everyday when I walk in the door at UFS I think about how much I want to go fishing when I see all the fishing equipment for sale. Look how nice this pole is-- it would be great for crappie fishing.


With all this quality fishing gear, all I need after I leave UFS is a good fishing place.... probably not this one!

Nice to meet you, UFS

Hi, it's Melissa! I am working on my degree in English, and I have been working at UFS for about two months. Right now I'm helping with the UFS website, and I have learned a lot already. Before I was hired, I had never really been to UFS; I had just heard these loud commercials telling me how much money I could save. Then on my first day, I couldn't believe the crazy deals! I love stores like T. J. Maxx and Marshalls, which have brand name merchandise at discounted prices, and yet UFS has more selection and lower prices. But how cool is this... I can shop for a cute pink bracelet, new cookware, garden tools, and curtains while my fiance can browse the HD TVs, the power tools, and these crazy-inexpensive authentic football jerseys (he was super pumped about finding those, and had to have two Chicago Bears jerseys!).

My fiance and I recently bought an old house which we're going to be remodeling and repairing this summer before moving in. Months ago we constructed a strict "house budget" of all the costs we were going to incur. Every day when I walk around UFS, I find more and more ways we can cut costs, and I just dream about all the ways we can put the extra money to use. I could go on and on and on and on and on and on about all the surprising things I've found at UFS for our house.

Isn't it lovely? ... at least from a distance. You can't see the stained walls from here! ;)

However, my favorite discovery has been this BEAUTIFUL bedroom set which I will buy this summer for our new home. With a rich dark brown finish and plenty of ornate detailing, it has artistic old world charm. The intricate designs all over furniture matches the crown molding in the house... I just love it! Now there's inspiration to get the repairs done!


When I took this job, I had no idea I would be working at a place where I can save money on appliances, cabinets, flooring, furniture, hardware, decorations, yard supplies... practically EVERYTHING we're going to need to make the house better. Oh, and then of course all the Coronas we'll need to celebrate when we're done with all the work. :)

Time to get a little dirty...

The weather in Central Illinois the past week has been amazing. I've found myself searching for excuses to get outside. When I see those plants start to poke their little heads from beneath the dirt, I go into my GARDENING MODE. Well, this spring has found me lacking some crucial inventory for my quest. So I went to the store and purchased soil, pots, gloves, tools, etc.

Check out all of these cool vegetable seeds... only $0.25!!

Lots of pots too!!

I'm thinking about kicking it up a notch with some garden sculptures (gazing ball), bench, or wind chimes. Soon the patio pots will be filled with geraniums, and impatients providing all of us true natural beauty. Then as long as I don't get distracted by the consistently lousy Cubs my garden will be GREAT.

Did someone say rebate?

OUR WONDERFUL GOVERNMENT HAS DECIDED WE ALL NEED NEW ENERGY EFFICIENT APPLIANCES....STOVES, REFRIGERATORS, WASHERS AND DRIERS....(DO THEY MAKE ENERGY EFFICIENT WINDOW AIR CONDITIONERS? OR CAN OPENERS? OR ELECTRIC KNIVES?) ALRIGHT SERIOUSLY, ON APRIL 16 AT 8AM THE GOVERNMENT IS GIVING THE STATE OF ILLINOIS 12 MILLION DOLLARS...THAT'S RIGHT 12 MILLION. THE MONEY WILL BE USED TO GIVE A 15% DISCOUNT TO CUSTOMERS WHO PURCHASE ENERGY STAR APPLIANCES. UFS IS GOING TO MATCH THE DISCOUNT SO OUR WONDERFUL CUSTOMERS WILL END UP GETTING ALMOST 30% OFF THEIR PURCHASE. BUT, (YOU KNOW THERE'S ALWAYS A BUT) WHEN THE FUNDS RUN OUT THE DISCOUNTS ARE DONE. IN OHIO THE FUNDS LASTED FOR 4 HOURS. SO DON'T BE LAID BACK...YOU NEED TO BE HERE AT 8AM ON APRIL 16TH. BETTER YET COME IN SOMETIME THIS WEEK. MAKE YOUR SELECTIONS , GET A QUOTE, AND YOU'LL BE ALL READY FOR FRIDAY MORNING.

the remodel and my nervous breakdown continue

Imagine the ugliest wood paneling in the world.

Take that image and in your mind double it's hideous offensiveness. That is what was lurking besides the ugly, old lady wallpaper in my man friend's kitchen.

So after taking the terrible kitschy curtains down I began ripping and scraping off the wallpaper.

Only to be faced with this---

That my friends is the world's ugliest paneling. I didn't even know they MADE panelling like this! And, for the record, I don't think they do anymore. This is the finest, ugliest patterned wallpaper the 70's had to offer.

So, per my mother's suggestion, I washed the walls with TSP, a special cleaning agent, made for cleaning walls before painting. Such compounds as well as primer can be found in our paint department:

I then began priming. It felt so good to cover up the panel of death and make it all white and clean

However, I noticed that in certain places the primer was starting to crackle. I, like all good daughters, had just followed my mother's advice and NOT read the directions on the can of primer. Apparently I wasn't suppose to first wash the walls with TSP-- it reacts with the primer.


I thought about crying. Instead I took myself down to the store where Hardware Terri-- the Diva of the Hardware World told it wasn't the end of the world. Sandpaper was my salvation:

I bought myself some sandpaper and sanding down the cracks in the primer so they wouldn't show up in the paint. It was slightly annoying and my mother felt badly that she had given me some faulty advice, but such is life.


After the sanding I used that nifty blue painter's tape to tape around all the molding, the windows, and the cabinets. It was time consuming, but dare I say-- a little fun.


Then came the paint!


From here:

To here:

VOILA! (The color is called Copper Bangle and for the record, my father-- the illustrious Tom of Tom and Pierre-- thinks I should have painted it white.)


Anybody can undertake such a transformation. All you need is a little patience, some courage, and the UFS Hardware and Paint Department.

Knobs 2.0

As I promised!  The great reveal!

(Please disregard the in process tiling... Just look at the cabinets!)

Thanks to this awesome, new cabinet hardware, my manfriend's kitchen has joined us in the 21st Century.