The rug in the before picture is long gone. It was pretty "bossy" and I feel the room improved tremendously once it was removed. With the black background, it was very dark and I'm leaning toward a much lighter look. The room has a northern exposure. I like the rug you posted, Jinx, and the coffee tables. Thanks!!! I feel once I have chosen a rug, choosing a coffee table will be much easier. In my head, I keep going back and forth between a patterned rug as you suggested and a light rug with texture. We love the new windows. The original windows did not open, but now we have casements on either side. I like sitting in the chair near the window and enjoying the breeze. The coffee table is also long gone. It was metal and glass and the corners made me very nervous with our young grandchildren. Even if I end up with another metal and glass table, I'd like to avoid corners. The little side table is still around, but not at our house. My son and DIL are using it right now. I keep going back and forth on chairs - pair or 2 different chairs. Either way, I am considering having an ottoman at one of the chairs. The art over the console was from Crate & Barrel, but I believe it's no longer available.

It's been mid-90s Tues-Fri here in Santa Barbara, similar to you in coastal Los Angeles. More than 25 degrees above average for this time of year. Don't panic, and just make sure you're watering them enough. Based on the pic and the black "rim" at the top left of the pic, it looks like it's in a pot? Even more reason to keep them well-watered. Hot temps broke today for us, and supposed to get much cooler. Am I correct in assuming since I see pruned canes that these aren't brand new own roots?

Keep checking with TJ's. I lost an earring on Sunday, knew I lost it there, called two days in a row. No earring. Went the 3rd day in person and they found it in their desk drawer. Also, see if you can figure out how to look at Next Door and Craigslist in the city where you think you lost it. Sometimes people post found items that you have to ID to get back. Maybe place an ad but be wary of scammers trying to claim they have it and trying to collect a reward - but they don't have it at all. I'd also call the police in those areas...people often turn things into the police and who knows if they would put any effort into trying to track the owner. Freezing your credit reports is really easy and just be sure to keep track of the code you get that you have to use so you can easily unfreeze it if you ever want to.

My fence recently needed some fresh stain and light repairs. Several local fence companies said they only do new builds but provided suggestions for individual contractors whose work they knew and who would be able to help. I ended up moving forward with one of those folks. Unfortunately, the repairs were done extremely poorly. After just a few weeks, several rails are cracking or warping. Some were never installed in the first place. Many were nailed onto the decorative lattice topper in a way that didn't actually anchor onto the fence, meaning the very heavy lattice is essentially floating between posts without the stability it needs to stay straight. And in the stain was sprayed on absolutely everything in its path, including my formerly black gate hardware, attached-but-removable custom bird houses, etc. It's also already fading and seems patchy, though this could be more due to wood porosity vs poor stain application. I've reached out to the contractor several times to discuss these issues. He's been generally unresponsive, canceled a few meetings at the last minute, and no-showed for even more. He's already been paid (unfortunately, the person onsite didn't do a final inspection first), and we never had an official legal contract, just an informal agreement documented via texts. (Another rookie mistake, I know.) Is there anything I can do at this point to either get a refund or require a fix at the contractor's expense? I'm guessing there's not, but I'm really hoping to hear otherwise from those of you with more experience. Examples of the workmanship below. Unattached trim / staples not long enough: Patchy stain / more rails: Warping rails: