Fashion is a fickle mistress. Whether it's home decor or clothing. Yes, yes, and yes!! Ditto the issue with finding inexpensive basics. The cats like to nibble on lampshades, so they usually have a short lifespan here. No way am I spending more than $30 for a lampshade, and I've been lucky enough to find some plain basic shades at Ross, Tuesday Morning, Walmart, etc. I also buy every one I see at the thrifts. I've become a white/cream lampshade hoarder! I like to be able to see the exact color and quality of most things in person, so I totally understand not wanting to have to order every single thing online. I spent the weekend looking for trim for a window treatment. Looking for a medium sage green or even an olive color. A gold or dark taupe would have worked, or even a burgundy, because I'm just that flexible. There were 10 shades of teal and aqua, lots of grays, lime green, all sorts of trendy things, but no simple average green. Clothing...O.M.G. I occasionally need to dress up for work. I want to look like a woman, but without wearing anything too revealing or that looks like clubwear. I need comfortable business-wear flats...no sequins, no bows, no peep toe. I could go on and on, but you all know what I mean.

Thank you everyone. I am having trouble typing right now so I can't respond to each of you at the moment but I wanted to clarify that I am not rafor. I tried setting up a photobucket account the other night and I felt like each page just got hung and I'm not sure I ever actually set up an account. Is it always that slow? We have grayish white trim througout our house because we replaced all of the windows in our house with Anderson Woodright windows that were prepainted. I insisted on realwood mullions because I like the look of them architecturally better than the mullions inside the glass. We had to match our trim to them....DH is my painter and he will not repaint them. I will try to add more later. The keyboard on this computer is sticking and making it hard to type right now. Thanks again

girl wonder, some books I've found useful and enjoyed: Interior Design Master Class: 100 Lessons from America's Finest Designers on the Art of Decoration by Carl Dellatore: "Creating a library-worthy resource on design, the volume’s editor, Carl Dellatore, recruited one hundred top American interior designers to contribute essays on a particular aspect of design, interspersed with examples of their work. Useful for both aficionados and professionals, the volume reveals the meticulous and often heady process that goes into creating great interiors." There's a very good good write-up and interview with the author at the design blog Quintessence. Habitat: The Field Guide to Decorating by decorator Lauren Liess (who is basically self-taught, which is why she calls herself a decorator rather than an interior designer), who has a great blog (not updated much anymore) where she has explained her choices and decisions. Mary Gilliatt's Interior Design Course by Mary Gilliatt Domino: The Book of Decorating: A Room-by-Room Guide to Creating a Home That Makes You Happy by Deborah Needleman The Perfectly Imperfect Home: How to Decorate and Live Well by Deborah Needleman A few of the interior design books I've picked up in the past few years, which gave me a greater sense of appreciation for what interior designers and decorators do: The Interior Design Reference & Specification Book: Everything Interior Designers Need to Know Every Dayby Linda O'Shea, Chris Grimley, Mimi Love Interior Design Course: Principles, Practices, and Techniques for the Aspiring Designer by Tomris Tangaz Some earlier helpful threads in the GardenWeb Home Decorating forum: Where to go for "Home Decorating 101"? What's your favorite Interior Design Book?

I'm considering possibly buying an old 80s/90s colonial-style house in my neighbourhood. The problem I have is nearly every house in the area has a front-garage - this is one of my pet peeves and I always feel ruins the appearance of the home, especially as I'm more pro-urban than suburban. However I really like the location of the neighbourhood, it's an affordable area and the community is really nice. Literally the only issue I have is this prevailing front garage issue in nearly every house, since there are very few rear laneways. Here's an example of the kind of house I'm talking about: My idea is to get a house I can convert the garage into living space and remodel the exterior to re-integrate it into the house design, and make it seem as if the home didn't have a garage. Then I would build a new driveway at the side of the house within the property line to a new detached garage located at the rear. Basically build my own "laneway". I looked up the zoning bylaws and it looks like this is allowed provided I don't go over a certain footprint of the house+garage based on a percentage the lot size. Just wondering if anyone has ever done something like this and if there are any sort of problems I could expect to run into? I would love to see some examples!