11 stores and 2 hours

That is what it took to find our new fireplace screen! We kept smelling something musty, kind of funky in the living room but couldn't find the source. Since the whole downstairs is tile, there is not a whole lot for nasty smells to cling to (like carpet or rugs) so we couldn't figure out where the smell could be coming from. Domino has had a bad a case of wet dog smell due to all of the rain but she usually smells right after coming in and then it goes away (or we get used to it).

Yesterday we found the source...Fluffy our sweet geriatric kitty has been known to hang out in the fireplace but we didn't realized that she had made it her second bathroom. We immediately cleaned it up and sprayed a lot of bleach to get the smell out. For the most part the cleaning worked. The only problem was keeping said kitty out of the fireplace from now on. A fireplace screen has been on my list (which is pretty long) of things to get/do to decorate the house. Unfortunately all of the ones I've seen and liked were very expensive. I did a search to see where I might find a cheap nice one to use for now. I came across a blog that showed a living room made over on a budget. There in front of the fireplace was a gorgeous screen that the decorater paid a whopping $45 at TJ Max. We were on a mission! We spent two hours (kids in tow) traveling from store to store (eleven to be exact) to find our screen.

In the end we bought the screen from the first store we went to, Garden Ridge Pottery. It was $80. Not the $50 or less we were hoping to spend but looking online I've seen several that are similar for 4 to 5 times that price. Why a whole blog post on a fireplace screen? No idea! Guess my busy weeks have me in writing withdrawal!