Happy Labor Day to my American readers! Happy Monday to the rest of the world!

I am taking a little vacation with Nate and my brother.  I didn't want to leave the blog all alone so I tricked five fellow bloggers into writing a guest post for me.  See, I asked them to write a guest post about what they would do with $500 fun money.  I think most of them thought I was going to give them $500 to do so but so sad for them. They just get the wonderful experience of being a guest blogger on Decor and the Dog!  That's almost as good as $500 cash, right?

First up are John and Lisa from Our Home from Scratch.



John and Lisa are fixing up their new construction home.  Sound familiar?   What isn't quite as familiar is that John does a lot of the blog writing. They recently finished their dining room and it's quite lovely.  Be sure to check out their informative posts on how to install moldings.


Hey everybody! Lisa and I were lucky enough to be asked to write a guest post for one of our favorite blogs. So I guess you could say we're blog sitting for the day. It's sorta like baby sitting, except Michelle didn't leave us pizza money on the fridge. The good news? Nate doesn't have to drive us home when we're done.

To help us out, Michelle selected the topic: what we'd do with $500. It's an interesting idea. For the sake of making the post tolerable for your guys and not turn this into an episode of Clark Howard, we're not going to suggest things we'd actually do with an extra $500, like make an additional payment on my student loans or add it to our 401(k). Yawn city. No, instead we're going to list the things we'd really, really like to do with $500.

Since everybody likes lists, here's our top five things we're itching to spend that dough on. Please note, we would definitely donate 10% to a charity up front, so really we are already down to $450. Have to check that box!

5. Make it rain up in here. For real, this one is Lisa's idea. We're talking about a stack of George Washington's getting tossed into the air. Swimming in cash. You can't say you've never wanted to do this. Since we can't actually swim through a stack of bills like Scrooge McDuck, this is the next best thing. We may spend a solid $5 on a cheap bottle of Proseco or Donaghy Estates to celebrate the moment. While we're at it, why not take a bath in only Evian water as well.

4. Buy a copy of Photoshop. Do you know that Photoshop costs nearly $600!? Say what? Remember the good old days when the most expensive software program was Where In the World is Carmen San Diego? And that was like $40. Oregon Trail was around $10. Ridiculous. Maybe I should pull the cord and go back to my old Apple IIe. We've been thinking about getting a graphics software package to draw some logos and banners for our blog. Windows Paint just doesn't cut it.

3. Redo our home office. This room is sort of a catch-all. It needs some help. We've got plans to rip out the carpet, install hardwood and make some home made built-ins with a custom desk.

Our Current Office:

Aside from the floors, the most expensive aspect will be the wood for the built-ins. We're thinking poplar and plywood, with it all painted white. The hardest part of this job will be finding time to build everything. $500 should just about cover the material costs. Either way, we're likely to start this project over my December break (I'm in grad school part-time). We like the look of these built ins, but we would have to configure them to fit into our office space.


2. Buy a "big girl" bedroom set for our daughter. Every now and then Lisa will peak at the Pottery Barn and Land of Nod catalog's bedroom sets. It's tough to justify spending that kinda money on toddler furniture, but $500 could make that an easy decision. She is really loving this Jenny Lind twin bed from Land of Nod.

 

1. I promised Michelle I would "dude" this post up a bit for Nate's sake, so here goes. I'm in the market for a MIG welder. Have I ever welded before? No. Do I know anything about welding? Does watching a 2 minute long YouTube video count? Because, if it does, then I'm a learned doctor of welding. I figure the keys to a quality weld job involve not getting blinded by the arc flash and not setting yourself on fire. Easy peasy. My Jeep needs a rusty body panel replaced and it's well past its prime. It's seems like a perfect opportunity to learn some welding. There are also a bunch of other welding/metal working projects that would be suddenly be possible with a welder. So that's what we'd
blowinvest our five Benjamins on.

What would you do with $500?

Lisa and John blog about their home improvement projects and other fun stuff at Our Home from Scratch.