Monday, September 26, 2011

Yard Sale Saturday

For those of you who know us, know pretty well my sweet husband's frugal nature. And by frugal I mean ridiculously cheap. His ridiculously cheap personality aids in his intense love of ueard sales. Any time we see a sign on the side of the road, he swerves the car to hit it up. This is a case of opposites attracting because I, on the other hand, am not as passionate about digging through people's junk in hopes of finding a treasure.

Well, this weekend David's wildest dreams came true and our neighborhood coordinated a community yard sale. The cherry on the top of the sundae was the local middle school was also having a major yard sale. To say he was excited would be an extreme understatement. He was stoked. In preparation he got a crazy amount of cash out of the ATM "just in case". My cynicism came out and I was convinced he would be redepositing it all on Monday. Continue reading to find out who won this round.

We awoke about 6:30 on Saturday morning to get ready to hit the streets by 7am. The neighborhood sale was scheduled for 7am-11am, and the school's sale was 8am-12pm. Perfect. Get a head start on the neighborhood, pick up a few maps then head over to the school to scope things out over there. Unfortunately the promised maps did not exist at the entrances of the neighbirhood sections so we just winged it and started at the Clubhouse where we scored our first treasure, a solid oak sidetable for $5. The lady practically gave it away!

David's new chess table

Then, we headed over to the fancier part of the neighborhood to see what crap they were trying to unload on us gullible souls. David was convinced this was where he was going to find the ultimate treasure. It wasn't the ultimate treasure but it was over here that we found an almost brand-new set of Faberware knives, a few books (for a quarter each!) and a handful of movies ($1 each!). About this time my coffee was kicking in and I was in desperate need of a restroom. We scooted back on over to our house to refuel before hitting up the school.

 Books for the classroom



Our stellar friend Allison was also scoping out the sales and texted us that it wasn't looking to promising at the school, but nevertheless we figured have the fun is seeing other people's junk. Boy were we surprised when we found a solid oak dining room table with six chairs. One of the things on our list was dining room chairs, not necessarily with a table either (we already had two). David jokingly told the guy he'd give him $5 for the whole thing. The guy laughed and said he'd take $50. Excuse moi? $50 for all that?!? Sold! If you're keeping track that is now three dining room tables (and another smaller two-seater table).

Fabulous new table (minus one leaf)

A sweep of the school gave us two more movies and a never-used hair dryer for $5. Perfect considering mine flops around and gives off that lovely fire smell every morning. We made plans to mosey on back to the house to get my Subaru to come back and pick up the table and chairs. Then came the rain. Drops here and there, but nothing too bad. We stopped by another sale and scored a space heater for $20. I'm stoked to report that I won't freeze to death this winter with my very own space heater on wheels. I've even been given permission to bedazzle it and make it mine. Sweet! Throw in a wreath for a buck and I'd say we scored pretty big. A few streets over we got a grill for $13. Heck, even if this thing doesn't work it was worth the $13 to take the risk and find out!

Some were even still in the orginial wrapping!

This will be my best friend come winter.

Pretty new fall wreath

Then came the rain. And by rain I mean complete and total downpour of flooding proportions. It was one of those moments where we looked at each other and both ran to the car. We had a table to save! We flew to our house, switched out cars and zipped over to the school. Of course the coordinators would close one of the entrances so everyone was coming in and out on the same one-lane road. Did I mention it was pouring down and everyone wanted out? Awesome. We managed to get in and started throwing things in Suzy (my little Subaru) and in their mini-van. The guy ended up coming back to the house and helping David set the table up. If you're keeping track that is one solid oak table that would comfortably seat ten, six chairs, delivery, and set up for fifty bucks!

The jury is still out, but I may be joining David on the darkside of yard sales. Maybe.

1 comment:

  1. that table is gorgeous!! i can't believe it was only $50!!

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