$12 Park Bench from Craig's List finds a new life for $6.00 more!

The price was odd, yes, but I was pretty bleeping excited to find this bench on Craig's List. It took about 8 days, for reasons unknown, for the sellers to square away a time with me to come and get it. 30 minutes and bad directions later, the disassembled bench was mine! Home it came, the wrought iron frame and seven 4 foot long boards.

I scraped, sanded and painted the seven slats, and soon realized I needed one more - the seller neglected to mention this. Fortunately, I had 1"x3" boards from another project, so I used a hand saw to cut it to length. I had a five-in-one tool  - what no woman should be without (now I think there are 6-in-one tools), gloves and sandpaper, but I bought a $2.00 wire brush and spent $4.00 on a can of flat black Rustoleum Restorer paint for the iron frame. The blue paint for the slats was left over in a quart from painting the front door this summer so I was good to go!

After the work, I moved the bench to its prime location in the yard. I placed bluestone under the legs to keep it level as I have seen benches in the yards of friends that sink into the ground. Not for me, thanks! I slid all the slats in their place and, low & behold, the holds in the slats did not line up with the holes in the iron bench! NO WONDER the seller was so happy when he offered to disassemble it for me easy transport! The bag of hardware he attached? 9 screws and seven washers. 16 screws and washers would be needed for this bench. SO... I have decided that only one slat really needs to be attached, as there's plenty of overhang for the rest.

I am currently working on gardening around the new sitting area, but have some photos attached to show you the process. A few days ago, I planted some perennials and put some quick spreading ground cover under the bench. When the ground cover gets going, you won't see the stones at all.

Even with the odd sellers and misaligned holes, I am still thrilled to have this bench in my yard (and love the polka dot pillow sitting on it!), but lesson learned - when buying something, make sure all the parts are in place!

'Tis the Season for Estate Sales Galore!

Bargain Hunter Alert

It's getting late in the summer which means people that want to have yard/garage sales know that they are running out of time. Some are families who finally had time to clean-out a deceased relative's home. Others are moving before the start of the school year. Whatever their reasons, if you are even a SMIDGE like me, (meaning you love to save money and don't mind the thrill of the hunt), now is the time to head to Craig's List and your local paper's online classifieds (why online? you get the listings of sales faster and can copy & paste addresses and times of sales to print for later!) and use the search term "Estate Sale." Note about Craig's List - people aren't always bright (shocker!), and, often, the dates of the estate sale are not in the heading of the ad. The date on which they posted the sale will be on the left, but ads may be posted a week or two in advance of the sale, so you need to click and read.

Dust Bowls - Literally

If you can be an allergic mess, know that dust is the free stuff at estate sales. Often, items are taken from their dusty corners to be put on display - there will be dust! Pop a favorite allergy preventative about 30 minutes before you arrive.

Money Talks

You are often digging in boxes and milling around garages, so this is no place to have to deal with a purse, (lock it in your trunk before you get to the sale). Keep in mind that while some sales are UBER-lame, many of these estate sales are awesome, but CASH IS KING. Take money - it's usually the only means of acceptable payment. Don't be afraid to make offers. It isn't rude to have, say, $65.00 worth of stuff and offer $50.00. The worst thing they can say is no, but if they say yes, you just saved $15.00.

LOOK

Open cabinet doors and look in drawers. I've found some real treasures in the forgotten areas of homes. If you find something in a not-marked-off-limits area, take the item to the cashier, tell them where you found it, and either offer a price or ask for one. My mom still loves the potato masher with the cool red handle that I found in a kitchen drawer at an estate sale (paid $1.00) and gave to her for Christmas many years ago.

Be Sensitive to the Situation

Many estate sales are being held because of the death of a relative, usually a parent or grandparent. As you browse, keep your negative comments about Granny's old, torn furniture and stained doilies to yourself. Touch things respectfully. Be kind to the people running the show. You never know whom you may run in to as you peruse - often, estate sales are being run by an entire family. You don't want to be the jerk that jades little Jimmy's faith in people as he wanders around the beloved home that's about to be someone else's.

No Early Birds. HA!

As you know, the early bird gets the worm. Good things come to those who wait?  Only the crap left behind by those who hustle! Pay attention to the start time of the sale. Even if the ad says, 'no early birds:'  If a specific item is listed that you want to see, don't be afraid to arrive early (even an hour) and say something like, 'I know you aren't open yet - I respect your 'no early birds' request and I will certainly wait - I just want to make sure the _____ is still here.' Why would I share this with you? I once drove 40 minutes to a garage sale that listed, "ABSOLUTELY NO EARLY BIRDS" (yes, all caps, too!) and, since I wanted to see the oak card catalog described in the newspaper ad, I arrived 30 minutes early and waited in my car until the 8am start time. No one had come or gone while I was waiting, just the gentlemen setting up. At exactly 8am I got out of my car, walked up to the man, told him how excited I was to see the card catalog, only for him to tell me that a man came at 7:15 and bought it. !!!!!!!! I quietly said, 'So, absolutely no early birds,' turned, and as the man apologized and started listing everything else in the sale, I walked back to my car and left. Moral of the story? GO EARLY if there is something you really want, start time be damned.

The Freecycle Network - Because FREE is GOOD!

"Welcome! The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,967 groups with 8,604,854 members around the world. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by local volunteers (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by entering it into the search box above or by clicking on 'Browse Groups' above the search box. Have fun!"

~ Introduction from freecycle.org

Sound like a cool thing to you?  I joined freecycle about a month ago and wanted to try it out before sharing it with you. Basically, you search for your town or closest major populated area, and there are Yahoo Groups to join in each area. You'll need a google acc't, so I made one up and e-mailed myself the log-in info to my actual e-mail address. So far so good - I mean, free stuff is good, right? I wasn't afraid or discouraged to jump through about 10 minutes of hoops to get it. HOWEVER:  Don't make the mistake I made, which was signing up in two areas and set my account to receive individual e-mails when someone posts something. In one day, I had over 700 e-mails to go through.

Can you imagine? So, I logged in to both groups that I had joined and changed my settings to NO E-MAIL. Now, when I am looking for something specific, say, perennials, go to the freecycle Yahoo Group pages and use the Search feature. Usually, people will post an item with a description in the subject line, and then post a message saying something like "TAKEN: description." This is helpful because you will see both posts when you search and know an item is gone. Act on anything you might want because things go VERY fast in the freecycle network.

Also, sometimes "Curb Alert" posting are found and they let you know that someone has put something out at the curb. These postings are tough unless you live VERY close by and can leave immediately to go check it out.

Keep in mind a few things:  people are involved and some people are very bad, so never, NEVER go alone to pick up anything - that would be just a bad idea. Also, if you are search for something specific, be sure to come up with various search terms because not everyone calls every item the same thing. Example? Sofa vs. Couch. So take a moment to think of what else someone might call the item you seek.

You communicate with the person who has the item via e-mail. Everyone gives contact info in their post, so this is much easier than the all-too-often waiting games you have to play with listings on Craig's List who don't respond and do not remove listings when items are sold. I am in a waiting game right now for dining room chairs with a seller who 1. hasn't written back (and did not supply a phone number) and 2. has not removed the listing! Ugh.

People on freesysle have never made me wait for anything. They just want the item gone. Enjoy this free service, it is quite awesome! Check it out at freecycle.org