$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!