Feeding my addiction

Some call it addiction. Some call it a good use of time & money or perhaps even smart. Either way, I've been feeding mine lately by attending a few estate sales. You'd be surprised at how often they have them. I've signed up to receive notices through estatesales.net.

Why estate sales all of a sudden? Unlike yard sales, these are items that people still wanted and are in good condition. Usually they are held when someone dies and the family wants to sell the remainder of the home's content.

Plus I'm nosy. I like looking at people's stuff.

So over the past two weekends, I've hit two estate sales with my  partner-in-crime friend, Anna. (Yes there are two of us. It's scary.)

My first purchase? A beautiful antique wardrobe. It's not a full wardrobe, which is why I fell in love with it. I actually saw it on Saturday morning and didn't buy it. Then I dreamed of it all night, which is why I knew I should go back on Sunday. I had already asked if they would be putting it 50% off.

Oh, side tip...usually the first day (often a Friday) is full price; day 2 (Saturday) is 25% off; and day 3 (Sunday) is 50% off. Not always, but this is generally how they go.

Unfortunately my piece was one the family almost didn't put up for sale so it was only going to be reduced by $50 (down from $300 to $250). I didn't care. I still loved it.

 

This is one of those very versatile pieces that can be used in any room. I didn't have room for it in a bedroom (the most logical place) but I thought it'd be perfect in our dining room. I know it's great quality not only because it was solid wood and in great condition but also because it has what's called dovetailing.

 

 

 

No, it doesn't have bird feathers in it. Dovetailing is a type of craftsmanship common in older, higher-end pieces of furniture. These days we like to nail, glue or otherwise slap it together. Not back then.

 

Typically you see this in drawers. At least that's the easiest spot to find it. That's one of the ways I judge if the piece is worth a higher price.

 

Now that the history lesson is over, let's get back to what I did with my new piece of furniture. As I said, I put it in the dining room. Inside I've put all my table linens (tablecloths, napkins, placemats, etc.) and my tall platters that don't fit in a typical cabinet.

 

 

This ended up being my anniversary gift since it was, as I mentioned, $250. Some ladies love jewelry. I love furniture.

 

The following weekend I stopped by another estate sale, this time on my own (Anna was out of town and slightly jealous). I went on a late Sunday afternoon so they were pretty cleared out but everything was 50% off. I didn't see much and then it hit me. What was I standing on?

 

Why it was a 10x12' rug that happened to possibly match my house. Could it be?

 

I snapped a picture and sent it to my friend, Cecelia, to make sure I wasn't suffering from FOMO (fear of missing out) and it did indeed match. The navy was throwing me off a little, I'm not going to lie.

 

Sure enough she agreed. And just to be sure, I did look underneath for stains...and then might have crawled on my hands and knees (much to many people's shock, awe and perhaps thoughts of "there's a crazy lady in the living room") to ensure it didn't smell. Anna purchased a cute rug from an estate sale and it turns out it had the smell of cigarettes buried in it and it took her forever to get rid of the smell. Nope, mine was all clear.

 

Home it came with me. (And for those of you wondering, Daniel was a rock star and took it in stride. He's either numb to my shenanigans or given up. No sure which.)

 

 

Disregard the mismatched chairs and some of the artwork. Those are currently a work-in-progress.

 

It's hard to tell but the rug has orange, macadamia (color of the walls), navy and duck egg blue. This lighting doesn't do the colors justice but here's a slightly better picture:

 

There are several things I love about it...

 

1) it was only $150 for a 10x12'. For that price, if the kids toss their food down, I won't go psycho on them care.

 

2) the size. It makes me wish I had this size in our other rooms.

 

3) it brings in another color to the room (navy) that adds an extra dimension while still pulling in the duck egg blue and orange from the curtains.

 

Here's a picture of the room as it's come together over the last few weeks unexpectedly:

 

And now the view from our couch is much more "put together" versus "slapped it together". I love that our dining room, where we eat all of our meals, is so cozy.

 

Who else is addicted to estate sales or found any good steals and deals at one? I've already marked my calendar for another one coming up after Turkey Day. I'm on the hunt for twin beds, a bigger desk or storage for my office and chunky lamps for our bedroom.

 

Anyone want to come to the one Dec 6, 7 & 8 with me? I hear it's a big one!



in-tim-i-dey-shun

in·tim·i·dation

ɪnˈtɪmɪˌdeɪt/ Show Spelled

1. to make timid; fill with fear.

2. to overawe or cow, as through the force of personality or by superior display of wealth, talent, etc.

3. to force into or deter from some action by inducing fear.

 

This was what I felt when it came to painting. Usually I love to paint. I mean I've been known to have my husband leave for the afternoon and he comes home and a room is a new color with everything back in place. But for some reason the thought of painting our new home has intimidated me. Think every. single. surface. Gulp. I'm breaking out in a sweat just typing it.

 

So when my parents generously gave us some money for an early Christmas present we spent hours mulling over how best to use it. We finally decided that we'd use some of it to PAY SOMEONE to paint our house. Let's face it. I'm all about a do-it-yourself project but sometimes with toddlers, it's best to opt for the easy, albeit more expensive, option. Finding days and days of large chunks of time was just not realistic. I could just picture them playing in the paint every five seconds which would result in yelling, time outs and me drinking heavily. Not necessarily in that order.

 

In comes the painter. Score. 

 

Let's remind ourselves what we started with in hallway, living room, foyer and dining room. (That's where we chose to start painting)

 

Before:

 

 

All the walls were primed but not painted. Our painter had actually started painting trim work in the dining room and living room but only did one door casing and the crown molding (all during our renovation since we came in under budget). And yes, I'm the crazy person who hung up pictures despite not having paint on the walls. I was tired of them being on the floor and I needed some warmth on the walls.

 

I had already picked the shade and had it sitting in a few test spots for at least a few weeks to be sure I liked it. I've never used a warm brown on my walls before so I wanted to be sure I didn't see peach undertones at any point during the day. Peach = bad.

 

 

 

The night before our house looked like this. Anyone else annoyed that once again our stuff is sitting in the middle of the room, completely disheveled. Didn't we just do this 2 months ago (called move-in day)? Anyone? crickets. crickets.

 

 

And then it turned in to this wonderful cozy space in just 2.5 days. I can't believe how much difference it made in making the house feel more home-y. Once you live in a blank white space for so long, you forget how much color makes a difference.

 

PSA Announcement: Paint color on your walls people.

So without further ado, here are the after shots: 

 

 

Ahhh warmth. The color is Sherwin Williams in Macadamia and I chose eggshell as the paint finish to help it look a little more luxurious (and clean better, you know grimy hands and all).

 

So you don't have to scroll again here are a few before and after shots.  

 

Living Room



 

Dining Room

 

 

 

Foyer

 

 

Big difference. Huge. You may notice a few extra pieces of furniture in the dining room. More on those changes soon...I might have been feeding my addiction to a few estate sales lately.

 

What do you think of the color?

 

The office and master bedroom are being painted this week. Tears of joy are streaming down my face.

Fall + Family = Memories

We've moved in to the fall season and with that comes a host of fun events and activities that one can do with their children. For us, we've kept it sort've low key because we were so busy with the move and renovation (not to mention the rest of our life). Since things are settling down, we were ready to join in the fun.

First up, Boo at the Zoo. This was a last minute decision on a Monday thanks to Daniel. Our local zoo has various events each year and at Halloween they have "Boo at the Zoo" He heard the kids would have fun and coordinated it as a surprise. We didn't know what to expect but it turned out it was just enough and the kids had a blast.

In the back of my mind I knew the kids dressed up but this mommy wasn't organized and prepared to have their costumes together a whopping 10 days before Halloween.

The Powell's and their little one joined us too.

This actually was a great practice round for real trick-or-treating. Charlie has just realized what it's about and he got to practice running up to the various booths "trick-or-treating". Last year we skipped and just went to a fall festival so this was their first trick-or-treating experience.

Cole was mostly interested in the animals and was a bit disappointed most of them were "sleeping" since it was getting dark. He is surely my child. All about animals.

We might have had a hard time getting them to leave the "suds zone". They didn't understand it at first but then they were all in.

Charlie asked if we could go trick-or-treating every day for a few days after this adventure.

The following week was Halloween. The day before Halloween, Charlie says "please can I use this?" and he had the pumpkin carving pack I picked up last year but never used. I caved and said yes since he was so darn cute.

Off to the store I run that afternoon to grab our carving pumpkins. I bought pumpkins for decoration but didn't want them to rot. Besides, we needed small ones. In hindsight, carving pumpkins this night (or at all) was probably not my best idea. I had a work call so I was on a time crunch, which further stressed the activity.

At first they liked the idea of it...but refused to put their hands in to clean them up. So spoons were brought out. So far so good...

Cole was a little more interested in drinking his "bunny juice" (carrot and orange juice Mimi brought) than cleaning out the pumpkin...go figure.

Finally Daniel and I had to take over. That's when it started to go down hill...

As soon as we broke out the sharp knives I started thinking "this is not a smart toddler activity." Instead of having fun helping us carve (and by helping I mean telling us what shapes to cut out) they both whined and fought over the sharp knives they were not allowed to have. I dare not count the times I found them with one in their hands despite our diligence. Sneaky little buggers. Cole finally walked away until we were done (although he probably was the most engaged of the two boys) and Charlie found himself in time out.

There might even have been some yelling, doors slammed and an overall "I'm done" from this mommy. Hey, at least I'm honest. I'm pretty sure after this picture was taken he screamed "stop doing dat! No take my picture!"

Ahhhhh - the fun family memories that were created that night!

Cole did let me take a picture of him with his pumpkin (and Charlie's is behind him). I think he was enjoying the fact that he wasn't the one getting in trouble.

 

Now on to trick-or-treating. The boys got a double whammy on Halloween because their new Rainbow play set was also installed that day (thanks Nana and Pop-E!). When I finally wrangled them in from outside to get dressed, Charlie tried to get out of his very simple costume. He HATES anything that is different. He quickly changed his mind when he realized he couldn't go get candy without a costume.

So the little rug-rats were Knights for Halloween. Why?

A) it was something they knew and not scary
B) it didn't require a weird feeling costume or hat or anything else that I knew Charlie wouldn't wear

A simple black shirt, black sweat pants and their vest was all they needed.

Oh and we bought "Mike the Knight" shields and swords to top it off. Here they are holding showing you their shields and swords...

At one point they said they were going to find dragons.

Baby Lillian was a dragon dinosaur. Fitting, don't you think?

We headed up to the neighbors house where many families gather to go on a hayride and trick-or-treat. They actually ride to each of the houses.The boys loved the hay ride and thought it was extra cool, although the volume of excited kids overwhelmed them a smidge at first.

Side note: I have just realized I wore orange to both of the events without even planning it. Even in my subconscious I must coordinate!

There were so many kids we ended up breaking off on our own after a short bit. The boys had so much fun and scored yummy candy (and a glow stick). We were home by 7:30pm (after walking what felt like miles back to the house) and they settled in to watch a cartoon and eat a little candy.