I just can’t not, part 2

What happens when you’re at a thrift store and find something “special” that you know you’ll probably never find again?  (And it’s cheap!)  

You buy it, of course.

I found this when I was combing through a closet, searching for - really, things like this - anything I'm not currently using that I might want or need to use in The House of Goodwill.

A calendar from my birth year with some random cats who are apparently celebrating the bicentennial of our country.

While for some reason it hasn’t yet found a home in my current house, I’m thinking this might be perfect for The House of Goodwill.  It’s from the 70’s, and – although not purchased at Goodwill – it does kind of scream Goodwill, I think.

A house has to have a sense of humor, right?

I just can’t not

I realized the other day that this is the first time in my life I’ve attempted to put together a house starting with nothing.

Beginning with when I first got married, I always had some “stuff” I brought along to use in whatever apartment or house I was moving into.  At first, it was from the house I grew up in, and my college apartment.  When we got married, my husband had his own apartment furniture (which mostly consisted of things from the house he grew up in).

As we slowly expanded, the stuff we acquired usually came from garage sales, family hand-me-downs and Wal-Mart-quality stores.

I guess in a way not much has changed.  Except for the Wal-Mart part.  I’m very happy to report my “manufactured wood” furniture days are behind me.

Now when we receive family hand-me-downs or buy something used, it’s something antique or special.

It is AMAZING the difference between antique furniture and modern, even from high end modern stores.  Antiques are made from REAL wood.  There wasn’t anything else to use.

But back to furnishing a house from scratch – there are a million choices to make when you’re beginning with absolutely nothing.  And I’ve been thinking about how to paint it for a while.

My first inclination was to paint it all white.  After all, the house is very, very dark without much natural light, and the current dark paint colors make it feel kind of cave-like.

I was also thinking that as a rental property, to have just one color – white – would make it much easier for future touch ups.

But I’m just not a white wall person.  I just can’t not throw some color in somewhere.

Colors make me happy.  And colors help tie all the elements in a room together.

Of the last ten houses I’ve visited, almost every one was gray.  Gray , gray, gray.  I know it’s the color of the moment, but it reminds me of a dreary sky.  I think gray is the new beige.  I need color!

So after visiting the paint store, here is the plan, subject to change:

These colors make me want to pull out my roller skates 😄

I’d like to do a palette of green, orange & blue or teal.  To honor the 70’s vibe of the house.

I’m not sure if I’d ever use orange in my house/home or not, but since this is an “occasional” home, why not?  I’m going to try to stick to the lightest, barely-there shades for the walls, because the house needs to lighten up.

My husband pointed out what the house really needs to make it airy and lighter – skylights.  But they’re definitely not in the budget at the moment.

Coming soon – some paint before and afters!

Goodwill, seriously??

We just got back from spending the Memorial Day weekend at The House of Goodwill, and after the first few days, it was very evident that we were missing some things that needed to be bought ASAP.

(It’s very hard to do kitchen-y things in a kitchen with no trash can, for example.)

I found a big estate sale going on our first morning back, so I headed there first, followed by a craigslist pickup and another trip to Goodwill.  (Score at the estate sale!  2 big outdoor trash cans for $15 and a tall kitchen trash can for $1, amongst other things.)

Anyway, on my trip to Goodwill I found quite a few useful things (as always), but they definitely came this time with a high dose of the ick factor.  Know this - I am very hard to gross out.  I can (and probably have) cleaned almost anything.

But these two were definitely worthy of the #goodwillfails:

A $4 diaper pail!  I need this for the baby set up I’m creating for the house!

But it comes with a surprise inside!  

(Yes, that is a used diaper in there.)

And as I was perusing coffee pots (for the downstairs basement “apartment”), I discovered this one:

Hmmm, it looks a little dirty…

Oh wow, no one bothered to remove the coffee filter full of grounds.

I don’t know who to blame more for this.  The donors?  (I mean, how hard is it to remove used diapers or coffee filters before making your donations?)

Or Goodwill?  (I mean, how hard is it to remove used diapers or coffee filters from donations you are going to sell?)

Seriously??

Goodwill, you know I love you but I’m starting to feel a bit like your abused girlfriend.  You don’t clean up your act (literally) because you’ll know I’ll keep coming around anyway…and you’re right.

It may not be my noblest moment, but I did gain a small sense of satisfaction when after paying for the diaper pail, I dumped the used diaper in a trash can under a cash register on the way out.

I mean, seriously!

Am I in the country?

My first evening sitting on the porch swing at The House of Goodwill, I could hear cows mooing in the distance.  I have no idea where the farm is, and didn’t even realize there was one nearby.

But it made me realize – this is what my life has been missing.

Mooing cows make me happy.

Around the lake at The House of Goodwill, the roads are paved.  They may not be perfect (at all), but they are paved.  So is this the country?

And because it’s a lake, in a state without a lot of them, every lot around the lake appears to be claimed with a house.  All the houses seem to have at least a couple of acres of land.  So is it still the country without any wide open spaces?

On the other hand, it takes at least 20 minutes to get to the nearest grocery store.

When I went to walk my dogs, I discovered apparently they are the only dogs in the area on the end of a leash.  We must have met at least 5 loose dogs on our first walk.

Fortunately, the dogs so far were all as nice and friendly as the people in the community.   

In just a few days there, I have seen deer, ducks, herons, a couple of cats and a golden retriever wandering through our yard.

Walking my dogs down the road with my son, seeing the lake around every corner, being waved at by a golf cart full of girls in their swim suits cruising around, smelling the flowers in the air and listening to the cows moo was so relaxing, so peace-inducing.

As my husband and I continue to work on this house, we occasionally look at each other and ask, “why are going to rent out this place again?”  And then the other replies, “I don’t want to.”

All the almosts

Almost every piece of furniture I buy is off of craigslist, for my home-house and The House of Goodwill too.  I am not on Facebook, so the Facebook Marketplace is not available to me, but I have seen the site and it’s even better than craigslist.

I made a Facebook account solely to use the marketplace, but apparently unless you are a person who is “very active” on Facebook (according to what I have read online), Facebook will not allow you access to its marketplace. 

I guess it wasn’t meant to be.  I try not to think about that.  About some other episodes too.

Like Sunday afternoon at The House of Goodwill.  I was scrolling through the local craigslist there, only to find the PERFECT furniture for the living room at the PERFECT price.  It was a la-Z-boy sofa with two chairs and ottomans, excellent condition, perfect colors, etc.  All for $300.  And I just happened to be at the house with an empty trailer, available to make the hour long drive to go pick everything up.  So I emailed the lady with the ad, checking all day long for her response.  We had to drive two hours back home that evening.

Of course, I didn’t get a response until 9pm, when I was back at home and we had returned the rented trailer.  I responded to the seller and told her I wouldn’t be back in the area for four more days, but I would check with her then to see if it was still available.

I got an email the next morning that she had just sold everything.

And the day before, while we were still at the House of Goodwill, we were driving through the town after a WalMart trip (for all the things we forgot to bring from home), when I spotted the sign for an estate sale.  

It was already done for the day, but would start again the next afternoon.  I saw pictures online with all kinds of things we needed for the house, including a dryer and a hot tub.  (Ok, so we maybe we don’t NEED a hot tub, but wouldn’t it be nice?)

We got there as soon as it opened the next day, pulling up a block away because of all the parked cars.  The house was swarming with people.  And wouldn’t you know it, the washing machine was still available, but the dryer had sold the day before.  And the hot tub too.  (For $300!!!)

We still managed to get a lot of little kitchen-y things the house needed, for $34.  (Half off because it was the final day of the sale.)  But it still felt like we were a day late and a dollar short. 

2 thoughts have stuck with me after this weekend:

-Estate sales are where it’s at!  Great useful stuff!  And cheap!

-When you buy from used resources, there’s usually only one of whatever you want.  And sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.

So maybe we lost a few times this weekend, but overall I know we’ll come out ahead using our thrifting resources.

The thrill of Goodwill

It’s really fun to go to Goodwill and find something you need or want for not a lot of money.  But it’s really, really fun to go when you find something you just absolutely love.

From time to time I find real almost-antiques at Goodwill.  Nothing (yet) that I can take to Antiques Roadshow and discover it’s worth 100,000, but nevertheless, something that is a real almost-antique. 

(I say almost-antique because I read somewhere that by definition, an object must be at least 100-years-old to be considered antique.)  I’m not sure I find much that is that old at Goodwill (though I’m sure they receive some real antiques on occasion).

The almost-antiques I find may not be of really high value, but to me they are still really special. 

And many of them are things I’ve never seen before, even if they were mass produced back in the day.

Check out these two vases I found last week:

A Phoenix Ware vase with such beautiful, intricate detail. 

Even without flowers, it's a work of art.

This one had a signature stamp I didn't recognize, next to a mark that says "made in Italy."

The vases were $5 each.

I can't believe somebody donated them!

Happy Memorial Day!

enjoying the gentle breeze and watching the ducks & red-headed woodpeckers

A link to my favorite new website:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/

cute/obnoxious puppy enjoying barking at the wildlife

May all enjoy a peaceful & blessed Memorial Day 🏁

My son broke my car (aka. The great Krispy Kreme almost-debacle)

So, I happened to see online that today was free Krispy Kreme day.  To honor all 2020 high school and college graduates, Krispy Kreme announced they would give “a senior dozen” donuts to all graduates who came to the store in a cap and gown.  My son just graduated from high school.  

(Congratulations Tavo!  You made it!)

I announced to my son (last week) that he would be driving me to Krispy Kreme in his cap and gown today.  Since Krispy Kreme is 20 minutes away, I decided we would also get our car emissions test done for the year, since it wasn’t too far from the store.  (That way I could tell myself we really weren’t driving nearly an hour round trip for a free box of donuts.)

Everything was going smoothly till we got about a block from Krispy Kreme, stuck in a line of idling cars stretched as far as we could see.  After waiting 20 minutes, an employee came outside and told us they were out of donuts, and the cops didn’t like the blocked traffic in the street, and to please come back in an hour.

So, we went to do our emissions test.  I thought my luck was going from terrible to amazing when we rolled up to the emissions testing place and didn’t see any line.  That lasted until we realized the whole place was closed – in spite of the fact that when I checked online the day before they said they’d be open.  Apparently they made a last minute coronavirus-inspired decision to stay closed a while longer.

It had only been 20 minutes since we were asked to leave Krispy Kreme, but we (I) decided to try for the donuts once more.  And once more we got in line to be told they were out of donuts.

In order to not consider the mission a total failure, I decided to drag my son to the local Bargain Hunt to see what they might have for The House of Goodwill.  Finally, we succeeded a little.  Some king-size bedding, some bath mats, a pizza cutter and a floating flamingo for the lake – $68.

When we got back in the car I looked at my son.  “How about trying Krispy Kreme one last time?” 

“But you’re trying to be healthy!” he sighed.  “It isn’t worth it.”  I couldn’t see it, but I knew he was rolling his eyes on the inside.  Nevertheless, he gamely pointed the car toward Krispy Kreme once more.

(I didn’t even bring up to him that we’d probably spent much more on gas driving to and from Krispy Kreme – not to mention back and forth from stores – then we would have spent on a box of them from the Kroger two minutes away from our house.  And even better – my son is one of the few people on the planet earth that doesn’t even like donuts.)  But I digress.

This is my problem.  I just hate to fail.

So for the third time, we headed back to Krispy Kreme.  And this time, after a 5 minute wait, we were told they were all out of the special decorated “senior dozen” but they would give us a dozen glazed donuts if we wanted them.  IF??  We had already invested at least an hour and a half on this adventure.

Of course we (I) wanted them!!

"Yes Mom, I would LOVE to pose in a photo with some donuts that I never wanted!"

And, to cap off our day of sort-of-success, as we were waiting in line at Krispy Kreme (for the third time), my son reached up to the dashboard of my car, and broke a giant plastic piece of it off with his hand.

“What are you doing?” I asked, incredulous.

“I was trying to fix your car,” he explained.  “There was this big gap in the plastic and I was trying to push it together to fix it.”

Fortunately for him, almost immediately after that incident I was handed a box of donuts.

And the great/awful thing about driving a 20-year-old car – you kind of don’t care when another thing breaks.

A piece of my dashboard.  In my hand.  In my house.

Now I get to enjoy this view each day

The car is like me – it just doesn’t know when to quit.  I guess this is why I’m so attached to it.

It’s time to NOT thrift

Generally speaking, I’m not a big mall shopper.  Sometimes I enjoy it, but usually just when I’m looking for certain things.  I’m not into Pier 1 and Pottery Barn and Target, even though I like a lot of their stuff.  I’m not sure what it is about shopping in a non-thrift store, but maybe it’s because it just doesn’t feel that special.

Maybe it’s because when I see something on a shelf, and then I see 50 more of the same item lined up behind it, it just doesn’t seem interesting any more.

At a thrift store or an antique mall or a flea market, there’s always just one.

Or maybe it’s because I don’t just like finding that unique thing – I like finding that unique thing at a super bargain.  I’ve passed up things I’ve liked before at thrift stores, because they were priced higher than what I wanted to pay.

I think the game of finding something special for less than it’s worth is probably what makes thrifting fun.

That said, if I need a new bathing suit, I’m going to the mall.

Since we were getting close to heading to The House of Goodwill to stay for a while, I decided it was time to buy some sheets and blankets and towels for the house.  It was finally time to NOT thrift.

So where did I go?

Ollie’s, Bargain Hunt and TJ Maxx for the new discounts.  A friend introduced me to Ollie’s a couple of years ago, and it’s my favorite source for home supplies.

So how did I do?

My cart at Ollie’s – I felt bad for the people behind me in line.

$353 of sheets, bedspreads, towels, pillows & a mattress pad @ Ollie's

$67 of sheets, dish towels & a furniture cover @ Bargain Hunt

$140 of towels & blankets @ TJ Maxx

Move in madness

Because of a couple of longstanding doctor appointments and other commitments, after closing on The House of Goodwill, we weren’t able to seal the deal and really move in for a while.

So, finally, with our third trailer load and two dogs in tow, we were able to go and spend our first night there.

And oh wow, what a mess!!  I forgot how much chaos moving into a house entails.  Piles of stuff everywhere, stacks of boxes and paper, nothing where you can find it – just utter disorganization everywhere you turn.

Looks like a baby bomb exploded in here

It was a little overwhelming.  Not only do I need to clean and unpack, but I have to paint an entire house.

I didn’t want to unpack the boxes of kitchen stuff until I cleaned the kitchen.  But where were my cleaning supplies?  Oh, right, I forgot to bring those.  And the wonderful/frustrating thing about being at the house is that it’s in a beautiful rural area.  As in, beautiful, but not close to anything.  The nearest town is a 20-minute drive.

But forgetting the Lysol wipes was not nearly as bad a discovery as realizing at midnight that we brought the coffeepot, the coffee and the cups, but forgot the coffee filters.  Needless to say, the first morning at the house was not spent peacefully on the porch swing gazing at the lake, but driving to town for coffee filters, just to decide that the McDonald’s drive thru was faster access to caffeine in the bloodstream.

But what a wonderful “problem.”  I’ve definitely had worse!

A midnight toast to the first night in the new house

Some Goodwill headscratchers

You know how it’s ok to bust on family members because it goes without saying that you love them?  Therefore, I can complain about my brother because it’s just a given that there’s love there in spite of that ________ thing that he does.

It’s like that with Goodwill.  I think it goes without saying that I love Goodwill. 

So that’s why I feel like I can occasionally complain about the random and arbitrary pricing or the fact that it wouldn’t hurt them to at least dust off their donations once in a while.

(When the Goodwill price is higher than the garage sale price tag they didn’t bother to remove, it is a bit of a headscratcher – it didn’t sell at the garage sale for that much, so why would they price it higher?)

Here are a few from my last trip:

What’s with the wrapping?  I guess when you buy this mystery rug, you get to be surprised by what it actually looks like when you get it home.

Hmm…..trying to figure out why these are packaged together?  

So not only do you need to find a buyer who loves Travis, you need to find a buyer who ALSO loves Brittany.  Aside from the donor, there must be another person out there who loves them both.  But maybe not in this geographic area.

Which made me think there must be a #goodwillFails, and there is.  Let me repost this photo, which I found on the site, because it actually made me lol.  Here it is, enjoy:

Goodwill : the difference between a place to live & a community

I’ve said it before – I have always been blessed with amazing neighbors, the kind who demonstrate what it truly means to live in a House of Goodwill.

I know that they love me and I can prove it – the evidence is in my garden.

Something I love about gardening – so many plants multiply naturally that after a couple of years they can be divided and shared, which = more plants for less money.  They can be spread around the yard or shared with family and friends.  It is remarkable how many plants can be either divided or very easily propagated from cuttings.

Two years ago I received iris bulbs from two different friends, and sunflower divisions from another.  Since I didn’t know what the irises would look like, I planted them and this year had the fun surprise of watching them bloom for the first time.  They were breathtaking!  I have yet to see the sunflowers; I’ve still got something to look forward to.

What I love about these beautiful plants is, when I look at them I am reminded of my beautiful neighbors.

Like Jim & Jeanne, who showed up at my doorstep on my birthday to sing Happy Birthday to me.  It was right in the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, and everything was closed and there was nowhere to go celebrate.  It was a birthday stuck at home, which made their visit even more special.

Jim & Jeanne - 2 very special people!

Jim & Jeanne grow beautiful flowers, and my new purple & gold irises came from them.  Like our beloved Martha Lanham, Jim & Jeanne are always showing up with homemade food and cut flowers from their garden.

Irises from Jim & Jeanne - aren't they breathtaking?

Irises can be easily divided by separating the rhizomes when blooms are done.

These are the people who transform a neighborhood from a place to live to a real community.  Each year Jim & Jeanne host a summer block party, a Christmas party and a childrens’ backyard Bible club for anyone in the neighborhood who wants to come.  Though Jeanne’s been in a wheelchair for 15 years, their focus has always been on the needs of others.

These are my heroes and the people I want to emulate.

As my flowers from friends continue to multiply, I’ll make sure to pass them along to someone else who will love them too.

The bud vase - inexpensive and so beautiful!

I’m realizing this thrifting blog is often veering off in a gardening direction, but I just can’t seem to help it.  I love to look at beautiful things – whether they’re inside or out.

And it’s probably obvious by now how much I enjoy collecting pretty (but inexpensive) vases and filling them with flowers. 

But for people who like to keep things simple (or just cheap) here is a secret: the bud vase!

I bought quite a few larger vases in the past, only to discover that the cost of filling them is actually pretty significant.  That is, unless, you use a bud vase, which will just allow a single flower to be highlighted.  For the cost of a single rose, you can fill your vase!  (Or, if you grow flowers outside, but don’t want to decimate your entire garden to fill one vase, these are perfect.)

Bud vases are simple, elegant and so beautiful!

Clematis on the vine outside - one of the simplest plants to grow

A single clematis blossom in a $3 glass bud base from Goodwill

And look at the colored glass in the light!  I think my heart stopped for just a second!

A trip to Denise’s basement

I may have mentioned, one of the difficulties of working on the project of collecting the things I need for The House of Goodwill during coronavirus is that there aren’t any estate sales or moving sales going on where I can buy some things (like kitchen items) that I really need in bulk.

But one day I turned up an ad on craigslist that I hadn’t seen before – someone had posted the entire contents of the basement of a house for $350.  Someone’s 94-year-old mother had died, and the kids had taken everything they wanted from her home and the leftovers were sent to the basement.

The ad had been up for 8 weeks already, and a lot of the basement stuff had been offered and sold piece by piece, but the craigslist photos showed a few promising leftovers.

So I responded to the ad, said I did not need (and couldn’t possibly use or store) everything they had, but asked if I could pick out some things and make them an offer on what I could use?  The answer – absolutely yes!

So my husband and I headed over to Denise’s basement to see what we could find.

At first, it seemed kind of disappointing.  A lot of things in the photos (games, kitchen pots & pans, etc.) were already sold.  And everything was dirty - it had been sitting in the basement for a while.  But as we started picking through the piles, we found all kinds of things we could use.

Among the highlights:

Some beautiful thick green glasses & wine glasses

A gorgeous flowered lamp

With a new shade, this will look great!

Some pretty towels that had never been used (a few of them were straight out of the 1970s – perfect for the bathroom with the green sink!)

A chainsaw

Silverware & some utensils

A side table

A box of wine glasses

A pair of porcelain ducks

A flowered latch hooked rug

I don't think this latch hooked rug was ever used.  It came out of my washing machine looking pristine!

And Denise was fantastic!  As I picked through her piles she tried to sell me every single thing she had. (Ripped chair – no thank you.  Statue of dog – no thank you.  Special chair for hemorrhoid relief – no thank you.)  She was great, and entertained us with stories of her “tightwad” mother who left each of her kids a $500,000 inheritance – that Denise said she did not need due to having a paid-for home and social security.  (We offered to help her out with that, but she declined.)

At the end of our treasure hunt, we agreed on $55 for all of it, and we loaded up our SUV.

There was a lot of great stuff, and after it all went through the washing machine and dishwasher, it sparkled and shone.

A trip to Pottery Barn it was not.  It was much more effort, but much less money.  And way more fun!

As always, the joy is in the journey!

Goodwill vs. the local thrift store

With the state of Tennessee open again after coronavirus, I decided to make a trip to my favorite local thrift store (that is NOT Goodwill).

While I was there, I heard the phone ring in the store, and this is what I overheard:

“Yes, ma’m, we’re open 10 to 5 today.  No, ma’m we never closed for coronavirus.  We’ve been deemed an essential business.”

I had to laugh, because as much as I love thrift stores, even I understand that they are not “essential.”

No masks at this store, no gloves, no closure.  But lots of people!  It is my observation that thrift store people do not seem to be afraid of coronavirus.

I will not reveal the name of my favorite store here and give them any bad publicity.

After over an hour of wandering around looking at every single thing, I had a receipt for $90 and I’d almost killed my son.  (I think he only survived that much time in a thrift store because he’d been stuck at home for so long due to COVID – at least he was somewhere other than the house.)

We also picked up a $150 washing machine from a guy in a truck at a McDonald’s parking lot.

So here is what $90 at the thrift store looks like:

A granite topped table (I'll paint the metal bottom),

some kitchen stuff, a dog bowl & a baby chair.

Some pretty things for the china cabinet.  I couldn't resist.

And to refresh your memory, here was $94 of stuff from Goodwill:

Which was the better deal?  I’m not totally sure, but I think maybe Goodwill won that one.

I just can’t wait to go back!

Remember the photo of my dining room filled up with stuff we’ve collected for The House of Goodwill?  Well, the garage was even worse.  We cleared out the dining room and garage once, loading everything up in a trailer and taking a trip to the lake.  When we got back, we immediately filled both rooms right back up again with more furniture and more stuff.

So a couple of days ago my husband and son rented a trailer (again) and made another trip to The House of Goodwill to drop off the stuff we’ve been collecting, and set up the internet so we can go back to stay for a while.

While they were there, they texted me this photo:

Moon rise over the lake

Why am I still here??  I need to be there!!

Hopefully, in another week I will be.  I am ready to get to the house and start painting and putting it all together.  We haven’t headed there to stay yet because my son was still finishing up school, we didn’t have internet set up there, and it is easier to collect furniture and house “stuff” around here – closer to the city – than it will be there, since the The House of Goodwill is in a much more rural location.

My husband has a tech job and works from home, so he can work from anywhere.  We are grateful for that.

So, less than a week and we will be waking up on the water daily!

The definitely NOT great tv debate

“So, when can I buy the tvs for the house?” my husband asked.  “They have to be Samsung.  Huge for the downstairs.  And a good size for the upstairs lake room.”

Wait, what?

This is a $5000 budget.  Huge tvs will take at least 1/5 of that.  I obviously had not thought this through.  Even I love to kick back and binge watch tv on vacation from time to time.  But I can watch on any kind of tv.  (As you learned yesterday.) I do, however, realize that I am not normal in this area.  (Probably not in many others either, for that matter.)

So what am I going to do about the tvs?  We definitely need two, and if the budget was bigger, I’d probably throw another one in a bedroom.  Once we get a little income rolling in I probably will.  I also had a few other unpleasant surprises I hadn’t expected.  Like the house did not come with a microwave,  washing machine or dryer.  I didn’t realize I’d need to budget for those things too.

Cue unpleasant discussion about tvs.

For once, I’d say my husband probably won one.  I do get that we need really great tvs at this house.  People expect that in a vacation place, and budget or not, I want this to be a GREAT vacation place.  Also, smart tvs should be the simplest thing to put in the house.  That way people can use their own Netflix accounts when they come, and we won’t have to mess with firesticks and multiple remotes, etc. that people may or may not be familiar with.

I did ask him to at least consider other brands.  I mean, if we’re on a budget, let’s at least be a little open minded about the brand.  Does Samsung really make the ONLY great tvs in the world?

So the tvs may kill my budget.  “Why don’t you make it a $5000 budget, PLUS tvs?” my husband suggested.  It may turn out that way.  But I’m going to try that much harder to find what I want for less.  

But that’s ok.  It’s the challenge that’s the fun part!

The downside of being thrifty (or so I’m told)

So this is my tv.  Seriously.  I was a little hesitant to share this photo, because I’m afraid that any potential House of Goodwill visitors will be too afraid to make a reservation, based on an assumption that the technology of the house will be on par with this.  So everyone knows, this is MY tv.  (My tv in my home-house.)  The House of Goodwill’s tvs will be MUCH better.  They will NOT be vintage.  (More to come on that.)

This is also NOT my husband’s and NOT my son’s tv.  They would die first.  This is the one in my bedroom, that only I use, where I watch alone.  My husband and my son constantly make fun of me for this tv.  They’ve made me feel slightly self-conscious, like I should hide it in a gigantic paper bag if anyone ever comes over and wants to stick their head in my room.  (This doesn’t happen often, but the occasional visitor has come in my room from time to time and exclaimed, “Whoa! Why do you have that?”)

Why do I have it?  Because I don’t really care.  I don’t really care how big my screen is, how many pixels it has or whether it’s curved.  I just don’t.  I watch tv on it regularly and never give those things a thought.  I’ll give you this: it’s a bit large.  I wouldn’t be offended if it was a little sleeker.   And like my twenty-year-old car, I may not be that sad when it dies.  ‘Cause then I’ll get to get a new used one.  Upgrade! Car and tv from 2018 instead of 2000!

So am I a little extreme in my enthusiasm to save money?  Probably.  I’m told that regularly by the people who live in my house.

I had a favorite pair of cozy socks I used to wear like slippers.  When I was standing up, they looked fine.  But my son used to harass me every time I’d sit in my chair with my feet up, about the holes in the bottom.  “You can afford new socks!” he’d tell me (over and over), rolling his eyes.  One day he appeared from the kitchen with scissors in his hand, ripped the socks off my feet and cut them in half before I could stop him.

Guess what he gave me for my birthday?

I really miss these socks

How’s the budget going on the House of Goodwill project?

My husband asked me this the other day, and I got a little anxious.  I got a little anxious because I have no idea.  So that makes me like most people who live on a budget, right?

I kind of want to know the answer to this question, and I kind of don’t.  (Again, like most people I imagine.)

And the truth is, as soon as I can find the time to sit down and tally up my purchases, I will have an answer.  I have a little blue notebook, and every purchase I’ve made – and every free item I’ve found or been given – has been recorded in this book.

I’m trying to decide how to present this on the blog, do I type up a list somewhere?

I’m at a point where I really do need to know.

At first, I started buying things I knew I would need, and if the price seemed really low I just bought it.  Then I started accumulating so much free stuff that I started to relax a little, thinking this wouldn’t be too hard to accomplish.  We’ve got quite a few things, and I would guess I’ve spent about half the budget.

But when I stop and think about some of the big purchases I still don’t have, like sofas, tvs, linens, kitchen items, etc. I really don’t know if I can make budget or not.  This project may turn in to “how close can I come?”

Since we closed on the house, we’ve been there once, dropping off a trailer full of collected items.  We’ve since been trying to finish some things up at our home-house so we can head back again, this time to stay for a while and start on the painting, etc. (Ugh – painting is like exercise.  I’ve painted a zillion rooms in my life and I have a love/hate relationship with it.  I love how transformative it is, but getting started is the hard part.)

In a few days I’ll have an answer on the budget, what I’ve spent and what I’ve got left.  Fingers crossed.

A few recycled favorites

From my house, these are not new ideas, but I still want to share:

When I was pricing new trellises at Lowe’s and Home Depot, almost everything was too small and made from scrawny thin metal or wood that would rot too quickly.  And the prices seemed high for these new, generic-looking garden features.

So I bought a metal bed on craigslist and spray painted the head and foot board for two different trellises.  I don’t remember what I paid for it, but it wasn’t much.  They were perfect for large vines.

Carolina Jessamine vine, blooming in spring

This honeysuckle vine has grown so large, it's hard to see the trellis anymore!

I made another from a fireplace screen that I found at an antique store.   I cut the wire out of it, and my husband removed the two folding sides.  It was just what I needed for a rosebush I wanted to train to grow up the front of my house.

Anyway, they cost a lot less, will doubtless last longer and I think they are much prettier!

Thrifting + Creativity = Fun! (and more $ saved)

Meet Bob

This is Bob.  I have an inexplicable attachment to Bob, and I don’t know why.  Bob was a $5 discount fern I bought maybe seven years ago at Home Depot.

(His name is Bob because his form reminds me of Sideshow Bob’s hair on The Simpsons.)

Bob in his $5 garbage can from Goodwill. 

These are some of my favorite inexpensive plant holders!

Because I like to save money (and I love to garden), every fall I haul all my containers of plants inside the garage.  First I dig out any non-hardy bulbs to bag up and save till spring, but then I just leave the rest of the plants as they are.  I am always amazed at how many perennials (and annuals) will grow back again for me in the spring with so little effort.  (Hence the money saved.)

For some reason Bob gets special treatment.  Bob is in a handful of plants that get to come inside my house for the winter (with the tropical plants).  Ferns are not really great indoor plants.  When they get a little dry, as they inevitably do, they have a tendency to drop tiny brown leaves all over the place.  I have vacuumed quite a few of these.

Bob used to decorate a corner of my kitchen, and he’d get special lights at Christmas.  (He looked quite beautiful, actually.)  One year, when I had the crazy inspiration that my son should learn to take care of a living thing, I made him put Bob in his room with instructions to open his bedroom blinds every morning (so Bob could have light) and water him occasionally.  Needless to say, Bob barely made it through the winter.

When Bob seemed way too big for his container, I googled “dividing ferns” and lo and behold, discovered that yes, ferns can be divided, you just have to saw their root ball in half.  And so Bob had a baby named Bill.  They both looked a little scraggly at first after the division, but after about 6 weeks they had filled out nicely.

The problem is, now both Bill AND Bob need to be divided again.  And I’m not sure how many ferns can fit in my house…

And what was the point of this?  I guess that one thing I love about so many plants is their ability to generate new ones for free.  (And it’s fun to try!)  That, and to bring this back around to Goodwill – it is amazing how many awesome and inexpensive plant containers you can find at Goodwill.

I put Bill in a metal trash can from Goodwill and drilled a few drainage holes in the bottom.  He looks really elegant in his trash can, don’t you think?