Little by little

A couple of months ago, I scored a great craigslist find that was pretty transformational to life at the House of Goodwill, and I want to share.

Last year, after we bought the house, I spent the summer on the porch sitting in one of those low, tri-folding beach chairs that we got in the carload of stuff from Denise's basement for $55.

I sat on that chair for hours, scouring for used patio furniture online, only to come up empty.

Because the porch is small, I decided to opt for a four-person bar table with chairs (because the table top would be smaller in diameter than the usual patio table), that would take up less space.

Anyway, here is how the porch looked last summer:

I bet I sat in his chair for hundreds of hours last summer!

We also had this little bistro set that someone gave us for free.

It was really cute, and it took up the perfect amount of space.

But was it comfortable?  No!

Did you want to spend more than 10 minutes in the chairs?  No!

Also, only two people could sit at it.

I'll find somewhere else to use it; where it's not the main dining table.

Finally, I found the outdoor furniture I was looking for, after a year of searching.  Here is the table and chair set I found on craigslist, for $250:

The chairs swivel, and are very comfortable.

The tabletop is beautiful; it's wooden, with a metal decorative strip.

This was definitely a great find!  I bought it from a guy who had been using it as a poker table in his basement.  The guy was selling off all of his worldly possessions to move to the Caribbean.  I bought it from the right person, he was kind enough (and strong enough and knowledgeable enough) to be able to tie the one last chair (that wouldn't fit in my vehicle) to the roof of my SUV, so that I could safely get it home in one trip.  A small, lightweight set this is not.

The wooden table is so nice I kind of hate to use it outside, but at least the porch is covered.

We've already put it to good use, using it a lot to eat, but have yet to play a game on it.  We will!

I liken the House of Goodwill to a college student who's graduated, and is slowly replacing all his makeshift college furniture (and free donations) with upgraded stuff.

And I think if I didn't tell anyone - no one would ever know it was all purchased secondhand!