A good deal in New York?

The summer break in New York is wrapping up, and soon it will be time to return to The House of Goodwill project.  But first, a few more New York shares, things I haven't taken time to post, because I've been a little too busy living life outside (and away from the screens).

As a former New Yorker - one who would not return as a permanent resident, due to the crazy high taxes here - a piece of my heart will always be here in this state.  As much as I love it, I have to admit, New York's reputation for being an expensive place to live is totally accurate, even if you are FAR from the city.  Which is sad.

New York is full of old houses, which I love.  The countryside here is beautiful too, though I think many people are unaware of this.  (I often meet people in other states who just assume I grew up in the city when I tell them I'm from New York.  And I realize many people think of the state as one big city.)

So yes, New York is expensive.  But one of my favorite things to do here is free.

In my home town, which is located on Lake Ontario (one of the Great Lakes), watching the sunset is an activity you plan your evenings around.  And the sunsets here are AMAZING.  Somehow, they're always different.  The variations of clouds, the flatness/waviness of the lake, the rain (or snow) - there are a million factors that can change it up daily.

Here are a few of my favorites this summer:

In this photo and the one below, the tiny black spot on the water is my husband, floating on a tube.

FYI, none of these photos were altered or enhanced.  God didn't need any assistance here.

The old cliche holds true - the best things in life are free.  Even in the “concrete jungle” of New York. 🙂

A flea market Fenton & another fantastic find

Well, I thought "with all this free time" I'd have this summer, I'd be posting pretty often.  But it turns out, with lots of free time came lots of fun opportunities, which is a situation I'm not going to complain about.

I spent last summer taking care of two foster kids I didn't expect to still have with us, while working nonstop on The House of Goodwill (while rarely leaving the house due to both those reasons plus Covid); so I can't say I feel too bad about having fun things to do this summer, and doing them.

We've been making up for lost time.

Shortly after we arrived in New York this summer, I visited my favorite local flea market, which I hadn't been to in a couple of years.  I had a great time looking around, and made a couple of great finds.

I keep a collection of blue glass in my New York cottage (all from thrift sources).  I've always loved colored glass (and vintage glass); when the sun shines shines through beautiful pieces of glass, I really think there's nothing lovelier.

When I first got to the flea market, I found this piece - I don't know what you call these, I need to learn the name - sitting on a table with a $12 price tag:

I have a few variations of this, in other colors.

But I have never seen one of these in this shape.

If you've never seen one of these, this is a "vase" with a built in flower frog to place flower stems in.

The clear glass piece lifts out so you can fill the bottom with water.

Kind of like a simple flower arranger - a centerpiece for dummies. 🙂

As you can see, each end has a larger opening for a pillar candle (or just another flower).

There are two larger openings for pillar candles in the center part as well.

When I was checking out, the man working the register told me he couldn't believe the price.  When I told him I'd never seen a piece quite like it, he said he hadn't either, and when he arrived at work that morning he'd spent time online trying to find something like it but couldn't.  And he agreed that it was probably worth much more than it's $12 price tag!

Here is my other find, this beautiful vase was sitting all dirty on top of a shelf:

When I spotted this, I thought it might be Fenton, and when I turned it over, under the dirt you could just barely make out the mark on the bottom.

I couldn't believe the $26 price tag - I NEVER see Fenton pieces marked this cheap, and I wondered if the seller knew what they had.

I don't think I own another piece of Fenton, so I bought it.

Maybe it wasn't cheap - but it is cheap for Fenton!

I came home, got an old toothbrush and some soapy water, and cleaned it up.

I couldn't believe how different it looked after it's cleaning.

SO, with two new pieces of art glass, I just couldn't let them sit!

Here it is, filled with pink carnations, and here it is in action!  (As our dinner centerpiece with my sister-in-law at the table.)

And here is my beautiful flea market Fenton, full of gladioli:

 

Even the non-flower noticers I know have noticed (and commented) on these happy-colored gladioli.

With so much world-wide tragedy currently unfolding, I am trying extra hard to be grateful for the simple pleasures.

I'm going to find out what these glass/candle/flower arranger things are called, and I'll get back to you.  BEFORE another month goes by!

Is it just me?

It's been over a month now since my family and I have been in New York state, taking a break from The House of Goodwill project, and staying in a little cottage on a campground on Lake Ontario.  

We haven't been in here in three years, due to foster care responsibilities and Covid restrictions.  It's been an enjoyable break from the usual scenery and responsibilities.

So, of course when I've had opportunities I've taken them to explore my favorite local thrift shops and flea markets.  The other day I visited a city an hour away (Auburn, NY) that I haven't been to in years.  I found three thrift stores; a small but great one (that was actually an antique store, but cheap), a huge, good one (that was a flea market) and a small one that was a real dump.  (It reeked of cigarette smoke and was just gross.)  It was an interesting day.

My first stop was the big flea market:

I always find interesting things thrifting.  In an enormous room of books, I found a cookbook who's title seemed appropriate for right now:

1973 (the publication year) or 2021?

Another trend that is unfortunately returning.

I'd prefer the return of bell bottoms or a Brady Brunch reboot.

The subtitle: "Good Food for Hard Times"

Of course I had to check out the 1973 recipes for inflation!  It wasn't exactly what I expected.  What did I expect?  Well, probably a lot of recipes with cheap ingredients.  Like variations of spaghetti, beans or food from cans.  But a lot of the recipes seemed kind of "normal," like below:

Lamb casserole?

In my experience, lamb is one of the most expensive meats in the grocery store.

There were several pages of lamb recipes, so that was surprising.

This seemed like another odd one.  Deviled oysters?  Halibut steak?

Not ingredients that would be the usual suspects if money is an issue, or so I imagine.

(Click on the photo to enlarge it, if you want to read the fine print of the recipes.)

I HAD to read the recipe for "Kentucky Fish Pudding."  Is it just me, or does that sound a little unusual?  Fish and pudding are not two words I've ever heard put together before, and reading the recipe, I still can't quite imagine what this tastes like.

So of course there is a part of me that really, really wants to try it.  But this is what's fun about reading cookbooks, and especially the oddball ones.

I kept paging through, and I DID finally stumble upon some recipes that were more along the lines of what I thought I'd find in the cookbook.

Ah, here were the expected riffs on pasta - the cheap ingredients I thought the cookbook would be full of.

But macaroni and cheese with peanuts?

That's a new one...

And more peanuts!

Apparently peanuts are an inflationary staple in this book...

Another interesting recipe.

I'm curious how this one tastes, too.

And finally, for the last cheap and odd recipe for inflationary times:

Here we have "bean loaf," and I find myself wondering again, does this only seem strange to me?

Are vegetarians familiar with this?

Does this actually taste surprisingly delicious or is there a reason I've never heard of it?

Again, I kind of really want to try this!

Maybe I will and report back...

So after paging through the cookbook, I'm not sure I identified a pattern for what qualified recipes to be good for times of inflation.

But it was a killer title.  It did make me stop and pick it up.

Maybe it's time to republish it.

When you buy a hardback cookbook, and pay MUCH less for it than you do for one gallon of gas for your car, something's off.  

An odd cookbook appropriate for times stranger than Kentucky Fish Pudding.

Or is it just me?

A summer break

I'm back!  You may have noticed, posts at The House of Goodwill have been a bit sporadic the last few weeks.  There's a reason; we're not there!

When we bought the house in March of 2020, we thought we'd have it rentable by this point.  But as you may recall, the interior work has moved slower than we expected, but more importantly, we still have no dock area down by the lake.  (This is my absolute must have before we rent it out.)

Why is the dock area so important to me?  Well, the house will be a lake house rental, and as it is, the shoreline area is currently not very useful.  The shoreline consists of old, crumbling railroad ties, and the ground is full of small holes that are invitations to a twisted ankle.

Aside from that, Tennessee heats up to a billion degrees most summer days.  Without a covered area by the water, it's just too unpleasant down by the water, even though it's by the water.  We are planning to put in a covered dock with a ceiling fan, which should make it wonderful!  We also want to add a little sandy beach area.  And since this house will be a BYOB (bring your own boat), somewhere to park the boat is important too.

When we are there we slide our kayaks in over the decaying railroad ties, and tie our jets skis to the neighbor's dock.  (Our neighbors are wonderful!)  But we look forward to the day we have our dock in place, for our own purposes too!

At this point we don't know when we will have the dock built.  We met with our builder a few months ago (who told us he could fit us in "soon"); we haven't heard a word from him since.  Because of shortages, inflation and post-Covid weirdness, I know construction projects are not proceeding as usual, so I'm too concerned yet.  Honestly, I don't want to have to build a dock and pay 30% more.  But we sure hope it can be built before next summer!

So anyway, with the house improvements on indefinite pause, we are taking a break for the summer.  (Since my interior work is not what's holding the project up, I don't feel guilty taking some time off.  It will be waiting for me in the fall.)

Where are we right now?  In New York state, where both my husband and I are from.  More on that in the next post.  Traveling from Tennessee to New York (and all the work that entails) is the reason this blog has been quiet, now that I'm here I look forward to posting more again.

So what was the status of the interior of the house when we left?

Remember these holes in the walls in the hallway and bathroom, that we discovered after removing wallpaper?

Well, after two months of trying to find someone who could do the wall repair (and finally finding someone who gave us an estimate and then never showed up), my husband determined to reface the walls himself.

He watched hours of Youtube videos, bought all the materials, and then spent a week patching holes, skim coating the walls, and sanding.

Here are the walls in process, after he put the first two coats of plaster.

And here is how we left it:

Holes??  What holes?!

This bathroom wall is smooth as a baby's skin.

All the entryway walls got skim coated and sanded.

Remember when my husband initially offered to try to fix the walls and I balked, because I wanted them done perfectly?  Well, he made me eat my words!  I'm pretty sure at this point that my husband can do anything.  I told him so.  "Oh no," was his response.  

So while this week long project was underway, and we were simultaneously having a fence installed outside, what was I up to?

Well, while my painting upstairs was held up (due to my waiting on the bathroom and entryway walls to be ready), I was going to paint the one downstairs wall that needed to be done, in the downstairs kitchen.

But when I gave it a really good inspection, I realized that the cabinets were looking really, really rough and I made a decision to paint them, which necessitated my LEAST favorite home improvement activity: sanding.  I spent the next week sanding kitchen cabinets (all 27 of them) indoors and out.  My son went between helping me and his dad, getting a good education at refacing walls in the process.

Here's a look at the downstairs kitchen, with it's dark wall and cabinets, when we bought the house:

This is how the kitchen currently looks.

So to recap: our last two weeks in The House of Goodwill in June were spent in a dusty, chaotic mess.  Between the daily sanding of the walls upstairs, and the sanding of the cabinets downstairs, it seemed there was dust everywhere - in every room, and dusty footprints leading all over the house.

Ironically, as the house is closer than ever to being finished on the inside, it's also in the most chaotic state it's ever been in.  And after a year of working on the house steadily - painting, sanding, doing yardwork - I was ready to take a break for a few months.  (And my last week there was spent covered in poison ivy, so there was that too.)

While I can honestly say I've really enjoyed working on the house and watching it progress, after a year of getting up almost every day and putting on painting clothes, and then painting alone all day, I'm enjoying this time off.

We met our goal of reaching a certain point before the break: the walls upstairs in the entryway and bathroom are completely done, and ready to be painted.  The kitchen cabinets are completely sanded and ready to be painted.  Now that the cabinets have been sanded, the kitchen walls can be painted too.

So all the dirty work is done.  All that is left of the major work when we return is painting a lot of walls, which after completing all the sanding and tedious molding painting, doesn't seem like a big deal at all.  I know after a few months off I'll return excited to get started again.

And once the walls are FINALLY all painted, I can finish the setting up and furnishing of the house to make it airbnb ready.  And oh boy, will it be hard to let this baby go when the time comes!  When we finally have the house in perfect shape so we can just arrive there and relax (and NOT work) - that's when we'll be moving out and others will be moving in.

We truly, truly love this house.  We keep saying that maybe we'll just rent it for a few years...we'll see.

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!

A birthday bouquet (aka. use what you have, part 2)

It was my friend Jeanne's birthday.  And I didn't know it, until I was told that day.  (She knows my birthday, and she always brings a card, which makes me feel even worse that I didn't know her date.)  In fact, earlier this year, on my day, she and Jim gave me the most beautiful bouquet with five different daffodils that they grow in their yard.

I really, really wanted to give her something special.  So, taking a cue from her, I took a look in my yard, where I have been striving to grow enough perennials for a nice cutting garden.

And I thought I came up with a nice vaseful for her!  (Another reason to keep the cute and inexpensive Goodwill vases on hand.)

The first early summer bloom was finished (the irises, roses and salvia).  I have some daylilies, but their name is a clue as to why they make terrible cut flowers.

Still, I managed to put together something really pretty from the few things I have going. 

I've got two perennials looking really beautiful at the moment.  Here they are:

Look at this beautiful astilbe!

I've got purple and white blooming.

The white astilbe is at the end of it's bloom time, so I didn't use it.

This is my shade garden on the shadowy side of the house; it's so beautiful right now.

I've got ferns, hostas and astilbe that just LOVE the lack of sunlight!

The other perennial looking stunning right now is the phlox.

I planted it last year and it's come back looking thick and beautiful.

With the purple phlox and astilbe as my base, here is how the bouquet turned out:

There were three Don Juan red roses, I clipped them all.

There's also a small pink rose, some pink carnations and a little purple lantana that was growing in a pot.

I pretty much clipped everything I could find in bloom.

But didn't it come out pretty?

It felt great to have a "birthday emergency" and rise to the occasion with just what I have in my yard!  I try to grow my perennial garden a little bit more each year.

And finally, one more pic:

We were cleaning the foster kids' sandbox toys with the hose so we could donate them to Goodwill.

I left a box out to pack them in for a few minutes, and - wouldn't you know it - found my cat hanging out there all afternoon.

A great big yard to enjoy and he prefers to sit in a box.

💓🐈😻

Sometimes, you may have a million options, but what's simple just feels good.

A big project completed

The House of Goodwill has some good news!  A major project has FINALLY been completed.  Unfortunately, it's not the DIY kind, it's the pay-a-company-a-lot-of-money-to-do-it-quick-kind.  In the interest of saving money, I usually choose to go with option #1, but this time we didn't.  This time the husband was determined to pay someone else.

The House of Goodwill now has a pet fence!

Anyone who has dogs (and sometimes cats) understands without saying the importance of the pet fence.  For anyone who doesn't understand the significance (due to being pet-less) - here is the reason it's changed our lives dramatically in the past few days: For the last year since we've bought this house, every time our dogs have had to go to the bathroom outside, it's required one of us (usually the husband) to leash up both dogs and walk them around outside until they've located the perfect spot.

If it's raining, they still have to be walked around.  If it's 95 degrees in the middle of the day, they still have to be walked around.  When it's midnight, they have to be walked around.  And taking the dogs out from any door in this house involves going down a set of stairs.  (So imagine two leashed dogs pulling you down a staircase multiple times per day.)

Perhaps now you understand the life-transforming joy of the pet fence.

Now we just open the door in the living room, and the dogs run out and down the stairs and into the yard, where they are safely contained.

Would you like to see this object of beauty?

We thought long and hard over this fence: what material, where to put it, etc.  We finally decided on a green chain link; I know chain link are generally considered ugly (and I agree), but for whatever reason, when I see one in brown, black or green I usually think they look nice.  We chose green because it blends with the grass and trees.

We went with chain link because they tend to last a long time, and we didn't want to use a solid material that would block the views of the lake from the yard.  It had to be see-through.

A second gate opens to the driveway

Can you see the fence in this picture?

(It runs along the slope behind the crepe myrtles.)

It blends so well you hardly notice it!

After multiple back-and-forths, we ended up running the fence through the middle of the slope on the side of the yard, directly through the monkey grass and iris beds.  The main reason was landscape maintenance - if it sat at the top or bottom of the slope it would have required weedeating along it, but by going through the middle it doesn't - the lawnmower can just mow along at the bottom and top of the slope per usual.  Also, for monkeygrass-slope weeding purposes, I can still access the beds easily from the top or bottom.  Having in on the slope incline definitely makes it less visible too.

My husband was pretty adamant about NOT DIY-ing the fence, and to be honest, I was a little surprised.  This is because he's installed multiple fences at our other houses, and he knows what he's doing.  But they were solid wood privacy fences, and the chain link seemed to give him anxiety.

The downside?  We actually had the fence company come out in October to give us an estimate.  But due to COVID reasons, they couldn't order the materials for a couple of months.  By the time they finally could, inflation had driven up the cost of the fence to over $4000. 😐

There is one funny fence story: last fall, the husband and I were out kayaking one evening still debating about the fence material to use.  We noticed a house on the lake with the same green chain link fence, and as soon as we saw it, we both knew that was what we wanted to go with.  It looked great!

As our fence was being built, one of our neighbors, Gigi, was passing by in a golf cart and stopped to see the fence.  She left to bring her husband back to see it too.  When the fence guys had finished the job, they drove to her house to give her an estimate for her own green chain link fence.

So, as much as I hate being trendy, I'm square in the middle of this one. 🙂

But I was trendy in other ways, too.  When the fence guys came to roll the chain link a week after they had set the posts (in the monkey grass), two out of three of them had poison ivy.  (Though not at my level.)

The third guy claimed he was not allergic.

My husband made sure to get his phone number.  ("I'll give him fifty bucks in the fall to come back and pull our poison ivy vines," he promised.)

And this is after he spent a year walking dogs around a yard and waiting for them to go to the bathroom early and late and in all kinds of weather - so I wouldn't have to.

Let me officially declare - romance is alive and well. 💗