Thrift and CL Finds

We had some good luck this weekend with our local thrift store and "christened" the Mazda on her first day with a craigslist run after we got home on Saturday.

Hammered Copper Pot from Unique Thrift

I'm going to clean this up and transplant my tomato into it! Only $15 which is a great deal for real copper. The interwebs suggests using a salt covered lemon to clean off the oxidization. I'll let you know how that goes.


Atomic Coffee/Tea Pot?

I zeroed in on this beauty from like two aisles away! Also at Unique Thrift this new addition to my china cabinet was only $3.93! Cleaned up beautifully with my BFF Bar Keeper's Friend.


MidMod Record Cabinet
Scored this little guy on CL for $10. It needs to be sanded and restained and will likely be my TV stand for the new apartment!

It benefits me that Micheal is loving driving the new Mazda3 (with a hatchback, woot!) so now when I say "look what I found on CL" he's all "let's go!!"

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone is having a good Monday! Micheal and I are recovering after hosting my 9-year-old nephew for the past 10 days. We had a BLAST but man, this surrogate parenting stuff is exhausting!

I'm working on a post with pics of all the fun things we did in DC, but here's a sneak pic at some pics:


My mom came out the last few days too!

Natural History Museum

I also took my mom to my local thrift store, just so she could have a "visual" when I called her while I was roaming the aisles. And just our luck, all furniture was 50% off! So I picked up this little guy for a reasonable $4.50 and plan on painting it black and might even put a funky pattern on the top!



More to come this week - Ciao for now!

Craigslist Queen!

I've gotten some pretty good deals on CL since coming to DC including my dresser, Micheal's dresser, and my desk. However, the newest addition to our mid century decor has to be my best find yet!



Isn't she beautiful!! Look at those lines! Hubba hubba! There is a fourth chair that is currently sitting at my sewing machine.

The story goes like this - I was obsessively casually refreshing the craigslist "free" section when an ad popped up for free furniture. Included was a pic of this table and chairs (although the chairs were covered in an ugly vinyl) in the two seconds that I hesitated someone else beat me to the punch. But the nice woman took my name and said she's call if the other person backed out. Fast forward to the next day, she called!! The guy couldn't make it so it was all mine if I wanted it. My wonderful husband agreed to trek over to Arlington to pick it up and man was it worth it!





Man this table is cool and in great condition! Both sides fold down for easy storage!

Just to see what a good deal I might have gotten I Googled "mid century drop leaf table" and to my surprise I found my table right away...for $750 without chairs!! WHOA! With chairs it ranges from $1000 to $1250! Not sure I'll ever be able to top that one, but I'll keep trying!

My Mid Century Dining Room - Swoon!


Check out that original Herman Miller Bubble Lamp!

It's Funny How Things Work Out

About a month ago when we were actively searching for a mid century buffet Micheal found an awesome one on craigslist. You have to be QUICK with these things, so when we didn't hear back immediately we soft of bombarded the woman with emails. After about a week of no answer she emailed back saying it had been sold. :( However she and Micheal had a short email correspondence about where they bought it, it's history, etc. which was nice. They bought it at a garage sale for $25 because no one wanted it! Crazy people! So another missed opportunity. Sad.

Then we hit up this awesome estate sale a few weeks back and scored some amazing pieces at a great deal. Two side tables and an awesome buffet all for $135, sweet! More than we typically spend (thinking free...) but I was ready for some furnishings that I could just bring home and use.

We've been cleaning them up and preparing to post pics for you guys, and low and behold a month later the first woman emails us back! The other person never showed, and even though there were people in front of us in line she knew we really wanted it so wanted to offer it to us!

Just what we need, another piece of furniture right? In this case, yes. It's an amazing deal (and about an hour away) and we're thinking of turning it into a flat panel TV console!



And the best part is the price, $50!!! Even if we can't find a place for it (who am I kidding...we will) we would be able to clean it up and resell it in DC for a much better price. Yay!

Mail Call!

I think the comments say it all regarding this "beauty" I got off of Craigslist for free a few weeks ago...

"Second... sorry to be so dense... but what is that thing?" - Leslie

"You should have seen me, I'm looking and looking scrunched up against the computer screen! I couldn't figure out what I was looking at!" - My mom :)

Before



After



Before


After



Even our mailman noticed yesterday!! He told Micheal he though it looked good. :)

Steps to refinishing my mailbox:

1. Don't tell your husband you're picking up a rusted, ugly, trash free mailbox off Craigslist, he might think you're crazy.

2. After picking up my treasure I took it home and thoroughly cleaned it using soap and water. I then scrubbed it with a wire brush to clean off the oxidation and large damaged pieces.

3. I then sanded the black part of the mailbox (the top is bronze/copper and didn't sand well) using 100 grit sandpaper to smooth out as much of the rust damage as I could.

4. Then I wiped off any excess dust/dirt/grime using a white paper towel until it was clean of all debris.

5. I wanted to have the two accenting colors rather than all one color so I chose my two colors. First I used newspaper and painters tape to cover the base of the mailbox and painted the lid cream. Let this dry for at least an hour (I didn't do this...had to do some touch up. It's so hard to wait!)

6. Cover the lid with newspaper and painters tape WELL! Spray paint is notorious for overspray so if you don't fully seal off what you want to keep clean overspray will sneak in there. I then sprayed the bottom with the brown color. We're using Rustoleum Spray Paint purchased at Home Depot for about $3.75 - not bad!

7. We then let it dry and prepped the front door for the new beauty. We removed the old intercom plate and spray painted it to match the new mailbox. (Hopefully we can get a mason out soon to properly fix the gaps in the mortar, we used a caulking compound labeled for repairing mortar but Micheal isn't happy with the gray around the intercom)

8. Finally, to attach our mailbox to the brick wall we used a masonry bit to drill the holes and anchor screws to securely attach the box. Voila! Brand "new" mailbox for the price of little bit of spray paint!

All it takes is a little vision, patience and elbow grease!

Landfill Rescue

I got this "gem" off craigslist last week for free.




Come on now, can't you see the potential?? I can, so that's why I went and picked it in spite of the lister's ringing endorsement "not sure why anyone would want this but I thought I'd put it on here before it went to the landfill." I challenge you to your own "landfill rescue," look at some of your old "junk" and repurpose it for the same or a different use.

I'm actually almost done reworking this beauty and will post it pics once it's hung in it's new place of honor by our front door!

Deals & Steals

I am on the constant lookout for a good deal and have become pretty adept at my bargain hunting skills. With the state of the economy I thought it would be a good idea to start sharing some of my secrets to getting the most bang for your buck! First we'll focus on a "when to buy" tip.

End of Season Purchases
I am now, and always have been an end of season shopper. While some things can be tricky to purchase at the end of the season (such as clothes) there are many other departments where shopping at the end of the season can be very beneficial.

This time of year a great section of the store to shop in is the lawn and garden section. Stores like Target (Garden Clearance) and Walmart (Garden Clearance) have good deals on products to use outdoors. Today we picked up a full size shovel from Target for THREE dollars! Do we need a shovel right now? Nope. Will we need one in the spring when we're working our landscaping? Yep!

Other seasonal items I focus on:

Holiday leftovers - my mom and I generally make the traditional day after Christmas shop to stock up on things like boxes, bows, and wrapping paper. I also REFUSE to pay full price for holiday decorations. I just pick up decor on clearance after the season is over to use for the following year. I also brave the stores the day after Halloween to stock up on clearance candy!

My Recent Deals & Steals
1. The 3 dollar shovel from Target
2. 4 dollar staple gun from Community Forklift - over 50% off retail and it's red!
3. Floor trim from community forklift @ 25 cents per linear foot - retail for a similar product is between .82 to 1.50 at Home Depot per linear foot.

Refinishing Furniture

We have collected three dressers that it is our plan to refinish. You've seen pictures of mine which is coming along nicely, we've also picked up one for Micheal and a small one to put in the guest bedroom.

Refinishing furniture rather than buying new has many benefits!

1. Keeps old furniture out of the landfill - good for the environment!
2. Cost effective - if you have the time, patience and skill to put in
3. Can personalize to your space

With furniture abound in an area of nomadic people without trucks or SUVs we have picked up several pieces for free or nearly free.  Here's where we're at with the projects:

This is Micheal's dresser, it was a free pickup from Arlington and a nice young couple that had made the silly mistake of painting the inside of the dresser as well as the outside.  It mad it so the drawers would not slide in and out.  So Micheal is sanding it down and will repaint it black to match his nightstand.

This is a dresser that I literally found in a parking lot when I was actually going to look at another free desk (that ended up being gross).  It's a little shabby looking and Micheal kinda gave me the side-ways eyeball when I made him come get it, but I maintain it's gonna be a nice little dresser when I'm done.  I'm going to sand and paint it white and spray paint the top gray.

Here is the status of my dresser.  As you can see I have sanded 4 out of the 5 drawers and the top of the dresser.  I have the stain already purchases and as soon as I patch all of the little holes and sand the last drawers I'm going to stain it!  I'm still looking for new (old) drawer pulls as this one was missing a few and a few were broken.  I really think it's going to be beautiful.





Stay tuned for progress on this, this master bedroom (trim going up this weekend!!!) and a how-to for removing can lights and patching your ceiling.

Bargain Hunting 101

Anyone who knows me knows that I am the queen of frugal - my deal searching abilities are unparalleled (except maybe by Ashley) and I have been putting those skills into full force with this home renovation.

You have already been exposed to some of my craigslist searching (Jolene thinks I'm going to become a hoarder...) but I want to share with you an amazing warehouse that has been an excellent source of good deals.

The Community Forklift

This is a non-profit group that has filled a niche by providing salvaged, surplus & green building materials. I love this place and could probably go everyday to see what new things they get in. So far we have found some very good deals including:

A base cabinet that matches our kitchen cabinets so we can expand - $5

Ceramic tile to tile underneath the kitchen sink - like 15 cents a piece I think?

My painting ladder!!! (4 ft) - $4!!!

A new (to us) stainless steel sink - $20

Cork flooring - these were samples and we bought them for $1/piece (about 1.5 sq ft) and got enough matching to do our bathrooms! Cork is a green resource and will be a nice way to soften and warm up our bathroom.

Misc - lights (super cheap), that bar that goes from your shower head into the wall, new in package for $4/piece

The sliding glass door to replace the front window mishap - $30

They also came and picked up our old appliances for donation - tax writeoff, woohoo!! I tried to search in the KC area and didn't find one of these shops, but if you do find one make sure to check it out. Not only is it cost efficient (appeals to the frugal side of me) it's good for the planet to reuse materials so it doesn't end up in a landfill somewhere (the new green side of us.)

How to Build a Custom Closet on an F2F Budget

When we started on our MBR about a month ago my closet (yes I claimed the bedroom closet AGAIN!) looked like this:



We decided to strip it totally down and start over so we removed the shelf, bar and doors, then sanded and primed it:



Then we painted the interior a neutral color (SW's Linen), this is the neutral color that we're using on the main rooms of our house so I count it as "free" since I used what we already hand!



Next was to sand, prime and paint the trim. We hand sanded the trim with 100grit sandpaper enough to rough it up so paint could stick and to get through the top layer of disgusting oil-based paint. Then I taped the wall above the trim with blue painters tape and used a 2 inch angle brush to prime (one layer) and paint (one layer). I have found that painting trim with long brisk brush strokes results in a much better look (much smoother) than trying to go slow and get straight lines (what I did at first.)

You can see in the last picture I had painted the wall access panel the same color as the wall but I later decided that I liked it better matching the trim so repainted it.

Now it's all painted and ready to be reassembled so you need to decide what you want the setup of your closet to be. We looked at closet systems at Home Depot for inspiration and for the basics it runs anywhere from $70 to $200 for just the starter kit. This is not in our budget so we set out to recreate this and more for less money.

Enter - CRAIGSLIST!! I know, I know...I'm an addict.

Micheal found a shelving and drawer system on CL for $30, so we went and picked it up and started designing around it. I decided that I wanted the system in the middle with a high and low bar on one side for shirts and pants and a high bar on the other for long items such as dresses and skirts. This required us to purchase 3 bars @ $8/piece.

Here is the unit-


With the drawers and bars this unit would have cost approximately $250 from Home Depot - our budget model, $54!!

Problem #1:
The first of our difficulties in retrofitting this piece of furniture to the existing closet was that it was about 1 inch taller than the existing shelve mount (which we would be reusing.) So our first fix was to put 1x1 wood pieces (leftovers from another project - "free"!) around the shelving mount to try and level it out:



Problem #2:
This made it just a shade too tall...ugh... The only tool we had that we could try to trim the ends was a jigsaw...I don't have any pictures of this because it did not go well...at all...

To try and maintain our sanity and the usability of the closet unit we went to Home Depot to invest in the proper tools (le sigh...so expensive).

Let's just say after the jigsaw debacle one side of the shelf was now a bit short so we used the aforementioned 1x1 pieces of wood (still free!) instead to increase the height of the closet unit. So after some trimming and screwing it was the right height!

Oh yeah...power tools baby - look at that smile!


We were fortunate to have wood mounts already attached to the wall so Micheal was able to drill the high bars directly into the wall, then attached them to the shelving unit by drilling a starter hole and using two bolts to attach the bracket.

The bracket...was a smiley face!

Micheal says "Measure twice, cut/drill once!"


After we installed the three bars this was the finished project!!


I LOVE it!! I stained two pieces of wood with our red stain (again from another project) to use as the shelve above the closet unit. I'll post pics of it once I upload them. I'm so proud of our effort as this was a test of our creativity, frugality and patience but has ended in a successful closet (that will only look this clean once!)

What do you think? Who wants their own custom CL closet?? If you have pictures of your closet that we could post or share for inspiration please send them on over!

Craigslist Finds!! Outfitting your new home on a budget.

When moving into your first home, especially if it needs a lot of work, you likely don't have a lot of extra money laying around for upgrades beyond the necessities. However, if you are like us are still hauling around some furniture, housewares, etc. that have seen better days...you might even still have that free dresser that was left behind by some college freshman from you days as an RA... (yeah, it's that bad.)

So we have had to figure out creative ways to either update or replace our household items: enter Washington DC area craigslist. Craigslist is a free classifieds website where people can list their goods for sale. KC craigslist is okay, Richmond craiglist again, okay - but DC craigslist is insane!! I am fully convinced that if you have a truck you could furnish your entire house virtually for free. People in this area are fairly nomadic and instead of moving their furniture they list it on craiglist or put it out on the curb.

Here are two recent scores that I am really excited about - Micheal claims I have amazing craiglist luck - I maintain it's total skill. :)

This is a dresser that we bought for $25 - it's a really really nice piece that just needs some love. It has dovetail joints and is real wood. Just going to give it a light sand and restain!


This is a beautiful antique sewing machine table with a Commander sewing machine. It's in amazing condition and the machine still works. I got it for the bargain price of...

...FREE!!! I saw some at the Community Forklift in much worse shape priced around $150 so this was a steal. I was just going for the table to put my sewing machine in but I think I'm going to keep it in tact.

We also bought a piece of furniture today to make my custom closet, look for a post coming up on that!!