Opinions needed - and I Know You Have Them!

I have a habit of becoming fixated on one particular item I need, but won't spend a whole lot of money on. Exactly the right flour container, or brown sandals, or what have you. I am too cheap to just buy what I want on line, I have to scour yard sales and thrift shops until (three years later) I find it collecting dust somewhere.

When we changed out the kitchen cabinets, we went from l-shaped to straight, because I couldn't find a corner cabinet that fit. That left me with a spot about two feet wide that needed...something. Something with a small footprint, but negotiable height. Preferable movable. Something I could put...stuff in. That part is negotiable, too. 

With that clear vision in mind, I breezed through all the area thrift shops, finding many beautiful pieces that were just not quite right. On my way to work Saturday I went to a few yard sales, ending at one that sounded promising - retired couple down-sizing to a travel trailer. I didn't see anything small enough, and finally asked the wife. They had a baker's rack that would be perfect. Sold it for $10 just before I arrived. Sigh.

As I was walking back to my car, something that looked like wagon wheels, tucked off to the side, caught my eye.

 I pointed. "Is that for sale, or are you using it to hold your fly swatters?" (Said items scattered across the top.) Turns out the husband was trying to fix a caster with no success, and was frustrated enough to sell it to me for $5.

Obviously, it needs a tiny bit of work, but I have since found the exact tea cart online for hundreds of dollars. Score!

First up is the top, and this is where I need your opinions. It had this 'lovely' sticky laminate, peeling up in the corners, 

with - ugh - particle board underneath:

The bottom tray is the same:

The particle board has become wet and swollen in areas, which is why the surface was peeling off. Obviously, that needs to be replaced, but with what? I keep vacillating between options, and every five minutes I am absolutely positive I have decided something different. Help! Here are the options I see:

1. A thin sheet of laminate

Easiest and cheapest, but it would probably also look that way. 

2. Tile

I'm thinking white, maybe with a little grey, matte finish. Durable and pretty, and I can use grout to fill in any uneven spots. But, would the grout cause the particle board to swell more?

3. Wood 

This has several sub-options (is that a word?) I could cover the whole top with a thin sheet of oak (I considered butcher block, but it is too low to be a practical cutting surface). I could take the trim off (will it come off in one piece?) and replace the middle part, which would also mean replacing the thin sheet of plywood holding it all together underneath. Or, I could toss the whole middle section and start new - which would then mean mitering the edges to fit the leaves when they come up. These last two options would be closest to original, but would also be most labor-intensive, and - hello - kitchen remodeling underway!

So, what do you think? Please tell me what to do, I can no longer think for myself.

Fortunately, the rest of the cart is sanding up nicely,

so I can probably just use either a light stain or a plain, clear varnish when it's all done. Which, you know, should happen in the next couple years.

Yard Sale Score, Hoarding, and Odor Removal!

My mother, the littles and I all went yard saleing this past weekend (oh, be quiet spellcheck, that is too a word!) Daddy doesn't do yard sales. If he has to shop, he wants to get in, go straight to what he needs, and get back out before he has to actually interact with any people. (Yet, he will spend hours at an auction where he has no intention of buying anything - that one, I do not get at all.)

 

At yard sales, there is no quick getting in and out - there is browsing, rummaging, and staring hard at various items, trying to decide whether or not they are something you always wanted/needed, you just didn't know it until this very instant. As someone whose Pinterest boards are full of creative uses for old shutters (which I have yet to find at a yard sale), this is the part of yard sales that appeals to me most.

 

That, and, I'm very, very cheap.

 

So, at the second yard sale we hit, when I saw three new-looking, largish CD/DVD racks priced very reasonably, I had to stop and stare hard. My first thought was, "pantry!" But, I knew they wouldn't fit in my pantry. I stared more. I thought more. They were really very cheap. They would probably fit in the van. Obviously, what I needed to do, was get another pantry to put them in. So I bought all three of them (much to the dismay of two older ladies who came in right after me).

 

They did fit (barely), and as we drove slowly around to the rest of the sales on our list, I plotted where I could possibly put them. We picked up some kids' clothes, a kindling bucket for the wood stove, and a neat little cast iron grill. Then Mom and I both started to sniff suspiciously...

 

Cigarette smoke. Which we are both allergic to. The clothes, maybe? No matter, I always wash clothing as soon as I get home.

 

Nope...you know what it was, don't you? The shelves. The particle board shelves. Shelves made of porous material that soak in everything, and which would get completely ruined if soaked in anything liquid.

 

By this time, however, I had figured out where I was going to put them - the closet in the boys' room, which is just used for storage anyway - and I did not want to give up my new imaginary pantry. I brought them inside and wiped them down with a dish soap and Borax solution, then a vinegar and water solution. Nothing. Having a husband who traps skunks, I know the wonders of Woolite (forget tomato soup or the hydrogen peroxide recipe, trust me: Woolite takes out all trace of skunk odor!) I aprayed on a watered-down Woolite solution, leaving it as damp as I dared: no luck.

 

Fortunately, Daddy recently started using a new (to us) cleaner in places like the underneath of houses, where you can't just suds up with Woolite:

 

 

As Woolite's biggest fan, I had a hard time believing anything commercial would work better, but I tried it. I sprayed it on, wiped it around - smells like soap and cigarettes. I resigned myself to months of baking soda boxes, and started moving the shelves into the closet. As I began piling cans on, I suddenly realized...

 

...all I smelled was soap. It took maybe half an hour, but it worked perfectly, and I have a new favorite cleaning product! (Don't worry, Woolite, I still love you for all my skunky laundry and canine needs!) It says it can be used on carpet, so I sprayed it on "that" spot in ours, and we seem to have a success there, too! (I am reserving judgement for a while - carpet odors are notorious for returning, especially when your house is as old as ours).

 

And my new pantry? Le sigh...

 

 

I really like this setup, because I can see very quickly what I need more of (mushrooms!) and what I am completely out of (beef broth! How did that happen?!)

 

The shelves are easy to move around to fit the containers. I did put shims under each set, to make it lean a little more towards the back wall - if I decide for sure I like this arrangement, I will attach them to the wall more securely.

 

The area to the left still had some free space (this is a very long, shallow closet), where I hung C.'s 4 solitary button-down shirts, and covered the floor with bottled juice. No wasted space!

 

I still have dry goods in the pantry just outside my kitchen, but they aren't likely to explode in extreme heat or cold. My plan is to move things like canning jars from the garage - which is on the other side of our property - to the 'old' pantry, so I don't have to trek over and search the garage for them. Hopefully, that, in turn, will give me enough space to organize old clothes and toys out there. Since the garage is not as well-heated as C.'s closet, however, that will have to be a project for another day!

 

So, what have you repurposed for storage in your home?

 

Yard Sale Scores!

Rain meant cooler weather this weekend, which meant we could finally hit some yard sales without frying by 9AM. Sometimes you go out and find piles of junk that people price so high, you wonder how people can stand to get rid of things they prize so highly. Other days, you not only find things on your list, but things you didn't realize you needed:) This was one of the latter!

I limit myself to $50, and I still had $7 in my pocket, after buying:

- a half gallon of the exact shade of paint we are using in M's room

- 7 crib sheets

- a microwave to replace the one at work that takes 3 minutes to boil water, andthat I have to use a spoon to open

- 3 pairs of brand-new-looking shoes (except for the laces) that are one size up from what S is wearing:

- 8 new jars of baby food

- 13 articles of clothing (there would have been much more if we had a smaller baby girl. We'll have to work on that.)

- a glass hummingbird to hang outside

- new throw pillows:

- a kid-sized hard hat (I'm thinking for L., to protect himself from S.)

- an air pump

- a decorative pot in the colors I collect

- three ceramic eggs

- two cups of lemonade from some really cute kids

- and a bookshelf:

They don't look like much now, but stay tuned. M. and I have some...ideas.

I even gave out my e-mail address to someone who might be interested in a kitten. Anyone else???

Not bad for $43.

Thrift Shop Score!

S. doesn't wear dresses that often, but she does have a few. What she does not have is a closet, and I've been halfway looking for something to hang her dresses on - besides the curtain rod or the edge of the dresser drawer. I wasn't even sure what I was looking for until I saw this cutie:

She's perfect!

Well, there is a tiny chip missing from the back (which I actually found on the floor and will glue back on), and I think she needs a face, but you know what I mean. She can even hold gloves, and maybe the bracelets M. gave her. Score! This would probably be super easy to make from PVC and scrap wood, but I was happy enough to pay $10 for it.

I was also looking for new pillow cases and something to cover the sofa until a certain feline gets declawed. I ended up with a new-looking maroon king-sized sheet set. The pillow cases match the existing bedspread, I can always use another fitted sheet, and the flat sheet (which I never use on the bed) will do nicely for the sofa. $6.

This particular thrift shop gets dented cans, and S reminded me we need baked beans - by filling the cart herself. She also found a 50-cent thing which LOOKS like a pink baton, but which she will quickly tell you is actually a light saber (just ask the poor elderly gentleman who commented on it and who got corrected in no uncertain terms.)

What I did not find were long-sleeved onesies for the incredibly growing baby - didn't find them at Walmart, either! Silly Mommy, looking for warm clothes in January. Ah, well, he has enough chub to keep him warm. A pretty productive trip for one quick in-and-out!

Yard Sale Scores!

Yard sales are one of those weaknesses that aren't necessarily a bad thing. They are a really easy way to stretch the old budget, so when Mom asked if I wanted to go today, I didn't have to debate long. We started off with a dollar here (nice shoes for S.), 50 cents there (cool necklace for M.), then hit the Relay for Life yard sale. There were tons of clothes - several tables full, a hanging rack, boxes, at least three blankets. We had started sorting through, pulling things out for baby L., possible maternity shirts for me, when one of the guys in charge asked, "Who here has the largest vehicle?"

Well, that would be me, but why was he asking? I tentatively raised my hand, and he said, "I will sell you ALL of these clothes for $25."

So, be careful opening the back of my van:

And, C. may need a little help climbing out:

(you can't really see, but the two seats next to him are piled to the top, and the floor is covered up to seat level)

I'll be doing a bit of laundry this weekend. M. was having fun as we drove along, reaching behind her at random and pulling something out. "Hey, this is a cute shirt!"

We had some other good finds - S. fell in love with an inflatable globe as big as she was, $2. C. got cool cammo slippers for taking the puppy out in the morning (and, apparently, to wear 24/7)

We didn't go overboard (there wasn't room to!) There were plenty of things we didn't buy. These little faces were just too cute:

But they wouldn't have fit in the van.

And who doesn't need a giant...flea?

Ah, but then we saw something that reminded us that a friend recently bought C. a wonderful birthday gift, and we need to be prepared to return the favor for her son's next birthday...

(No, D., we didn't - but you worried for just a second there, didn't you?)

Besides the buying finds, there was of course running into people we haven't seen in a while, including quite a few who didn't know I was pregnant. We spotted one yard sale that wasn't on the list, and stopped to look around. The people brought their puppy out to play, and we remarked that it looked just like Bumble, C's new puppy. Long story short: it was his brother! I don't have a picture, unfortunately, because by that time my camera was buried.

Now to start sorting, and try to also do the other things on my to do list - but hey, cleaning out the van was one of them!