Sunday, July 13, 2014

Time Flies (and Drags)

Have you ever looked back a month (or in my case, 1.5 months) and think that five years have passed? Or looked at yesterday morning and wonder, "If I hadn't done that, this wouldn't have happened?" That's precisely how I feel about life since the last post. Perhaps if I wrote with more frequency, I wouldn't feel this way, but alas, life got in the way.

We bought quite a few pieces over the last 40-ish days, and as usual, I forgot to take some "before" pictures. My desire to start and complete a project always overwhelms the patience required to use 10 seconds to snap a photograph. I'm not including everything we purchased because this piece of crap blogger.com is having serious formatting issues, but I am including all of our interesting pieces and bargain buys.



Though this depression-era hutch was a really good addition, I'm a bit disappointed in myself that I overpaid a bit. I tend to lose some of my buying discipline when antiques are involved. The lady selling seemed anxious to sell, we had a good rapport, but I just paid the asking price. I didn't ask if she would take less. I felt like I had no bargaining power because she knew I had driven quite a distance for the hutch. 

$20 is nothing, but change the dollar-sign to a percentage-sign, the perceived overpay increases. That's how I think. I left 20% on the table.

Paid $100 for this lovely antique hutch



Finished product turned out nicely


Paid a whopping $22 for this pair of mid-century chairs. There were a couple
stains, so we had to paint them. In the end, they turned out nicely.




Sometimes I wonder how certain people have made it this far in life. Frankly, my thinking travels well beyond that, but there's no need to be ugly. A good buy is a good buy, and I shouldn't question the sense, or lack thereof, behind the seller's motivation.


Don't know how, but we paid $25 for this depression-era
Waterfall dresser. We earned it....the woman's house stunk,
but at least the dresser still smelled "antiquey."



One of my favorite pieces thus far.....it came out exactly
how we envisioned.

Paid $25 for this (sorry, forgot the before picture), and.....

.....paid $25 for this curio cabinet (again, no before photo)

Paid $20 for this 1951 cedar chest

Stripped some veneer, and painted it a neutral cream. Had we painted it
pink, it would already be gone. I'm still never buying pink paint.




For the most part, it was a productive and entertaining start to the summer, though not without days of severe high anxiety and stress. We are very much looking forward to finding more interesting junk during a calmer and more care-free back half of summer.