Some Days It Just All Works Out

I've got to admit, I'm still a Craigaholic.  I can't wean myself away from reading the furniture section on Craigslist.  There's not a whole lot that I'm still looking for, but it's just so fascinating seeing what's for sale and what's for free.  You could decorate a whole house with some wonderful, quality furniture for nothing, if you had all the time in the world and were lucky enough to be the first to respond to some of those ads.  So yeah, I still look, because...well...you just don't know what you might find.

I got really excited about something I found last Saturday morning.  So excited that I just phoned right away and said I wanted it.  Usually I think about if for a bit, then call Larry down to the computer to have a look and ask him what he thinks.  He has yet to say,  'oh, that's wonderful or just perfect or is just what we need, quick, you'd better reply right now', so I'm not sure why I bother.  I guess I just want to forewarn him of what we might be going to pick up:)

This was one of the pictures in the ad.

And the other one looked something like this.  It's made in Germany.

(Just to clarify, it did not come with a sewing machine, that is mine that I put in there). 

The price was $45.  And I was the first one to call!  The ad said it was made of solid oak, but I think it is probably oak veneer.  It has all these cool little compartments that swing out.

And some of them lift out

On the other side there is a lid that lifts up, and has a mirror on it.  Another storage area for spools and bobbins that also lifts out.

There are three drawers.  The top one is fake and the bottom one is a double depth drawer.

The platform that the sewing machine is on is easily raised by pushing a lever.  It will come up level

with the rest of the table, or stop just below so that the bed of the sewing machine is level with the table top.  There is a plastic frame that goes around the sewing machine to fill in the gap.  And I love the tape measure along the front, so handy!

And then it all folds away again to look like this, a decent looking, compact piece of furniture.

  I love it!  And of course I love it even more when I check out the website and see what the most recent version of that same sewing cabinet is selling for ....

https://www.hornofamerica.com/products.cfm?func=productdetails&productID=87

'On sale' for $1134.00!!!  I'm still grinning about it:)

But that wasn't the only good part of the day.  I had also found a bunch of free ink cartridges for our printer on Craigslist that morning.  And low and behold I'd managed to coordinate the pick-up of them for right after the sewing cabinet, just 5 or 10 minutes further away.  So now I also have 6 brand new, still sealed 'knock off' ink cartridges off E-Bay.  

Since we had had to head out to Chilliwack (40 minutes from home) for these deals, I said lets take the dogs along and go for a walk on the dyke out there.  So that was what we did next.  It was a beautiful day, there was no wind, and we had the dyke to ourselves.

The dogs had a great walk, well except for Calli.  On the way back she was just done in, so we had to give her a lot of help.   In reality, she still hasn't recovered from the exercise she got at Oliver, as well as two pretty long walks we had taken her on since then.  It's going to take her a while to get over it, and a lesson learned for us.  What happens is that when we are away, she gets more exercise than she would at home.  She handles it okay for the first few days, and then all of a sudden it catches up with her, and her back legs just get very weak.  We need to remember that we can't take her on a long walk every day.  It is taking her a while to recover, she's still pretty weak and is not getting the walks that she would like to be getting.  She's going to be 13 in a week, so as she ages the recovery time is longer.

After that we stopped for something to eat, and then hit the library and the grocery store on the way home.    A good day, some good deals, a nice walk and all done it one trip.  Just the way I like it!

I'm Addicted

Just lately I've been spending far (maybe I should make that FAR) too much time scrolling through the Craigslist ads.  Here in the southwest corner of the BC there is a massive Craigslist community.  It was probably about seven or eight years ago, when David was spouting out ads for cars for sale or car parts or something car related, and I asked him what he was looking at.  And so I was introduced to Craigslist.  And I was hooked.  We started off gently.  The first purchase was a tv armoire.   At some point I became seriously hooked, and it seemed like every other week I was dragging Larry off to Vancouver, or more locally if he was lucky, to pick up something.  We bought a fridge, a washer and dryer, a dishwasher, an over the range fan, bookshelves, fencing, farm gates, pedestal sink, bathroom vanity, dog crates and a multitude of smaller stuff.  We've also got free stuff.  We've given stuff away, sold chickens, and a few other things.  

Now that we have a new house to furnish and fill up with 'stuff', I'm in Craigslist heaven.  And because the house is very small, I have to be very careful about the size of the things that we get.  We are still feeling our way, although we did take measurements and are looking for specific pieces of furniture for specific places.  So far we have bought a small table and chairs, two night tables, a side table.  I also got a free side table that I am refinishing.  I bought a patio set, but we decided to keep it here.  Yesterday I bought another patio set.  $45.  The chairs are very comfy:)

  This one's going to Oliver.  I worked it so that I stopped on my home from visiting my mother, so really no extra driving or gas involved.  I managed to fit it all into the Echo, with the donation of one bungee cord from the seller:)   The table was on it's side in the trunk, with the lid bungeed down.  Thankfully the chair backs came off, and the chairs stacked, laid on their sides in the back seat.  There was still room for quite a bit more.

 Now I'll stop looking at patio sets.  Maybe.