I've Been Up To My Usual Antics!

By now you probably know me.  Free stuff just finds ME! 

And then there's also the way Mark and I escalate each other in this area.  He loves to go to garage sales and haggle for cheap stuff.  I love to paint and revive it.  He loves to sell it.  Clearly, we were made for each other!

We spent last Friday night in Lawton, Oklahoma (long story!).  Here's what we got:

Mark's ornate vintage desk.  It's in much better condition than it looks in the photo.  He paid $10 for it. 
He may have caused a divorce with this deal because the husband was REALLY mad at the wife for selling it so cheap!
It's listed on Craigslist for $75.

My dresser with matching nightstand.  I paid $15 for both. 
They have since been freshened up with a new coat of paint and listed on Craigslist for $125.

The matching night stand (before I put the knob on).

When we ran out of garage sales, we prowled around for curb finds.  We came across a pile of boards in the mud on the side of the road.  I recognized them to be parts of a set of bunk beds or, at the very least, lumber that could be used for something.  We threw it all in the back of the truck -- pretty sure that it was missing pieces and hardward.  It was.  We ended up with three head/footboards, three bed rails, and a toddler rail... and NO hardware.  So I spent $6 on brackets and screws (which gauls me but oh well!) and put it together as a twin bed with an optional toddler rail. 

Before: still pretty ugly.

The remaining pieces (one headboard and one rail) will soon be a bench that matches the bed.  Mark had also found (previously) a free desk that has the same Bonanza feel to it so that will get painted red as well (perhaps with some squares of chalkboad paint) and thus we have a matching set.  The bed is currently on Craigslist for $45.  The desk will be $75 and the bench will be $30.  Which adds up to $150.

After: much better!

I'm trying to restrain myself from whipping up some denim or chambray bedding to complete the look. But I won't. Unless something taht would work lands in my lap for free. 

Mark also did his best "American Pickers" imitation and followed a woman into her shed to find this wonderful gem:

Vintage Coke Ice Chest

He paid $40 (which is a lot for us!).  It's listed on Craigslist for $140 firm.  Similar ice chests have sold on Ebay for up to $350. 

Our goal at the onset of our quest was to make $300.  Adding the selling prices everything up [$75 (desk) + $125 (dresser/nighstand) + $150 (red set) $140 (Coke box)] less expenses [$10 (desk ) + $15 (dresser/nightstand) + $40 (Coke box) + $30 (paint and hardware)].  Total investment $95.  Total selling price $490.  That brings us to $395 profit.  Pretty good.

And then there was all the other stuff we pulled out of dumpsters that's now for sale in the flea market booth...

I'd be in SO MUCH TROUBLE if I weren't married to someone who has the same "disease" that I do!

The Next Best Thing to Free!

No, I didn't get these beds for free.  But I DID get them for just 50 cents each which is the next best thing to free, isn't it?  Actually, it's almost better than free because such a low price is an amazing victory!  Who would bother to SELL a bed for 50 cents?

I love cheap, UGLY stuff.  The uglier the better!  I love to have a hideous before picture because that just makes the after picture so much more satisfying!

This twin headboard wasn't so bad before.  It was just boring.

So I painted it with (free) shiny, bright red paint.  

It can be used in it's red form or there is an removable and reversible insert that has pages from a vintage encyclopedia on one side...

and vintage colored maps with some really great colors from the same encyclopedia on the other side.  I can see some little boy learning lots of geography and general knowledge information (all beginning with the letter "A" since that's the book of the encyclopedia the pages came from!) from studying his headboard when he's supposed to be sleeping!  There just HAS to be a globe on the night stand next to this bed!

The second fifty cent project was a really ugly 60's era headboard and footboard.

These were painted with (free) split pea green paint.

This is not my style and not my era because I am old enough to have lived through it, but I hope some twenty-something person will think it is really cool retro!

Next, I am eyeing a vintage desk that will be $12.50 if it's still there on Thursday.

It has a broken drawer, a gash in the back, and a heavily worn (or should I say "beaten"?) surface but I have a vision for it! 

The really neat thing is that my projects always turn out to look exactly like my visions!