Things I've Been Doing, Part One, Take Two

*It was brought to my attention in the comments section of this original post that the first time I posted this, the pictures weren't coming up. I have no explanation for this. Just conspiracy theories.







There were a few major perks that came along with moving to California, like being within driving distance to In N Out Burger. That's NICE. My thighs don't think so, but who cares? Another perk was that Ben is making more money out here. True, the cost of living can be a little higher if you don't shop around, but it's really not that different than living in Maine where you can absolutely count on paying a small fortune each winter to heat your home.

Even though we're much better off financially, we know how shaky the economy is right now. We've become pretty frugal so that we can keep paying down any debt we have and sock away money so that we don't find ourselves in financial ruin if anything ever happens. We rarely go out to eat (the crack about eating out at the place with an arcade in my last post was totally a joke) and we've worked really hard to not go buck wild on spending on things we would love to have, but don't really need to have right now. Impressive, considering Sephora is right near our house.

That is all very good and responsible things to do and I'm sure Dave Ramsey would be high-fiving us all the way to the bank, BUT it's difficult when you realize you have a whole lot of house to furnish and the moving company you used seems to have been quite selective when it came to deciding which items would actually make it across the country and into your house (Shout out to our moving company. Thanks for keeping some of our stuff but leaving us with two brand new fishing poles!)

Luckily, Craigslist out here is awesome. Craigslist in Maine was terrifying. I actually found a sight called "You Suck At Craigslist" and guess where some of the listing were from? Ben and I have been slowly furnishing the house with our finds. We've actually been slowly furnishing the garage, to be honest. Lennox isn't a big fan of watching me refinish furniture during the day.

The first thing we refinished actually wasn't from Craigslist. My in-laws brought a truck up here with three dressers in it after hearing I like to refinish stuff. They were various pieces they picked up at garage sales and not much to look at, but there's definitely potential.

If know what you're thinking. "What? Why would you change ANYTHING about this dresser? The broken handles, the rub-on floral motif, the Hello Kitty stamps that some five year-old whimsically applied......it's a REVELATION!!!"

I know. I'm just a monster like that.

We sanded that sucker down and spray painted it with reckless abandon. We filled in the holes from the old handles and added a new, inexpensive set from Target. I love it.

This table was a Craigslist score. I loved it the moment I saw it in the ad. When I went to pick it up, I knew I wouldn't be disappointed because my GPS led me to one of the most gorgeous houses, ever. Rich people have such great stuff for so cheap.

There's a butterfly leaf inside and it seat about eight people, or 12 dogs if you wanted to have a dinner party for dogs. You totally could. We just needed a small table to go in the kitchen area because we already have a mammoth table in the dining room, but this is perfect. It even matches the dresser! Furniture fate.

I'm going to throw another coat of paint on it because there is a chip on the table top. I could probably just throw a runner on there and call it a day, but there are a couple of scratches from when we wrangled it in the house from the car. FYI? Lock the table leafs before attempting to move the table, or one leaf could come apart and slam down on your toe, totally breaking it. Believe it.

So, pretty, custom, solid table for super cheap. And a broken toe for free!

Here's another project we're working on. It's going to be Grady's dresser. Another find from my in-laws. Right now it's all roughed up from sanding and I'm waiting for the wood filler to dry from the old knob-holes. Knob-holes.

Ben is a huge help with this stuff. He is a human power-sander. I'll have one drawer done while he's got the rest of the thing completely stripped. Then, he looks at me like I'm a jerk when I tell him we just need to rough up the paint, not take it all off. I forget to tell him stuff like that all of the time. He really loves it!

At this rate, I'm guessing our house will be furnished in about nine years. Hopefully, in four years we'll have enough furniture for it to stop echoing in here every time I talk. High-five, Mr. Ramsey!!