Friday Yard Sales

Last week, we figured we would need a 10-foot rental truck to get all of this stuff up to Mayberry Cottage. After today's yard sales, we're thinking a 14-foot truck might be the way to go.

We had a busy morning..... since we were both up so early (before 6 a.m.) my husband decided to come with me to the sales. Off we went at 6:30........and went and went back once again. Three trips, to get everything from the sales to our house.

First, we found a kitchen table and four chairs, plus an old "hope" chest..... everything for $20, thanks to my husband's bargaining with the girl having the yard sale. The chairs are in excellent condition, and can always be used for extra chairs. The table is in okay-condition, and smaller than we would like...... so when we find a larger table, this small one can go either on the screen porch, on one of the open porches, or in the living room to use as a game table. It's a drop-leaf table, so when it's closed up, it hardly takes up any room at all. And for the price.... we couldn't just leave it there.

My husband also found a leather chair for his home office here... beautiful swivel-chair of burgundy-colored leather, with those metal-tacks running along the edges... great condition, for only ten dollars. Honestly, people were giving things away today...... must have been the heat. I swear it was over 100 degrees before 8:30 this morning.

The "hope" chest was a steal...... it needs some work, like a new wood top, but for now, I can cover the character-filled, aged look of the top with pillows and it will make a great window seat. Again, for the price, we were happy to have found it. The girl having that sale held everything for us while we drove home to empty out the car, then we had to go back to her house for the rest of it.

Getting the table home was the last thing we did--- it didn't fit into the back seat of my husband's car, and we couldn't even get it in the trunk without taking off the legs, and we didn't want to take the time to do that. We ended up putting it on the roof of the car, with the legs sticking up towards the sky. After my husband got into the passenger seat, I tilted the table just a bit so he could grab hold of one of the legs. And that's how we drove slowly home... with his hand holding that table leg. As we turned onto our street, we saw our pet-sitter's car in front of our house, with the pet-sitter himself standing in the middle of our street, waiting for us. He had seen us driving along one of the roads, and figured we would need some help once we got home, so he was here waiting to help us. After we showed him what we found at today's sales, he has vowed to start going to the local yard sales.

My husband and young Miss C drove back to Galveston today, to pick up the wood-boat bookcase that we bought yesterday (but couldn't fit into our car). C's mom has a truck, so it fit in there nicely, and they (my husband and C) had lunch out on The Island before coming back. They also stopped at the SPCA out there, to have a look-see at the puppies. They saw some cute ones (of course) but thankfully, they just looked. (Jeez.... that's all we would need right now-- a new puppy.)

While my husband was out in Galveston, I drove into League City for a haircut, and I stopped to look around J's antique shop. I found a bunch of things (at great prices from the dealers)...... an old ship's kerosene lamp (which we will fill with lamp oil..... it even has the original glass in it). Also found a wooden lighthouse, and a cute little iron table with a tiled top decorated with teapots.... it will make a nice accent table in the kitchen. Also found a hand-carved wood table for the living room... very Island-y, tropical-looking.... and very light wood, so that will be great in there as well.

So many more "new" things for Mayberry. We're finding more every day.... and it's piling up here, in the garage, my sitting room, and now the spill-over is in the TV room and even the living room. Oh well..... once we get the truck, it will all be out of here and the house will be back to normal. (And that just can't be too soon for my sweet, prissy AngelBoy.... I can just imagine his little blue-eyed face when he comes out from under our bed and sees that boat-bookcase in the living room.)