Oh Yeah...About That Furniture...

It's been a busy week since Saturday. We will be hosting our annual Cinco de Mayo party at our house this upcoming Saturday (always held on the closest Saturday to May 5th because we work Monday through Friday). There is always a lot of preparation between the planning and the actual party. The food has to be purchased and, of course, prepared. Decorations and the proper dishware/glassware must be unpacked and then carefully put in their place. Invitations must be created and then sent. And, of course, there is making the house look spotless for the guests. 

Oh yeah...and then there was the furniture. Last August, we wrote about seeing a great Heywood Wakefield bedroom set at an estate sale but that it was not in our budget. The set included a man's dresser, a woman's dresser, a vanity/make-up table (with mirror and stool) and all of the bed pieces (headboard, footboard, etc). It did not include a nightstand. The furniture was from their Rio line which, based on our research, would have been made in the 1940's and, perhaps, into the early 1950's. The set only came with one nightstand so that is all that was missing. It really was in great shape and their asking price of $999 was very, very reasonable but, as we said way back then, was not in our budget although we loved it!

We discussed this furniture the rest of the weekend...and the next few days, too, until Monica found an ad for the set on Craigslist, now at $850. They didn't sell it! Our discussion turned serious and, moments later, Rob emailed the seller. He described our interaction with them (we spent a lot of time in that house and talked with the sellers quite a bit) and asked if they would take less for the set. We then crossed our fingers, hoping for the best.

The response came back the next day. They DID remember us and she gave us her number to call. Rob was targeting a price of $600. When we called, there were pleasantries exchanged and then the discussion became focused on the furniture. Rob asked if the price was negotiable. Without Rob mentioning a dollar figure, the lady on the phone said that she thought $600 would be a fair price. Sold! We made arrangements to pay them and pick up the furniture that very next Sunday and we did! It took three trips in Rob's car and two in Monica's car (only 15 minutes each way) but, by mid-afternoon, we had our new furniture in the garage until we could move the old furniture out of our bedroom. That exchange finally took place the last two weekends.

There's Monica admiring the furniture at that sale last August before it was ours.

Monica's new vanity/make-up table in our house.

Monica's new dresser. It comes with a mirror but we did not put that up. We had different plans for that wall. It is stored in our garage along with the footboard and the wooden rails because they are for a full sized bed (we have a queen sized bed). We did put on the headboard though! 

Rob's new dresser

Here's what we installed on the wall. We picked up this shadow box two months ago and have been trying to decide where it should reside. It looks perfect with the new furniture! We will have to fill in the shelves with assorted items.

We seem to be ahead of schedule and that gave us the perfect opportunity to go to a rare mid-week sale.

This church has an annual rummage sale and we have occasionally found some good things here. It started on Wednesday so, at the end of the day,  we each drove straight from our jobs, met each other in the parking lot and went saling!

There was not a whole lot there but we did pick up twp Pyrex dishes, a round plastic duck, a pair of sweatpants and a work sweater for Rob

So we made it to May and our Cinco de Mayo plans are moving along nicely. It's May 1st and so far...

...neither of us is in the doghouse yet!

Wish us luck! We still have a lot of hard work ahead of us. If we can keep up this pace, we will have time for a little bit of saling on Saturday before the party. Wait...who are we kidding? We'll find time for saling! No luck needed!