Last Weekend of September!

I know I keep saying this, but, seriously...where is the time going??? I can't believe it's the end of September already! I've been so busy with so many things that the days are all flying by, and sometimes melting in to each other!

This past weekend was fun because I got to help 2 families with estate sales. One I already talked about, and the other was with a friend from work at her parent's house in Bowling Green, Ohio. It was an awesome day for a drive, even though it started out on the foggy side. Once I reached Dundee (famous for Cabela's), it was pretty much gone, but from Whitmore Lake to Ann Arbor, it was hard to see the car in front of you!

I spent about seven hours helping her organize, set up and price things for the sale. She just moved her parents into assisted living the weekend before. We got about 90% of the house done, her sons got a table up and loaded in the garage, and some cousins came as I was leaving with another table for the family room-that they filled after I left.

The sale is going to be the 11th and 12th of October, and I'm going back to help, and so is my friend Auntie. It'll be another roadtrip/blabfest, and I can't wait! Since she doesn't work with me anymore, I don't get to see her everyday-so we need these trips to catch up!

The house where we are doing the sale is for sale now as well, and the Realtor has already held one open house and plans to show it while it is set up for the estate sale. It is a really nice house, in a really nice area, so I am sure they will have no trouble selling it.

This is what the house looked like when I left...

 Nice sized sun room.

 Family room that is between the garage and sun room-look at the built-ins-they are awesome!!!

 Her mom's tin collection in a cupboard in the laundry room.

 The hallway from the family room to the laundry room on the right then on to the kitchen.

 The kitchen is a little small for an eat in kitchen, but the dining room is just behind the fridge on the left, I could see someone knocking out the wall and making the dining room and kitchen all one big room.

 Her mom loves teddy bears and collects them like crazy! This picture doesn't really show the magnitude of teddy bears, plus I took it a little early-before we got them all in there! This is the formal living room-it is a really big room.

 Bedroom #1 or the teddy bear room-this is where most of the bears were. It has a gorgeous bedroom set-I could only get the bed in the pic, but it has a matching dresser with mirror and a matching vanity with mirror-all from the early 1900's.

 Bedroom #2, or the office-it was still a work in progress when I left. 

 The master bedroom, I was standing by a built-in wall shelf and the master bathroom.

The dining room-and a 96 piece setting of John Haviland Blue Garland china-it is very pretty and in pristine condition!

Look at this tub! Part of me thinks it would be amazing, part of me thinks you'd freeze to death sitting there in your birthday suit waiting for it to fill up!!!

I bought a couple of things for myself, and a set of pots and pans for my parents for their camper. Here is what I bought...minus a couple vintage tablecloths-I forgot about them at the bottom of the pots and pans box!

I stopped at a sale Friday morning on my way to get groceries and I found a few fun things...

I also stopped by the neighbor's sale later on Friday (again) and I got these things...

This is the sign at the Michigan/Ohio border.

I really liked Bowling Green! I expected it to be a busy college town, kind of like Ann Arbor, but it was an amazing, sleepy little town (at least the part I was in), with some gorgeous older homes.

This is what I saw when I got home...

You'd think she was the one who worked all day and played volleyball afterward! That is one seriously spoiled little girl!!!

It looks like the closing date for my in-laws is back on-YAYYY! For October 28-so that means another trip north on the 25th for a weekend of packing and loading them up for their trip to Florida. Then Kevin and his BIL will drive their truck and rented trailer down for them so they can fly. Then I think our lives will really slow down..just in time for the holidays-LOL!

I hope you had a great weekend and you found some great treasures!!!

Finally! A Finished Set!!!

I've been hunting and searching for a red Fiesta juice tumbler for quite a while, and they all sell for way above my price range. I got lucky online and found one at a great price! Now my set is complete!! I just wish I could find 2 #7 mixing bowls in a non-heart stopping price!

My Fiesta addiction is slowing down-finally! I would just like to find 2 relish tray inserts and a center, the 2 #7 mixing bowls, and that is it...unless I find another carafe or coffee server super cheap, but I won't hold my breath!!!

Crazy Fun days!

On Tuesday, our neighbor's daughter stopped by to tell us they were going to be having a sale at their dad's house this weekend. I wasn't home, but Eric told me about it. On Wednesday, I saw them working out on the porch and stopped after work to say hi.

We chatted for quite a while. I had only ever met one of the daughters before, and now I've met all three. They are all such lovely ladies!!! I have spent a lot of time with them the past couple of days and have really enjoyed talking with them and getting to know them!

They even let me have a pre-sale shopping adventure! I was able to shop the sale the day before they opened. I felt awkward-almost like I shouldn't be doing it, but I did. I was trying to hurry because I had a volleyball game to get to, plus that awkward feeling...plus I was noticing on many things their prices were wayyyy too low, so I was telling them as I was going to raise their prices on things.

They were excited that things sold for as much as I told them to price them for. Some things they had a quarter on got bumped to $5, a $5 item I told them to bump to $40, a $5 item for $25-and all but 3 things that I had them bump prices on were gone!

I bought quite a few things. I spent a lot more than I usually do, but the majority of it will be going to the booth. I will keep a couple things. See if you can guess what I am keeping.

 Pink Pyrex is getting harder and harder to find! I love the pink plastic butter dish. One of the daughter's said their mom's dream was to have a pink and black kitchen.

 For some reason all my pictures turned when I uploaded them-sorry!

 Vintage material and feed sacks!

 Double paper rack-just needs a couple dowel rods.

 Very dirty chenille bedspread-they gave it to me for free since it was so dirty.

 Can't wait to clean this up to see what it says!!!

 Tablecloth

 Tablecloth

 Tablecloth

 Dish towels

 Paper roll for the paper rack

 Needs a good washing, but that's an easy thing to do!

 Michigan glass

 Hanky for a dime

 Fire King bowl for a quarter

 

 Ladies glove box

 Vintage planter

 Presidents plate

 Knee hugger elves.

 Cootie Game-I still need to look to see if all the pieces are in there, I didn't look-just fell in love with the box!

 Old tin toy phone

 Dolly washing station and a couple of old yard sticks

 Cabinet #1-the picture doesn't do it justice-it is pretty awesome!

 Toy Sewing machine

I went back today after work to see if there were any treasures left, but they looked to be down to about 1/20 of what they started with-I was so happy for them and so happy to see the relieved looks on their faces! I was bummed to have missed out on some of the stuff, but I got some fun things. I chatted with them for a while, and went home and got Adam to help me load the second cabinet that I bought, I only bought the top half because I wasn't so sure the bottom actually went with it. As we were walking out, one of the sister's offered the bottom to me for free! So, it came home too.

Tonight they are pulling stuff out of the last bedroom and pricing it for tomorrow. Do I go back tomorrow? Have I been a big enough pest already? I'm curious to see what they pull out, but I don't want to over do my welcome...what do you think?

Here is cabinet #2:

The bottom looks a lot newer than the top and the top is about 2" narrower than the bottom. They were painted the same color and the same knobs were used, and in the pictures they look pretty good together, but I don' think they were original. It's about 4- 4.5" tall.

After I left them for the second time today, I ran an errand and on my way home, I passed a sign (that I obviously passed on the way there, but missed) for another sale at a house I've always admired from the road. So I stopped. 

It was the home of a former antique dealer, who had tons of awesome antiques. As I was walking up, I noticed a pie safe on the lawn! I've been looking and looking for a pie safe, but they are all well over $100, some as high as $800. This one was in my price range-cheap! It is (according to the dealer) turn of the century. It has tongue and groove boards and octagon like nail heads. Not quite square, but definitely not round. 

I still had the second cabinet in my car, so I ran home real quick to unload, and when I got back, we found out it was too heavy for me to help an older man lift and carry across the yard to my car. So he asked a younger guy who was picking up the most amazing primitive dining table that I've ever seen, to help him.

The bad news, is---it wouldn't fit in my car! It was about 3" too wide and since it was square-we couldn't turn it to get it to fit. The table guy lived about a block away and he told me to hold on and after he dumped his table off, he'd be back and would deliver my pie safe! How awesome was that!?!?

Sure enough, he came back, followed me home-he lives about a mile from me. I had seen him earlier at the neighbor's sale and he was showing them historical photos of the area and historical maps that he brought over. 

He said people have been kind to his family lately with his grandfather's illness and mini strokes, so he was paying it forward by helping me, and all he asked was that I pay it forward to someone else and keep it going! How awesome is that!?!?

I will be paying it forward on Saturday! I am going to Bowling Green, Ohio to help a friend from work set up an estate sale at her parent's home. She just moved them into assisted living last weekend and needs some help because her only sibling isn't willing to help. She had asked someone else, but they couldn't help. 

Here is the pie safe...

I plan to replace the fabric with screen and store quilts and tablecloths in it. She told me to use restorer's finish on it and it would be lovely. She said it got dried out in her house because she didn't use it on the wood for a very long time. I'll have to wait a week after using it to prevent it from getting on the linens, but after a week, it should be safe.

So there you have my crazy, fun couple of days. another fun couple of notes...we won 4 out of 5 games at our volleyball match last night against the first place team! Adam grouted the tile in the bathtub/shower in our main bathroom-so only 10 more days of sharing our shower, and only ten more days until our house gets back to normal!!!