Welcome To Our Little Big House On The Prairie


Monday, November 28, 2011

Its Not Friday, But Check Out My Find!

Well, y'all...  Its the Monday after Thanksgiving.  I don't know about you, but I'm tired!  I have to admit that after all that family togetherness, I'm really enjoying the peace and quiet this morning.  :D  But at the same time, I'm sad that the holiday is over and we're in a head-long rush toward Christmas.  Its seems to just go so quickly!

A quick recap of how we spent our holiday...

Wednesday, I spent the day at home preparing for our Thanksgiving meal.  Thursday was spent in the kitchen cooking the rest of the food, sleeping off the turkey-itis in the afternoon, and then relaxing with friends that evening.  Friday morning found us up bright and early weighing in at the Columbus Black Friday Sailor Classic in W'loo.  Noah was hurt during the 1st period of his 1st match and had to injury default that one and the remaining two matches in his bracket.  Ian had a tough five man bracket and took a respectable 3rd after two really, really close matches and pinning two of his other opponents.  Saturday we pretty much vegetated...  Well, they vegetated and I cleaned up the mess from doing pretty much nothing as far as household chores on Thursday and Friday and worked on decorating my stair railing.  Its amazing the havoc that children can wreak on a house, if you're not going right behind them to pick it up!  Sunday, Landon had come down with a cough from the changing weather (It was gorgeous 60 on Thursday and by Sunday it was a chilly 35), so we didn't go to the new church we wanted to try out.  Scott took the boys at the spur of the moment to a tournament 2 hours away where Noah took 1st and Ian took 2nd.  They got two GINORMOUS trophies!  Finally, I fell into bed last night around midnight only to wake up late this morning and frantically shoo the kids on the bus.  Ahhhh...  Back to normal life.  ;)  I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving break too!

Soooooooooo....  Back to the title of this post.

He hehe he he!  Guess what I found??????

Do you know how hard its been to keep my big mouth shut about this awesome find I got at our local thrift shop????  It was all I could do not to break my promise on not blogging until today!  And then I thought about not saying anything until Friday for the Friday's Finds post and thought, "There's no way I can wait that long!"

Tuesday evening, Scott took me out to dinner while the boys were at wrestling practice.  I begged him to make a quick stop at our local thrift, just so I could see if they had anything new.  He indulged me, as he so often does and I was not disappointed!  Although, he may have been because he had to dole out some cash.  LOL!  However, there was no way on God's green earth, I was walking away from it!  :)

While I'm excited about my new find, I also feel kind of bad about (okay, really bad) about the circumstances of how it came to be in the thrift store.  Evidently an elderly woman had been put in a nursing home and they went through her items and donated them to our local thrift and I'm assuming, kept some.  There were several items that had me oohing and ahhing, and I would have bought them all had it been financial possible....  An antique vanity circa early 1920s, a solid carved wood mirror, a wing back chair, two farm house chairs, and a corner hutch to name a few.  All from the same estate.  Well cared for and obviously loved, by how pristine their condition.

But of all the items, it was this antique wash stand that spoke to me the most.



I literally dragged Scott in from the entry way, where he had been waiting on me, and jabbering a million miles a minute told him I had to have it.  I had already checked it over pretty thoroughly to make sure it was in good shape and had good bones, but I indulged him sat tapping my foot impatiently with my arms crossed over my chest and waited for him to inspect it on his own.  And then started in on my sales pitch of why I had to make it mine.


I extolled the virtues of its dove-tailed drawers, the original rolling casters on its feet, the detailing, the pride someone had in their workmanship, the history it had probably seen...  I expounded how it was made in southern Iowa (still had the furniture tags on the back and the production number) and it had once been delivered to someone that lived in our town (that was written on the back too).  I talked about about how you just didn't see washstands like this with the mirror still intact (usually they've been replaced with a rod to hang towels on) and the fact that the mirror was beginning to age in spots made it all the better.


I talked about how great of shape it was in, how sturdy it was, and how the scratches and dimples on it just gave it character.  It was like trying to sell ice to an eskimo!


And finally after a good 30 minutes of discussion while I held my breath like a kid waiting to get the okay at the candy store... he consented to the $125.00 price tag.  YES!  (Probably just to shut me up!  LOL!)  I literally danced a little jig in the middle of the store.  ;)

We brought her home, gave her a place in our dining room, and it just looks like she's supposed to be there.  I felt like a kid on Christmas morning!  As I should, because to seal the deal I said it could be my Christmas present.  ;)

So, I dusted her off and Pledged her to death.  I am one happy momma!


Because everyone knows that when Momma's happy everybody is happy!  ;)

I will probably never touch her with a paint brush.  I think she's perfect just how she is.  Don't you?  :D



4 comments:

Tanya said...

Gorgeous, gorgeous!!! I love it. I would never paint that. The color is just perfect. What a fantastic find :)

Erin of Salvaged Whimsy said...

I can totally see why it was love at first sight! And for $125 - you can't buy a piece of furniture NEW for $125! It's gorgeous, just the way it is...I wouldn't paint it either, but it would be so pretty in a creamy white too :). I don't know how you waited to share until today - not sure i could do that!

Anonymous said...

Woooooow!!!! That's an awesome piece Laura - I would not paint that either...such a great find....now I wanna know where :)

Sonia

Anonymous said...

Oh my - beautiful quareter sawn oak aged with love, you are right paint should never touch this piece. And what a deal, your right a true find, call me jealous from indiana.