Monday, May 2, 2011

Furniture Swap

Last week I sold two pieces of furniture on Craigslist for a profit of $150.

In case you didn't know, I am a Craigslist addict.  It's not good.  It's not pretty.  And once I get started, its very hard to stop.

I was pleased as punch with myself for the extra income and how much room it freed up in our house.  I vowed to finally finish the dining room table that I bought in October so we could also get it out of the garage.

So on Saturday, we went to Lowes and bought some more painting supplies and spent the rest of the day cleaning and organizing the garage enough for the boyfriend to get started on his project (building a putting green) while I worked on mine (the table). 

We still had two more pieces of furniture taking up a lot of room in the garage - my son's toddler bed and a recliner.


The todder bed, mattress and bedding were all gifts from my parents over the years.  We tried to sell it at the garage sale and people kept lowballing us because they just wanted the bedding (came with lots of extra sheets and pillowcases too thanks to a Target clearance).  I held firm because I was sure I could get the $40 I was asking on Craigslist.

Turned out I didn't need to.  A woman from down the street saw it when we had it outside on Saturday and she bought it for a friend's daughter.


The recliner was also free.  See a trend?  When we had our garage sale, our neighbor gave it to us because she didn't want it anymore and it had been sitting in her garage for months.  No one bought it, so it's been sitting in our garage for a month.  It's super comfortable and a La-Z-Boy, just not our style at all.

So I listed it on Craigslist.  Someone is coming to look at it today and hopefully take it off our hands and give us some more free money.  Which I have decided is the best money there is.  Much better than money you actually have to work for.

After my hot streak and making lots of cash - of course I started looking at what other people were offering.  That's only natural right? 

I found a great deal on a couch.  We desperately needed a couch because using a futon as a couch reminds me of when I first moved to Austin and lived with a psychopath.  But that's a story for another day.  Today's story is about this couch:



From Craigslist ad.
 Once I actually saw our new house in person I decided that the sectional of my dreams would not work and started keeping an eye out for a piece that would.  I knew I wanted it to be long, preferably 3 seats across instead of two long ones where someone always ends up sitting in the crack (our last couch).  The longer the better.  And I wanted something with modern, boxy lines.  And preferably something dirt cheap so that I could eventually recover it and still come out cheaper than buying a new one.

This one fit all of the above.  They only wanted $15 for it.  Which made me worry that it doubled as a bed of a St. Bernard.  Or something worse.  But I was hopeful, especially after grilling the owner.  I used my newly made stack of cash as a bribe to get my boyfriend to borrow a van from his job and go pick it up - sight unseen.  The worst that could happen would be that we hate it and lose $15.



At home.
 Do not hate.  Love love love.

The fabric is rough.  Actually, it's very soft and velvety - but its best days were years ago and it is now begging for a mercy killing.  However, it is by far one of the most comfortable couches ever.  I checked out the springs and legs from  underneath and everything seems solid and in place.  I am thinking of taking off the skirt when we have it recovered.  I'm hoping that the recovery cost will be on the lower end because it doesn't seem to detailed of a job.  I'm going to get some estimates.  But first I'm going to rent a steam cleaner and go to town on this bad boy.

Fresh off of the high of scoring a $15 diamond in the rough, I also scored a free haircut this morning.  Which I desperately needed.  And then I did something bad.  Something really bad.  But you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what because I don't have any pictures yet.

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