Showing posts with label Deal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Deal. Show all posts

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Unexpected Situations, New Obsessions, and Good Deals

I guess I am a liar. I promised a post weeks ago. Better late then never. Ooops.

Yesterday, when I was thinking about the promise I made to post, I realized that I'm bad at posting because life right now is just kinda slow. I don't have a ton to report on. I have three minor categories of life to expound on. That's pretty much all you are going to get.

Unexpected situations. This category is pretty much an all encompassing title for the events in my life.

No one expects to get sick: unless you are sharing a lollipop with a sick person. Brett and I got sick. Not due to a lollipop. Brett decided to go help out in 5th grade where his sister teaches. Apparently all but nine of the kids were out at once due to illness. Brett has his own personal version of the swine flu, again, which included massive headaches, a vicious cough, a sniffly nose, and a few body aches. Several days later I got sick. Just a basic cold followed by five days of having no voice.

Meanwhile, I have been working at the salon. It's slow, I'm enjoying it though. After working in this particular salon/studio for about three weeks, the lady I rented from called and asked if I wanted to take over her lease. Now, I knew that she eventually wanted someone to take it over, but I was thinking at least six months from now. Unexpected. Anyways, Brett and I are looking into taking her up on her offer. I'll keep you updated on that. Next.

This category is probably my favorite. New Obsessions.

About three years ago my supervisor from Best Buy tried to get me onto the whole TV shows bandwagon. I had already committed my Monday TV time to How I Met Your Mother and Heroes and he wanted me to try getting into The Office. So I tried. I started with season one, watched two episodes, and had about had it with the rudeness of Michael Scott, I handed seasons one and two back to him and said yeah right. Well these days I still find time where I am bored out of my mind, so I put my Netflix account to good use. I had a The Office marathon. I started with season one at 1AM Sunday morning and got caught up with about five episodes of season six Wednesday afternoon. I didn't get much done around the house for a few days. Needless to say Brett is also hooked on the shows, but is taking his time getting through the five seasons we have missed. We often find ourselves talking about Jim and Pam and sometimes find instances to quote Michael with a "that's what she said" joke.



Obsession number two is all mine. I love decorating my apartment and can't wait to have a home to decorate. So as part of decorating my home I love fixing furniture, art, and making pillows for my home. My mom had acquired a bench that had a broken leg, everything else was in good shape, but the color didn't go with what I had going on. So my mom and I reupholstered it. It came out so good! So if anyone had furniture you are thinking about getting rid of, don't.



And finally good deals. These always make me smile.


My aunt had called one Friday morning, waking me up to a Nyquil hangover and no voice, to tell about some great furniture that was at the Mesa Auction. I drug my butt out of bed and my mom and I met her down at the auction house to see what they had. So much freakin cute furniture. So we planned out what furniture we wanted to try to get and how much we were willing to pay. Seriously, I feel like I stole the furniture, I got such a good deal.

I picked up some nice filing cabinets that go for $100 a piece at Ikea. I got three for $25 each. I also fell in love with a funky lamp for $35. So here is how the story goes. I had to work the night of the auction. I had sent my mom and my deal expert aunt to go get these filling cabinets and lamp for me. After I had finished doing hair for the night, Brett and I hurried our butts down to the auction to pick up our filling cabinets and to check out the rest of the auction. Brett was shocked at how nice some of the furniture was and how cheap it was going for. My mom was eyeing this curio cabinet/china hutch. She had decided though that she wasn't going to bid on it. After this beautiful cabinet has sold for $265 the auctioneer had said that there were two more available new in box to anyone else who wanted them. My aunt and I were very bad influences and panicked my mom with the amazing deal and she bought it. We later found out that this curio cabinet sold for $2200 at retail. We saw a Pioneer Elite TV go for $900. The bidding started at $500 and no one was taking it. I wanted to bid on it so bad. These deals we just so crazy.


I also got a peak at my Christmas present. Well, it wasn't a peak. I had also been eyeing this pub table. So freakin' cute. But, I didn't want to spend any more money and decided that if it went over $150 I wasn't going to bid on it. It started too high for me. So there goes my aunt bidding on it. It was sad. Then she won the bid. Being the brat that I am, I pretty much asked for her to leave it to me in her will. My mom then looks at my aunt and says, "Should I tell her?" which totally made me curious. My aunt was upset and stuck her tongue out at me. And then my mom tells me that she just bought my Christmas present. I was so excited! I apologized to my aunt, she really wanted to table too. Unfortunately, Christmas is still weeks away, so my table isn't in my home right now. It was fun though. A bit of an adrenaline rush.

That is all I have to report. We have family in town for Thanksgiving, so maybe I'll post some pictures of my niece and nephews.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

The Free Section on Craigslist

Brett and I recently acquired the coolest thing on Craigslist, for FREE!

If you haven't looked around Craiglist.org you need to get around to doing that. I have heard of people getting some great things through the website, but this better. If you go through the free section you'll usually find strange things or gross nasty dirty sofas, but none the less it's all free.

Brett got on the free section and found a piano that was listed as free. There was a picture of the piano on the page and it look wonderful, old, but wonderful. I was so excited and had to have it! It had only been posted for about six hours so it was likely it was still available. I immediately called the guy, named Darren, and he still had it. So him and I set up a time for the following day to come and pick it up.

In.
Litchfield.
Park.

That means way West Phoenix.

He proceeded to tell me how big and heavy this piano was and made suggestions like, "Bring a truck. Better yet a trailer. And you'll also need a few big guys to move it." Kay no big deal, it's free right.

So Brett and I talked a few friends into coming along for the ride to get this piano, that according to Darren was about 50 years old.

We easily got the piano into Brett's little S10 and drove away. I was so happy and so excited.

We got home and called a few more friends, about seven people to help us get the piano in the apartment.

Upstairs.

I have no clue how it actually made it up into my little apartment and through the narrow stairway, so I can't explain any of that. But it did happen.





Later that night I found a serial number on the piano and did a bit of research. I was extremely curious as to how old the thing really was. I eventually found an antique piano restorer, took a few photos, told him about the research I did, and sent him my serial number.

I got an email the next morning.

"Let me start by saying that 'The Concord Piano Company' built exceptionally well made instruments... According to the serial number you provided, your piano was built in 1904, a prime era for piano building in America... I can tell from your photos that your piano is made of quarter sawn oak wood which has been painted black by a previous owner. Your piano is made in the 'Mission' or 'Craftsman' style, a style which is in huge demand today... I can tell from your photos that your piano has the original worn strings and felts. The piano is a large, full size 'upright grand' which would have the sound of a grand piano if it was restored... We routinely sell these restored upright pianos for $9,000-$12,000 in our shop after restoration. This is not an inflated figure, but an actual figure that these pianos really are selling for after restoration..."

Um, my jaw dropped.

I got a 105 year old piano that is worth up to $12,00 for FREE!

Um.

Anyways. I love it! It sounds so beautiful! It is beautiful and I LOVE it!