I don’t go to estate sales often. It’s always a hit or miss kind of situation and frankly I would rather spend my Saturday’s at a park with my children. Despite all that, last Friday I found a listing on craigslist for an estate sale less than 5 minutes from where we live. So I thought, what do I have to loose?!… so I went.
The furniture inside was over priced, in fact most of everything was over priced, but I pulled out my bargaining cards and managed to bring home some awesome goodies for twenty-one dollars.
After walking throughout the inside of the “estate” I made my way outside to scope out the garage.
The first thing that caught my eye was a vintage Bernzomatic case, complete with the blow torch and instructions, so I picked it up to hold onto it. While I was browsing the other rusty treasures, the seller came up to me and asked for the Bernzomatic case, saying that he just accepted money for it. What?! Word of advice: just because you are holding onto something does not mean no one else will buy it out of your hands. Oh well. I then switched my view to this rusty ol’ toolbox.
I offered them $5 for it, then it was mine. I don’t think Philip sees the potential in it like I do but it will be grand, I just know it.
This vintage fan had a $20 price tag on it but after seeing my hesitation, one of the sellers came up to me and removed the price tag saying, “There is no way that is $20.” So again, I offered him five and it was mine.
I tried remaining composed and calm when inside I was bouncing up and down with excited. ERMAHGERSH!! Really, I was that excited… I’ve wanted one of these babies for a while.
Praise God I found one for $5! Bonus? It actually works, although I’m not sure how safe it is to leave on.
While I was inside, I spotted this pencil sharpener attached to a closet wall in one of the bedrooms. There was also one in the garage but the plastic part of the handle was broken. So after securing my fan and tool box, to make sure no one would buy it out from under me, I borrowed a wooden screwdriver to go fetch the sharpener.
Everyone looked at me like I was out of my mind, and maybe I was, but my boy needs his pencils sharpened and for $1 this beats sharpening his broken pencils with a knife.
After using that screwdriver, I couldn’t resist bringing it home. They had a box of screwdrivers listed for $2 each, but I somehow managed to get four for about $2 (I only had one dollar bill and a handful of change, which was probably $2.47 or something). These along with the fan are probably my favorite items I brought home.
Last and sort of least is this pile of wood I bought for $8. Some might see junk but I see a chicken coop and playhouse in their future… and maybe a growth chart made out of one of the prettier pieces of wood.
Some of the things I would have snagged if I hadn’t given myself a twenty dollar budget would have been vintage GE electric tubes, some old Ringling Brother’s Circus books (they wanted $40 for them!), vintage local newspapers, and a $2 dictionary from 1910 (I’m having some serious regrets about not buying that).
So what do you think, were these good finds in your mind or am I just a little crazy? Have you been finding things at garage or estate sales that have made you want to jump up and down? Do share!
These are really amazing and perfect examples of classic Americana. I'm honestly impressed with the condition most of that stuff is in!
Now comes the task of incorporating them in places of the house where they won't break!
Exactly! I better go ahead and put "caution" tape all over them!
That fan is nuts….and for $5!!! It would go for way more than that around here. Great score.
Thanks! I'm only slightly obsessed with it. Kidding, I'm pretty obsessed with it.
[…] Going into the Style Cure, I knew I wanted to replace the standard metal shelf in our bathroom with thick floating shelves. I also knew what wood I wanted to use for those shelves, which was a thick piece from a pile of scrap wood I bought at an estate sale. […]