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Building with old lumber is a lot of fun and creates some interesting pieces. Acquiring the materials is more work and more entertaining than running down to the building supply store. These treasure hunts usually lead to some great stories, though.

A few weeks ago, I had breakfast with Kelli – biscuits and gravy at a local diner/flea market called The Pitstop. After breakfast, she headed to a weaving class in Wichita and I ran some errands, which included hitting an estate sale. The sale was run by a Julie, who was leaving the sale as I arrived. Some guy that I’ve never seen was running the sale. The garage had a bunch of decent wood up on several shelves and 8 old, partial church pews on the floor that were priced at $10 each. It was 12:30 on a Sat & the sale closed in 1.5 hours. When it’s that close to the end, they usually want to get rid of stuff, especially big stuff that they have to haul off. I asked what he wanted for the unpriced wood on the shelves. He wanted $20 and wouldn’t accept my offer of $10. He start telling me about the great pieces that were up on the shelf. hmmmph. I told him I would think about it and left. I ran some more errands, but couldn’t quit thinking about the lumber. I looked up Julie’s number from the sale’s ad. I sent her a text about 10 minutes after the sale closed and asked if she still had the lumber. She said yes and said she would take $20 for all of it – including all the pews. Awesome! I asked if she was still there and that I’d like to pick it up. The next text said “I’m leaving. Gravy’s gone and I’m hungry.” My thought was “Bummer!” and “That dude’s name is Gravy? Odd.” The next text said “We’re still here. Come and get it.” What the? I looked at my phone. The gravy text was from Kelli! Never found out that guy’s real name, but he’ll always be Gravy to me.

Here is my haul:

Here is some other stuff I’ve built in the past month:

Sorry that I have been so neglectful in my writing. Here are a few project pictures. Kelli has been getting involved, too. These were all made with salvaged wood.

More projects on the way. Have an awesome day!

… to make you holler. I get paid to ….sell the wild sink…? Wild West World sinks to be exact. Tonight I sold 2 sinks for $50 through Craig’s List. Last spring, I went to an auction and bought 5 wall mounted sinks for $1 each. They had been installed at Wild West World, which was in business for all of about 6 weeks. These things were like new and still had faucets and drains attached. It was an impulse buy and I thought I could flip them quickly. Well, I sold one in the spring for $35 and then had four taking up room in my shop. So, I re-listed them and now have two more to sell. I’ve made $80 so for, so not shabby.

I’m in clean-up mode. I moved here about 18 months ago and started furnishing my house and shop with treasures from auctions, estate sales, garage sales, and Craig’s List. Maximum bang-for-the-buck was always the goal with an eye for the ability to resell for a profit later on as I needed to upgrade. Projects with character that needed some restoring were always fun to buy. I had a big shop to store stuff. I was frugal. I was creative. I could see potential.  I had a problem!!! I’m running out of room! I’m not a hoarder. Everything I own is for sell and I won’t have a panic attack if you try to throw away a Sonic cup. That’s proof, right?  I just love me the good deal and have figured out some fun tricks along the way.

Auctions are best. You need at least two people interested in an item to get a decent price. Get less than two and it’s bargain time. Auctions are just fun entertainment. Even if you don’t bid, it’s worth attending for the pie. Garage sales and estate sales have a completely different dynamic. Most garage sales are trying to clear out stuff they don’t want. Usually, the best time to go is right when they open to get first pass at what they marked too cheap or right before they are ready to close. At the end, they have that “I don’t want to carry this heavy SOB back into the house” attitude and are usually ready to bargain. Estate sales are different. They are usually run by professionals who have a system: day one – price it high & sell to the collectors who have to have something (Tip: don’t be a collector and don’t ever “need” anything!), day two is markdown day – 25-50% off. They probably make most of their money on day 1 & 2. Day three is liquidation day – 50-75% off with an “I need to get rid of what’s left” attitude. The later it gets in the day, the heavier that stuff starts to look to these exhausted, professional estate sale geriatrics. Bargain time! Craig’s List is a great place to sell. There are pretty decent prices happening there. When you see a great bargain, you better call fast because a bargain doesn’t last on something so accessible.

So, now you can see why there is a problem…it’s just good fun. The problem is I started running out of room and have too many “projects.” I read a blog about a couple who started a quest to sell all of their crap, pay off their debt, buy an RV, and travel the country. Well, I can’t travel the country in an RV, but it did inspire me to start downsizing. I’ve read about people who have reduced their possessions to 100 items. I can’t do that. (start adding up the stuff in one room and you figure out real quick how much crap you have!) Now I’m on a kick to sell stuff I don’t need or fix the “projects” that I have.

I started the sell off with a utility bed trailer that I bought last winter from Craig’s List for $230. I was going to use it for my remodel business, but am not doing that anymore. I listed it for $600 and had someone school me on the fine art of playing hardball. The guy talked me down to $400. I worked hard to get him to pay more, but that guy was tough. In the end, I was happy to make $170 profit on the deal and get it out of my driveway.

On the same day, I went to an estate sale where they had a sweet Craftsman 6″ jointer, priced at $85, marked down from $115. It was near the end of the day. The guy running the sale told me that all the stuff had belonged to his wife’s uncle. He had a shop in the basement. The jointer was a beast that they had to dismantle to carry up the stairs. He even jokingly told me that it doubled as a piece of fitness equipment because it was so heavy. I smelled blood. I offered him $50. He took it and he was glad to have it gone. Now it waits patiently in my garage for a future “project.” The cycle continues.

…on the street, inside your head, on every beat. And in my house. My biggest, recent work on my house was getting a broken air conditioner fixed. Not fun, but I can see why the thing just gave up. With a month of 100+ days, that sucker has been running almost non-stop. I love the summer, but i’m looking forward to fall.

My oldest daughter is really into art. A recent purchase I made was a small wire feed welder. We are going to use it to make some art “projects.” Should be fun. Waiting for some cooler temps, though. We are considering starting an Etsy store. Anyone have any experience or suggestions with that.

I haven’t done any remodeling to the teepee in forever. My life is currently revolving around work, mowing, coaching softball, being a dad, and dating @illek. All stuff that I love, except the mowing. I cannot, however, let June slip away without a single blog post. BTW, Happy Birthday, sis!

Since this is a blog about before and after, I figured I would show an after pic and share a story. Last year, we started a new softball team from scratch. We had three girls who were getting a lot of bench time on a competitive team. The other seven girls all came from recreation level teams and wanted to play more competitively. In the beginning, we were pretty raw. We lost a few players along the way and added a few more. We have had a lot of fun and improved nicely. Here we are, a year and half later, and we won our last two tournaments. This is a picture of us, The Stix.

I started this post 3 weeks ago by creating a draft with a title, but never started the post. I have no idea what I was planning to write about. hmmmm. Nope, it’s gone. Sorry. Have a nice day!

I had a small handyman project that I was doing for a couple of friends that turned into more of an art project. They had a very rustic set of copper doors leading to a bar area in their home. The had bough some wrought iron door handles in Mexico that they wanted installed. Sounds easy, so I agreed to do it. One problem, they didn’t have any bolts and Home Depot/Lowe’s does not sell old rusty, beat up bolts. You would think I had a coffee can full of them in my garage, but not much chance of having 8 all the right length. So, not knowing where to find some, I turned to my friends on twitter. I got several great suggestions for places to shop and how to doctor them up. Thanks, guys! Rustic, rustic, rustic. #that’sforyouJohn I went to this cool place called The Yard Store in Old Town that is part clearance store, part building materials, and part salvage yard. It’s been there forever because my dad knew about it and he hasn’t lived in Kansas for 40 years. I bought some black carriage bolts – nice round head with smooth top, but they looked too new. I took them home, put gouges in them with a grinder, dipped them in some acid, then painted them with brown primer, while still wet, I dipped them in some dry cement powered, brushed off the loose stuff, then I dipped them in some brown glaze stuff that is made for faux finishes on concrete. You wondering why I would have all of these “art supplies” on hand? Don’t ask! They looked pretty rustic and blended in fairly well. This morning when I was loading up, I noticed that I had a can of brownish paint called “hammered.” I so coulda used that! I’m assuming hammered is in reference to the look of the finished product, not a clue for huffers to “pick this one!”

I went to an auction this weekend in the freezing cold. They sold a pile of hedge posts & 3 pieces of rough looking wood for $1. I didn’t bid because I didn’t want all those post. However, I went up to the winning bidder and asked if he would sell me the 3 pieces of wood for $1. He laughed, but agreed. The pieces were 8′ long, about 3″ thick by 6-8″ wide.They had a lot of rotten wood that felt almost like cork. I took a grinder with a brass wire wheel and basically ground off the rotten wood. It left some very unique looking wood. Here is a piece prior to being worked over and the finished coffee table that I made with my $1 wood. Because the wood was so thick, I have to use some giant 5″ nails, that I bought at an auction for next to nothing. Go ahead and laugh, Dad, but I have a plan!

I had so much fun, that I decided to get some more wood. Through the miracle of Craig’s List, I found someone with a barn that was knocked down by a tornado, who was selling the wood. It was some 80 year old stuff with odd thicknesses and nice saw marks. So, today I headed out with cordless saws, chain saw, pry bars, and hammers to fill my trailer with wood. Note to self: Next time bring a sledge hammer, too. On the way out of my neighborhood I saw about 25 wild turkeys.

Here is the barn.

And these guys were wondering what the heck I was doing taking part of their wooden mountain.

This guy was less interested in what I was doing.

And here is my haul. Lots of nails and time to start some projects.

I recently assisted my oldest with an art project. I provided the raw materials (read: junk) and the sawing. Tay provided the vision and creativity. Fun!

…one time, two times…actually three times. I finally got my water softener installed today. There were three leaks with the unit that I had to fix. Nothing that a couple of O rings and Teflon tape couldn’t fix. (and ball bearings and gauze!) That’s what happens when you recycle a used water softener. I got a high end unit for $100 at a garage sale. Looking forward to the soft water and no water spots, ie white crust on everything.

Have been working on the girl’s bathroom and will get pics soon when it is done.