my 2 cents or $65.51 opinion

back in january, we were lucky enough to find a fabulous Pottery Barn basic sofa in a thrift store. we would not have been able to buy the couch for any other price, and i could not have been happier with our find.

i was so excited about the sofa that i posted about it and then put a link in my facebook 365 album. excited.

it is absolutely living up to all the fabulousness that i thought it would. even this weekend, when i was sick as a dog and spent nearly every moment nestled amongst it's cushiony softness, i fell in love all over again.



so, when i got a random email from someone (a friend of a friend on fb) who had been looking for a PB basic sofa and was asked whether i would recommend buying the sofa for $300 used from craiglist, i said absolutely! this couch at any price less than half the original would be worth it.

and about the white slipcover, i really like it too. yes, it gets dingy. but it washes quickly and looks brand new again! beautiful. i have spilt coffee, darby has gotten it nasty, i dripped a fudgesicle, blood, and it has all come out. no, i do not yank the slipcover off each time it gets dirty. it really only needs it about once every three months. 

and about a white couch being kid-friendly? well, we don't have kids, but my nephew sure had a ball jumping on the couch from the ottoman when he was here for a week back in january. and when we do have kids, they won't be swatted away from the sofa as if it should be in a museum, they can jump too.

so, would i recommend the PB basic sofa? you betcha. now, go craigslist one.

January junkin

Any given Saturday you can usually find us at estate sales, yard sales or an antique store. We just have fun looking at all the cool stuff and finding things we had as kids. I guess you could say that junkin’ is one of our hobbies. It’s fun for us.

Well, today we hit the jackpot of all jackpots. Okay, not really, but I am really excited about today’s find.

We went to an antique store close to our house and were looking for a pipe for him and a chandelier for her. No such luck, but we did find these so insanely large they moved up with my cheeks when I laughed awesome glasses. Cute, huh?


Our adventure then took us to the thrift store across the street in hopes that we could steal away ten more minutes out of the house. That’s when I saw it.

White. Dark legs. I knew those sleek and curvy lines from years of dreaming in catalogs .

Could it be?

I checked the tag. It just said “couch” and “$90.00.” I was on a mission now. I decided I needed to flip this couch over to hunt for a label. Then, my senses came to me and I simply lifted the middle, slipcoverless cushion to find……


Yep, she was. So, I grabbed the cushion with the “Couch $90.00” tag and started towards the front. But Jacob had noticed another tag. It said “Couch $79.98". I began sniffing the couch all over to make sure it had not been peed on. I was looking for rips (it has one small one). I was expecting to find broken springs or busted legs. No smells. One rip. No breaks. A little surface dirt. SOLD.

When we got to the front and handed the tag to the lady, she said “Oh, you’re not going to pay this much.” My heart sank. “What?” I happened to stammer out. “It’s not going to be this much” she said coolly. I (stupidly) asked, “Why?” Again, she said, “It’s not that much. I can mark it up if you want me to.” Jacob and I together, “NO!”


The top tag is the tag on the couch. The bottom is our receipt that shows what we paid tax and all. Steal? I think so.


We got the couch after a trip home to get Jacob’s truck. I ran the vacuum over it (a few times) and cleaned it with damp washcloth. It is now drying from a round of febreeze.

We have already picked out and bought a slipcover on eBay (only $149)! I am am one happy junker tonight.


If you want to see what we bought yesterday while junkin with jacob’s family, go here. It sold in less than 12 hours for more than twice what we paid for it! Woo-hoo!

Holiday Happys

It has been quite a while since I have participated in the Thrifty Treasures party over at Southern Hospitality. Since we do not need any more "everyday junk" around our house right now, I turned my focus to rounding up some holiday decor. Here are my finds over the last few weeks.

Christmas Tree (just like one my in-laws found in the trash 30 years ago) - $2 at Goodwill
Red Jingle Bells - $5 at estate sale (may be used for gifts or ornament swaps)
Candy Cane Stamp - $.25 at yard sale
Candy Cane dip and spreader set - $.69 at Goodwill
Jack-o-Lantern candle holder - $.25 at yard sale

Cauldron - $.59 at Goodwill

Decorating for the holidays is somewhat of a therapy for me, so there were good buys. Getting a good deal is just fun! So, hop over to Southern Hospitality to see everyone else's Thrifty Treasures from this weekend.

Better by Accident

First, you have to start with a blank slate. My find: the bathroom wall.

Next, you gather things left by previous homeowners and flippers and cool stuff bought at an estate sale. My finds were a rusty antique door plate ($2), glass knob, and two skeleton keys.

Then, you need to gather thrifty backdrops. My finds were two small wooden circle things for $1 at a yard sale, a yucky 70s-style oval frame at Goodwill for $2, and a piece of gorgeous scrapbook paper at Michael's for $.59. Oh yeah, you also need to grab Ivory/Antique White spray paint and some glue that you have around already.

Put it all together and what do you get. New wall art.

Now, we are not finished. You have to go to bed, not be able to sleep, hear a loud noise, get up and check for robbers, find the glass knob on the bathroom floor, laugh at yourself, look up and see something better than you did before you went to bed. My find: this.

Hubby said he likes it better this way too.

Price My Space Party

There's a party going on round here.....The Nester is hosting a Price My Space party today to round up steals, deals and just altogether good stuff and to see what we paid for it all. I really like her point that there are certain things you should spend good money on so they will last you forever, and then there are those things that you can bargain and thrift to your heart's content. Here's our dining room, all priced out.

1. The white cabinet (blogged about in the last post) has been in my mother's family for four generations now. I recently revamped it after sloooooowly working it on it over the last four years. Here's the breakdown: paint from another project, knobs $.75 per pair at BB&B clearance, paper 15 cents each at Hobby Lobby - 12 pieces, left over spray paint for hinges - free. Total = $4.80

2. The plate wall is another recent change in the room. The most any of these plates cost was $1.00 each. I painted the one in the middle with chalkboard paint. (And gave my sis a matching one.) The hangers were more than the plates themselves. Total = $ 16.50

3. My window "mistreaments" are not my favorite, but they will do for now. I tried a variation on a theme of the ones I created for the living room. You can read about those mistreaments in this old post. They are made of placemats, grosgrain ribbon, witch stitchery and hot glue magic. They serve their purpose well covering the u-g-l-y miniblinds that stay raised most of the time. The placemats were $4.99 for 4 (I only used three), grosgrain ribbon $1.99, witch stitch stuff $1.99 ( I ran out on the last set) for a total of $9.00 with leftovers.

4. These black chairs were a necessary purchased that later turned to love. A few years ago I accepted a position doing contract work for a graphic design/communications specialist. I needed to set up a workspace for days I would be working from home (I was living with my dad and stepmom at the time.) I used my sofa table I had in my apartment as the desk and was on the look out for chairs at Target. I was thrilled when I found one black chair on clearance for $15.38. I hauled that box home in flash only to find out I had purchased TWO chairs. Shut your face! So, good deals. They are pretty good chairs and will hang around for awhile I guess.

5. The Big Deal purchase of the room is the table. It was a huge splurge and it was all hubby's idea. I had knots in my stomach even after we brought it home. It is the Harvest table from Pottery Barn. We got it at the outlet for $499 a couple of months ago. It still retails in the catalog for $999 at least. It has another leaf that can be inserted to make it ginormous. It has no scratches or dents that weren't originally burned into the table. (One thing I love about it - it's rustic charm.) And it is SOLID. I know it will last us forever and that makes me feel better. I did not like the thought of getting rid of my parents table even though it was unfinished and I had to keep a table pad and cloth on it always.

6. Accessories on the left of the room - Total $28

Glass Urn thingys - family heirloom

Black spindles - about $15 at Hobby Lobby for both, had them in my apartment

Cream Urn - $6 something years ago Target clearance

Moravian Star - Christmas present from stepmom

Laugh sign - $7 at Hobby Lobby, was half price

Decanter - family heirloom, was my grandfather's

Crystal vase - a Mother's Day present I gave my mom when I was a teenager

Stuff in the cabinet - various wedding presents and family heirlooms


7. Accessories on Right side of the room, Total roughly $5 out of my pocket

Milkcan - mother's family

Plant - from dad's funeral

Wooden shelf - dad bought at Hobby Lobby for $15 but never put up in his house

Gold H - $5 at Hobby Lobby, half price sale

Votives - left over from our wedding

Sliverware Shadowbox - great-grandmother's silver, old shadowbox I gave hubby

8. These upholstered chairs were hand-me-downs and were given to my parents for a wedding present along with their old dining table. They used to be covered with this great seventies style green vinyl. Stylin'! You can see some great old pics of the chairs in my previous post. I am in the process of recovering them. Here's the redo breakdown: drop cloth $20, stain $9.00, upholstery tacks $5, foam and batting $19. Total $53 for 4 chairs. Nice! The other two chairs you see there are yard sale find, one was $3 and the other was $2. They are just hanging out here until get all of the other chairs covered. Total for side chairs $58.

That brings our Grand Total for the Dining Room to about $635......oops, I forgot the paint I got on sale for $16.52 at Lowes and then used my $5 rebate. So the total is really about $648.

After looking at some other rooms, I do not feel like that is all that bad. Most of it besides the table has been spent over time too which eases the blow. I know we have spent more than some people would to decorate their homes. I feel like if we do it now while we can, then I will always have pieces to work with later. I love that our pieces are unique and not like anyone else's. I love that they have a story and that they add character to our home. It's what makes our little house such a reflection of our little life that we love.

Head over to The Nesting Place to check out some other rooms and what they cost. It is really interesting to see what other people pay for decor and just the story behind the various rooms.