Second Hand Goodies

At the weekend Pappa Bear and I took our our boys for an 'adventure'.  It was really just a shopping trip for a few essentials with some non-essential stops on the way.

Our first stop was a garage sale where we meet some friendly locals, one set being the father and son team who deliver our local paper and another being the owner of the village cafe.  I found some stainless steel BBQ kebab sticks, 3 large baskets perfect for bread at our next BBQ and a nice big glass baking dish.  As we were about to leave and pay for my armful of goodies I spotted an old lounge suite.  A couple of two seaters and an arm chair.  After a bit of 'umming and aring' we decided to purchase the suite, for the bargin price of $45 - including delivery by the friendly locals no less.

The rest of the morning was spent collecting a massive pile of books from the Public Library, visiting our fruit and vege shop, the local supermarket and then having lunch and a play at the park beside Lake Hakanoa.  After we got home Pappa Bear went to help load up the new furniture to bring home.  I was ready and waiting we they arrived, vacuum and upholstery cleaner set to go.  After two hours of applying serious elbow grease and a couple more hours in the sun and wind they came up soft and clean - but not any prettier.

I have plans on posting how I make sofa covers but first I need to save up my housekeeping money to buy fabric.  No more flicking money around willy-nilly like we used to on 2 wages, it's super thrifty living for us now.  That's why it's taken me 9 months to get furniture for the sunroom in the first place, trying to find the right size and price for our room, and budget.

In the mean time I will have to live with the faded fabric and 2 small holes that came with the suite.  We've already made good use of the new furnished cozy corner in our sunroom which used to be home to toys, tents and quite often a big mess.  We've had an evening with our new library books, a few snoozes, story times, a cuppa with family passing through and today my boys have sat and read for ages.  As much as I want my dream of fresh coats of white paint, linen fabrics and splashes of my favourite blues, pinks and teals thrown around I am happy that we are comfortable, warm and cozy living with our second hand, side of the road and gifted furniture.