Sunday, January 25, 2009

My First Estate Auction {and a rummage sale}

This weekend was so slow for me. It was nice, if not a little boring.

On Saturday morning I woke up way too early {for a weekend} and headed to Topeka for an estate sale I had read about. I was interested in an old china hutch to store all my serving platters and milk-glass collection. Topeka is about 30 minutes away and I'd never ventured there in the 6 months we've lived in Lawrence so I figured...why not? {It's not much - sorry if anyone who reads this lives there}

The auction was held in a ghetto mall called White Lakes Center. It was actually kind of funny. I got there and saw tons of old people walking briskly down the aisles in sweatpants. Even funnier are the signs posted throughout the mall with exercise 'route' tips. Cracked me up.

But I rounded the first corner and could hear an auctioneer spewing out more words than I could understand. So I moseyed toward the big items in the store and checked out the china hutch I was after.

It was in terrible condition and wouldn't be coming home with me.

But I stuck around because I saw a few other things that could be fun.

Like this really old chair that I paid $2.50 for. Its disgustingly dirty and water-stained fabric doesn't really scream, "come sit on me and stay awhile" but I am going to make it my first second reupholster job and find a home for it, possibly in our bedroom in a little nook.


I also bought some really old wooden fruit crates {forgot to take pictures earlier and I'm much too comfortable under my quilt right now to be bothered} that I'll turn on end and use to stack my fabric in. They're the PERFECT size for it. I might possibly mount them on the wall. We'll see what husband thinks.

Finally, this antique highchair. I'm not sure if I'll need to sand and stain it yet, because I really like the color, but it's not a professional job in the slightest. I just don't know if I want to go to all that work. Maybe I'll sand it down and do it a solid black - if it's not obvious by now, I love black {and just dark in general} finishes on furniture.



The auctioneer thought it flipped into a stroller but as you can see it's actually a play table/tray with beads. It has wheels to move it around easily.


The beads will need to be taken off and given a massive scrub or even replaced and I already started pulling off the small metal and plastic wheels that you can see in the second picture - they're so gross, you don't want to know - but once it's done, it will be so cute. Now I just need a baby. Going to yard sales has afforded me the opportunity to see lots of old furniture and this baby chair is in such great condition and I won it for $15.

I don't think I should be allowed to go to auctions by myself if I buy things like this.

Last weekend I went to an elementary school gym sale and almost jumped for joy when I found this little scale.


Hillary was looking for one a few years ago when she wanted to do newborn pictures and I just thought it was cool anyways. Similar scales can be found on ebay but this is in fabulous condition and was so cheap{!} that I grabbed it before anyone else could even see it!



I love old bakeware so I bought these fluted pans. I found two of the same pan. It's about 7" diameter, which would be a perfect size for a dessert for two. I'm thinking an old school jello molded into one would be fun.


This book's title caught my eye, but look how great the illustrations are. I love this type of illustration and rarely pass up a look through kids books.



Finally, a set of score cards for our favorite game.


I love new treasures.

4 comments:

Kayleigh said...

Your nails look great!! :)

Dan & Casey Ritter said...

great job on the treasures!!! Love them all!

Me said...

Ohhh--can I come with next time?? :)

Mary P.

hillary said...

That highchair is just like the one Santa brought Callie for her Bitty Baby! How cute! I also thought your nails look nice.