A rediscovered passion: trash into treasure

 A rehabbed triple dresser

 I rediscovered an old hobby after moving into our new home. And that is the joy of making old things look new. Whether it’s a fresh coat of paint in a bedroom or finding the beauty in a junky old piece of furniture.

When we moved out of our RV and into a big house, we had no furniture. Everything we owned fit inside our RV or in storage (in my mom’s basement).

Thanks to the generosity of friends and family, we ended up with enough furniture to sparsely furnish our basic necessities. A place to sleep. A comfy couch to sit on (thanks, Mom!) and dining room table.

Birds Gotta Fly Vintage furniture store

But we lacked shelving and those bits and bobs to flush out the rest of the space. I went yard sale shopping with a vengeance. And had so much fun. But we resulted in some interesting cast-offs. Things that had seen better days and needed TLC.

Last summer, I found one of my top favorite shops in Elkhart, Indiana: Birds Gotta Fly Vintage. They sell Anne Sloan Chalk paint and refinish furniture. But it’s the whole atmosphere. Fresh inspiration at every turn.

Anne Sloan chalk paint: LemLem and Pure White

I snagged some fun chalk paint colors and found some left-over paint in our basement. Armed with a paint-brush, I went to town.

A very long work

      Most of April, May and June have been taken up with getting our house ready to sell.  Which would explain the very long break between posts… But not excuse them…

Slowly, but surely I pared down our belongings to the necessities.  If I could use something in the trailer, I set it aside.  If I was desperately attached to it (ahem… my books), I placed it in a box and set it in the garage. 

     Towards the end of April, I began selling furniture and such on craigslist.  We knew that every penny back into our pocket would help.  But there was so much to do, I felt overwhelmed at the work load.  God came through again. 

     My friend, Tara Dreiling, owns a consignment/resale store in downtown Keenesburg (all two blocks of it…) and emailed me about some furniture she saw posted on craigslist.     We ended up negotiating a price for all the furniture in the house and she paid me in chunks over the next couple months. 

     I cleaned up different pieces and took it over to her shop as she had room.  While I didn’t make as much as I would have on craigslist, it drastically cut down on my workload. 

The kids and I stayed in the trailer at night and Bill slept in the house.  

     Slowly, the house came together.  We painted every wall in the house, including the basement.  Long tedious hours spent taping, prepping, painting and re taping finally paid off when we stepped back and saw how beautiful it looked. 

     In the midst of the painting, we also worked on the main floor flooring.  It took a week to rip out carpet, linoleum and bust out tiles.  Bill took a week off to work solely on the house.  Except I tried to be a lone ranger and haul a crate of tiles out to the garage and that was the last straw for my back.  Having been pushed to the limit, I finally killed it.  Could barely walk, sit and stand.  Laying down was my only relief and only if I didn’t move too much. 

      I called Mom right away.  She suggested an ice pack and lots of pain-killers.  Lots of rest and gentle stretching.  I managed to get back on my feet within a few days, but that left Bill alone to work. 

      Lesson learned…