Zannee’s Blog at BargainsLA.com

Okay, call me tacky or weird, but I can only handle grief in small increments. Closing an estate, handling obits, burials, legal matters, estate sales and other icky-ness do not make for a happy day. So, one of the things I have been doing to lighten up a rather bleak, sad time and help keep me sane is restoring the antique Victorian dresser and bed set mom left my daughter. It’s a beauty and a family piece handed down through all the women in the family since 1864. But it was in bad need of attention. Years of wax and regular use had taken its toll.

I pulled out my Howard’s Clean A Finish, Restore a Finish and Feed n Wax and have spent an hour every day for about a week working on this lovely set. I LOVE this stuff and if you have furniture that needs attention, I’d try this product first before throw away or send off a furniture piece for professional restoration. At around $6-$7 dollars a bottle, it works wonders. http://www.howardproducts.com/restora.htm

I did have to take one of the original metal drawer pulls in to see if it could be repaired. I stopped in Crown City Hardware in Pasadena ready to spend big bucks on repair or replacement if required. To my complete astonishment they hammered the piece back into shape in just a couple of minutes and only charged me for the nuts for the hardware’s bolts…. A whopping 27 cents. I almost fainted from joy and gratitude.

This was friendly, incredible service with a smile. I doubt the pricing on the antique or reproduction hardware here is a real bargain, but the service is fabulous!

Crown City Hardware
1047 N. Allen Avenue
Pasadena, California 91104
626.794.0234
http://www.crowncityhardware.com/index.html

In addition to the hardware repair, I also took in the rose marble top from the matching dresser to get it glued back together. I knew the piece was American made Victorian and I decided to go to Best Way Marble. Mom had recommended them so strongly years ago as a great source for solid deals on marble, travertine and such along with stellar service. I felt it was good bet. I wasn’t disappointed.

Expert, Bob Martinez took one look at my 130 year old broken marble pieces and knew he could repair it to make it just as good as new rather than replace it. That alone saved me at least $200.

I did take the time to look at the amazing selection marble they had in stock for bathrooms and kitchens. Since I haven’t caparisoned shop marble yet, I couldn’t make an assessment, but for real “know how” and honesty, Best Way Marble gets my vote!

Best Way Marble
5037 Telegraph Road
Los Angeles, CA 90022
323.266.6794
http://www.bestwaymarble.com/home.html

Like most people, I like saving money without having to work too hard. But unlike most people I will work at it when required. I will wait to pounce at a sample sale, drive out of the way to get a great deal on an appliance, gadget or piece of furniture. Do what ever it takes in most cases. Where I am at my weakest is grocery shopping. Though I will look at the price and compare, I tend to buy what I like to eat. Prices be damned!

I do know enough not to shop when I am hungry and to buy in volume and pounce on store discounts, but use coupons…. No way. My husband is the king of coupon shopping, consistently saving near 50% every time he shops. That’s why he does the bulk of the grocery shopping.

However the king is out of town with a tour for a couple of weeks leaving me to blow the family budget! I promptly went out and bought items I knew I’d like: Pesto sauce, mushrooms, zucchini, wine, breads, yogurts, cottage cheese, elaborate salad ingredients and such. Yummy, healthy stuff. A grocery bill that would normally run my hubby $50 is $80 when I grocery shop.

But the “piece de resistance” was when I blindly went in to buy large round Globe  grapes for a Halloween Haunt at my daughter’s school… $2.99 a pound at Ralph’s ended up being $35 for 4 bags of grapes. I was too dumb founded to object at the register and walked out of the store mumbling to myself.

I have failed grocery shopping 101. I hadn’t planned ahead, I hadn’t compared grocery ads…. I hadn’t done anything to insure I wasn’t overpaying. I just went and mindlessly bought.

The Bargain Queen’s crown is all a-twitter.  I’d better come up with some spectacular bargains to return to my normal self. I’ll keep you posted.

As previously noted in this blog, both my husband and myself went completely ballistic and bought an antique secretary a couple of months ago.

He had grandiose ideas about purchasing a flat screen, wall mounted HDTV TV above it. Cool…that’ll work. Then we priced them. YIKES! Not this year… may be after Christmas.

In the mean time we put our old TV directly on top of antique secretary and to protect the secretary we put an old beach towel under the TV. I can’t tell you how much a beach towel totally ruins the effect of owning an elegant mahogany antique secretary. I should have trailer trash stamped on my forehead.

I had enough of the tacky towel in the living room and decided to sew a table runner in a nice, thick cotton velvet. I grabbed my mother in law (the family fabric expert) and went to F & S Fabrics in West LA.. They have a cool selection, but at $18-$35 a yard, I’d have none of it.

I trip downtown to the fabric district was necessary. I know from past experience to go early and on a weekday. So last Friday, without anyone in tow I headed down, parked in a pay lot ($5) and spent a couple of hours journeying through dozens of fabric stores. I could have easily been distracted by the gorgeous selections in brocades, chenilles, silks and knits all at 35%-75% less than regular fabric stores. There were a lot of cotton velvets at $8-$9 a yard at the smaller independents stores. But I knew the color I wanted and ended up at Michael Levine’s. There must have been 30 different cotton velvets at $10 a yard so I could get just the right hue of maroon. I got 2 yards and a couple of tassels to finish it off.

An afternoon of sewing, and voila! Living room tackiness gone, antique secretary protected for just $33….$24 in fabric, and $5 to park and $4 in gas.

If you are planning on a home décor project (re-upholstery, curtains, bedding) and need fabric, do go down to Maple between Olympic and 8th. You’ll have thousands of fabrics, trims and notions to choose from and you’ll save a bunch of money.

Michael Levine’s, 919 & 920 S. Maple Ave., Los Angeles 213.622.6259.

BTW… Morrie’s is located right next to Michael Levine’s. Great spot for women’s designer clothes for less… 50%-80% off!