Zannee’s Blog at BargainsLA.com

Sunday morning our neighbor calls to tell us it won’t fit into her new place and we can have it. But we are still stuck on a decision.

First, both hubby and I adore the piece and can put it to good and practical use. But we don’t need it. Secondly, it would be a financial strain to get it in the next couple of weeks. If we wait though, chances are it would be sold to someone else.

We go over our rules of thumb when buying furniture:
Do we love it? Is it useful? Is it well priced? Would it go with what we already have? Can we afford it?

Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes and maybe!

Most importantly on “one of a kind” pieces… would we regret not getting it?

Yes.

So we bought it. Bob came down on the price 10%.
(A good rule when antique shopping is to expect a 10% reduction.)

We had it delivered that day and spent the rest of the day polishing it up with Howard’s Restore a Finish, Feed and Oil and polishing formulas.

Howard’s products are the best for making a piece looks its absolute best without stripping or refinishing.

We are thrilled with our new piece! Our nice 11-old entertainment armoire (Originally purchased at Designers Bloopers) was donated to Burbank Discovery Shop. I knew they would take it even though they are really picky. It’s a nice piece… we got it at a great price …but our new antique secretary hutch was much better. Eventually, we can put a wide screen TV above it, which we couldn’t do with our old armoire.

Sometimes it’s worth going overboard. Now on to taxes….

Our little darling went away for spring break and all we really did was hang out and work. Our first week of parenting freedom and we didn’t go for a romantic weekend away, our plans for a day long hike got thwarted, we didn’t go dancing or hit a hot bar or nightclub… how dull!

We did do a couple of wine tastings, a few dinners out and most importantly went antiquing. A long time favorite, we love antique shopping, discovering unusual pieces even when we don’t need our want anything. As a couple we hadn’t gone antiquing in eons. We were well overdue, so even though there was nothing we needed, we went just for fun.

We headed over to the Pasadena Antique Center on Fair Oaks knowing that the pricing there tends to be high. This was a calculated move so we wouldn’t be tempted to buy anything.

Wouldn’t ya know it! Smack dab at the front of the store was a fabulous mahogany American Empire secretary desk from the 1880’s. We ooh’d and ahh’d over the piece… investigated every knook, cubby and cranny, remarked on the superior construction and authentic American Mahogany. It was perfect for a multitude of uses and perfect for our home. The dealer, Bob Anderson ended up being the most reasonably priced dealer in the entire place.

Basically, we fell in love with it. But, being prudent we left empty handed.

The next day we took our neighbor over to look at it. Someone we knew had to have this great piece. She fell in love with it and since she was moving, she thought she could use it at her new place. I wished I hadn’t shown it to her ‘cause I fell even more in love with it after a second viewing.

Now I was pitted against my neighbor for something I really really wanted, but didn’t need and really couldn’t afford…. We pay taxes every year and this is tax week! YIKES!

We decided to wait a day or two, make a measured decision and see if our neighbor wants it.

Should we get it? Could we swing it financially without using credit? It weren’t cheap but well priced for what it was. How would we fit it into our small abode?

If we don’t get it …will we regret it?

If we do get it…will we feel guilty? How would we recoup financially?

Will my friend be ticked off at me for showing it to her and then deciding I wanted it? Wouldn’t that make me a shitty friend?

The answer will be posted next week.

One of the flawed parts of my personality is hanging on to family mementos. No really, we have a container (as in truck) parked in the desert on family property where we store family mementos, furniture, books, ephemera, china, magazines etc. that we don’t have room for here.

A few weeks ago we went in to check on the contents and a family of mice somehow got stuck in the container and set up housekeeping. Good Lawd! I would have thought they were cute if the hadn’t used my photo albums for nesting materials. This called for immediate action. The mice had to go and the contents all need to be re-boxed and re-organized.

We loaded up on boxes at Market West in Chatsworth and two trips to the desert later it was all repacked, re-organized, mice free with lots of unnecessary stuff thrown out. On the first trip, we uncovered several 100 year old family portraits that the mice hadn’t gotten to. They are now at Frame Club being preserved and framed.

This last weekends trip uncovered a box full of these old (1900) art magazines packed with black & white print artwork. This has awakened the reason I kept them. I wanted to do a dining room with dozens of old landscape prints covering the walls, but never got around to it. These prints belonged to Kevin’s great grandmother who had subscribed to the magazine. She held on to them for decades, caring for them and then eventually passing them to her daughter, who passed them on to Kevin’s mother and now we have them.

The hard part will be limiting myself to frame just a couple dozen out of the hundreds of prints I have. The easy part will be framing them. Of course I’ll take them to Frame Club, who I have trusted with all my old family photographs. If you haven’t tried out Frame Club yet, ya don’t know how much money you can save without giving up quality. I may even mount some of the other prints and sell them on Ebay. Hey, what’s in your storage unit?