Curb side scabbing

I can remember as a little girl that my brother and I used to always love going to the tip with my dad.  It was like going on a treasure hunt.  Although we weren't usually allowed to come home with any treasures that we found (mum would have freaked out about brining dirty old used things home) I would always dream of how I could resurrect all the old broken discarded things, and how I could make them beautiful again.

Not much has changed since.  I still look at discarded things and other people's rubbish and dream about what I could do with them.  Surely that old dresser only needs to be sanded back and revarnished, or that old outdoor setting just needs a little TLC to bring it back up to scratch I tell myself.  Whenever there is a curb side clean up I always take a sneaky look to see what I can find.  Either Tim is driving and won't dare stop on the side of the road to pick something up or I am on my own but too embarrassed to get out of the car and poke around so I never actually end up with anything, just images in my mind of what could be and how good it would look in our house.

The other day Tim and I were driving home and I happened to see a beautiful old mirror by the side of the road.  There was absolutely nothing wrong with it.  It was a beautiful cut glass mirror that I imagined hung in a little old ladies home.  I thought it would have been perfect in our bedroom above our dresser, or maybe even in our bathroom downstairs.  I asked Tim to stop but he piped up that if there was nothing wrong with it then they wouldn't have been throwing it away.  We drove on...

We got home and I still had images of that beautiful mirror in my mind, seeing it in my head hanging on our wall.  I jumped in the car and drove back.  I had to have it.  But by the time I got there, somebody else had taken it.  I was so disappointed.

Ever since then I have been keeping my eyes out for little treasures and have decided that if I see something  that looks interesting, I am going to stop right then and there and not be embarrassed about what other people think as I am picking through the rubbish.  Ok, so maybe I will still be embarrassed, after all, when Tim and I drive past people scrounging on the curb side we usually roll the windows down and yell out "scabs!" for a laugh.  I would be mortified if somebody did that to me!

But really, what is wrong with turning someone else's trash into your own treasure?  Sure, some things are just plain junk, dirty old junk, but sometimes you do see a rare gem.

There was a clean up in our local area last weekend and so I decided to go for a little drive.  I needed to get out of the house.  Tim was frustrating me and Ella was being difficult because her teeth are hurting her, so I left them together to go on a scavenger hunt.

I drove around the streets and saw lots of other cars doing the same thing.  I saw one street where just about every house had things outside so I decided to detour down the street.  It was like magic!  My eyes lit up as I saw all these brilliant things.  My mind was popping with ideas on what I could make with these old things!

There was an old timber children's desk which looked delightful but unfortunately when I had a closer look at it (I jumped out of the car so quickly, looked and ran back to the car again before anyone could see me) saw that it had been damaged by water and was not salvageable, but I could just see in my mind little Ella sitting at the freshly painted desk when she was a little bit older drawing pictures.

I prowled the streets a little longer and in the end I found three things that I had to have.  Each time I came across something I was a little less embarrassed to pick it up.  I picked up an old timber hat stand which was in near perfect order, a small timber coffee table with beautiful legs and then I saw the crowing glory... a beautiful old wing back chair which from what I could see had absolutely nothing wrong with it.

I shoved the hat stand and small table in the car with excitement but I knew I wouldn't be able to lift the chair into the car as well.  I was torn, I could see other junk prowlers roaming the streets, what if they saw my chair and fell in love with it and I missed out?  I would have been devastated.  I sped home to Tim.  He would have to help me.  It wasn't going to be easy to convince him but I had to do it.

As I walked in the door Tim shook his head as I brought in the hat stand and coffee table.  I could read his face immediately - "What on earth do we need an old hat stand and a coffee table for?".  But I didn't care.

The hat stand...

The dirty old coffee table...

And then I begged him...I begged him to please please please drive back to where the wing back chair was and pleaded for him to put it in the car and bring it back to me because it was too heavy and awkward for me to lift.  He was not impressed.  Not impressed at all.  I eventually twisted his arm when I told him that he could play his Playstation for the rest of the day without me complaining, and that was that.  He wasn't happy about it, but he jumped in the car with a treasure map I had drawn of how to get there and was going to bring my chair home.  That is, if somebody hadn't already taken it.

It wasn't long before he was back and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face when I saw that he had my chair.  He hated it, of course.  He was mortified that he had to get out and put this thing in the car, but the allure of the uninterrupted Playstation gaming made him go through with it.

I cleaned it up with carpet cleaner and sprayed it like nothing else with Glen 20, but really, it was in great condition anyway and didn't really have any dirty marks on it.  I wasn't sure where I was going to put it at that stage.  It sat in the living room for a little bit but somehow it just didn't seem right.  Tim even said that it was starting to grow on him.  That would have been hard for him to admit.  He even joked that it could be come his new gaming chair.  We had a good laugh about that and how ironic it would be.  But now the grand chair sits in Ella's bedroom and is where we give her her nighttime feed and where we read books to her.

I'm not so sure about the colour.  I love green, and part of me thinks it's wonderful as it is, but it doesn't quite fit into our decor so I am thinking of having it reupholstered with some beautiful fabric depending on the cost.

As for my other treasures, I am going to throw the hat stand on eBay.  I have no use for a hat stand and in all likelihood, Ella will probably just pull it over onto herself now that she is becoming more mobile.  Even if it only goes for 10 bucks, I will be happy.

And the little coffee table I have big plans for.  I want to turn it into a stool for the end of the bed.  I just need to repaint it and then find some nice fabric to make a cushion for it.  Something like this perhaps...

I am the master of saying that I will do these things and have the best intentions but then other things happen and these projects take a back seat until something new takes my fancy...so we'll see.  But I really do want to turn around to Tim and give him a bit of a 'told you so' in that I did turn the junk into something that he likes.  I can already see how much he likes snuggling with Ella in the big chair while they read books before bed time.  But he'll never admit it to me...