a long december (& winter)

i currently have the no-garage-sales-because-it's-cold-outside-silly blues...

it was a surprisingly busy summer and fall (i spent all my free time over the summer job searching, got a new job in august, and started in september!) so i didn't do nearly the amount of saleing as i normally would've. then all of a sudden it was winter, and we all know no one wants to sale in winter. 

to pass the time, i've been spending my home/decorating/diy-dreaming time a few ways: 

1. pinterest dreaming

2. spending an embarrassing amount of time at two blogs: young house love  & nesting place

3. reading yhl's new book, which i am already obsessed with

4. sorting through my priorities. let me explain. 

we had the good (and by good i mean ridiculously lucky) fortune that our friend kelly was moving into an apartment at the same time that we were moving into our home. she had lots of great furniture that wouldn't fit in her new place, so we stored her furniture for her in our house, which helped her out, but also allowed us to save the expense of having to buy some of those items right away. currently in our home, the things we have (and use every single day) of kelly's include: 

1. big, comfy, white couch in the family room

2. kitchen table + 2 chairs

3. 2 shelving units we use for storage in our dining room 

4. a big, black bamboo looking mirror we have hung in our upstairs hallway                                                        

after you've seen the pictures, i'm sure you understand how much we have to replace! the bittersweet thing about this deal is that it of course has to come to an end. kel is marrying one of our other wonderful friends, josh, on february 23. and though we're sad to see these things go, we're excited to give it back as it means they're starting their lives together. so, back to priorities... i have to balance some of these big purchases that we now need to make with some other smaller things i've been wanting for our house and with the ever-present list of home projects we'd like to undertake. this is when saleing becomes most important. i'm desperate for some good deals! 

to add a small (but exciting) aspect to it too - ross and charlotteone finally have some legit office space! this is so exciting, but as of right now, the office with it's 4 rooms and a hallway is entirely empty except for a single globe i picked up at a yard sale in the fall for their previous office (which was a single room, with a couple of desks in a corner of an artchitect's office.) if i could score a couple great finds for them at the office along the way - that would be like a cherry on top. 

here's to hoping 2013 is the best year yet for by garage saleing adventures! 

10 suggestions

for some quick (but good!) tips on saleing, check out this article published by cnn money. it has some practical tips for those of you just learning what saleing is all about, but some great reminders and suggestions for even the most seasoned saler.

cnn money article

that's all for now, looking forward to catching you all up on some of my saleing triumphs this season. coming soon!

a great exchange

after a long hiatus - that was only such from blog posts, not achieving actual rest, as i've been a busy little worker preparing tax returns during my 4th busy season as a working woman - i'm not back and more excited to get back to saleing now more than ever.

april 15 is not only the end of tax busy season, but it's also, the anniversary of ross and i buying our first house together.

last month, being our first anniversary in our home, i thought it was a good time to post pictures to facebook of our house. when we first bought the house, i never wanted to post pictures because the house never felt "finished". we were constantly moving from one project to another, but i learned an important lesson. like most of life, house ownership is just a step in the journey - not about a destination.

after i posted the pictures, i received compliments from friends and family members that were so sweet.  i especially loved comments from someone who noticed or liked something from one of my saleing adventures. i thought i'd take this opportunity, my first one back from the long break, to tell about one of my first, and favorite, sales.

after about 4 weeks in a row of garage sales, my dear friend mary austin (affectionately nicknamed MA) wanted to come along for the fun. ross had plans to have breakfast with a friend, and the two of us were going to meet up after we were both finished with our respective plans, and go to the mall to look for red curtains for our guest room. some friends had given us a pottery barn gift card as a house warming gift, so we were going to begin our search there.

i made MA and myself a list of 4 sales to go to and we were on our way. the first one we went to had lots of little kids stuff (very common of yard sales and something i now look for in the description of the sale, so i can be sure to avoid since i'm nowhere near ready for that yet!), the 2nd i scored a brand new set of golfballs for ross for $1 (the friend he was having breakfast with was giving him a set of golf clubs!), and the 3rd ended up not being there (this has happened to me a handful of times, but not often... i still don't understand it. the ad will list and address and a time, and when i arrive i find no sale at all, even though the ad was never deleted.)

as we headed to our last one of the day, we kept our fingers crossed. we arrived to a nice home in south charlotte, in a suburb called ballantyne. as we walked up the driveway, we noticed a couple of backpacks - our church was doing a backpack drive for a local elementary. we mentioned possibly purchasing the backpacks and explained the drive to one lady who was working the sale. she was thrilled to find out we were members at forest hill because she was too. she went on to tell us that 4 ladies (who were also members of forest hill) had organized this sale for a young couple who was trying to adopt a little girl from china. knowing this, i was determined to find something to buy - it didn't take me long at all.

i walked to a table and picked up some red fabric. as i inspected it, my hand brushed a tag and i realized... it was a single, red, pottery barn curtain.  i was tickled and disappointed at the same time. this was exactly what i wanted! however, there was only 1 and i needed 4. i quickly pulled my phone out to see if i could find the exact same curtain online at pottery barn, so i could possibly buy this one and then buy 3 more to match it. well, i found it. but the exact same one was $75 per curtain at the store. as i internally debated what to do... buy this curtain and bite the bullet to spend on the rest, or look elsewhere for curtains, hoping i could find a better deal elsewhere.

my thoughts were broken up by the lady i'd first talked to, coming up to me with something in her hands. she exclaimed, "as i noticed you looking at that curtain, i realized how silly i'd been. i only put one out, even though i had 3 more in the house... who would want to buy just one curtain??" as i smiled from here back to indiana, i simultaneously started figuring some math out in my head, trying to come up with a dollar amount that i would not spend over. as i decided inwardly that $25 per curtain would be my limit, since they were used, i asked how much she was asking for the curtains.

she replied, "$1 per curtain, so let's say $4." i nearly choked as i questioned, "seriously?!" her reply: "oh! is that too much!?" i snapped back to reality quickly as i didn't want to offend her, as she'd been so kind and afterall this was an incredible deal. not to mention, the money was going to a great cause. i told the nice woman, that was not too much at all, in fact it was much less than i was expecting, and i was so grateful. she said she was happy to see them go to someone who would really like them and i went off to tell MA about the unbelievable find.

we both found another item or two to buy now that we knew it was for a good cause and even bought some of the baked goods that they had available. they told us that they'd had a phenomenal day and made more money than they'd expected through the sale.  i thought that was just about the perfect trade - i'd been able to contribute to two parents trying to bring their little girl home and i was leaving with, what i considered a treasure to add to ross' and my house. i don't think i even need to mention how excited ross was when i told him the news... not because we had new curtains, but because of the money we were saving :) below is a picture of our curtains - in their new home! 

early or not early... that is the question

now that you've figured out where the garage sales are, the next thing to decide is: when do you want to go? there are two compelling yet opposing sides to this heated debate.

proponent #1: the early bird gets the worm

your stereotypical garage saler falls into this category. this involves waking up at the crack of dawn (or before that some weekends of the year) and venturing out while everyone else is spending their saturday morning snoozing. the biggest reason to be the first to get there is obvious... you have your first pick of all the good stuff. you also beat the crowds and can take your time browsing. 

i once got to a 7am yard sale at 7am on the dot. i walked away with a $5 pair of perfectly snug ski boots that had been worn once and then discarded because the owner said she broke her collar bone the only run she ever wore them on, so she swore they were cursed and wanted to practically give them away. 

the early bird isn't always a happy place to be though, don't let it fool you. there are two main reasons why being the first to a yard sale can be incredibly frustrating. the biggest reason is that the owners are much less likely to haggle that early in the morning. especially on nice pieces or some of their favorite things that they're not quite ready to part with. the other, less well known fact, is that if you're the first to arrive, i'd guess about 75% of the time, the owners have not finished bringing everything out. and for the 25% who do have everything out, they probably don't have it labeled and organized. as someone who can't stand disorganization, this is frustrating to me. i'm not the kind of person who will dig through a box that an owner brings out and hasn't sorted through yet. that stresses me out. although sometimes i wish i was this kind of person. 

proponent #2: the tortoise beats the hare

the other side of this debate is for the people who show up to garage sales in the last 2 hours that a sale goes on... so typically between 10am and noon. at first thought, you would probably guess that these are the lazy people who do not feel like getting up early. but there's much more to this carefully planned strategy than meets the eye. 

as the hours tick down for the yard sale to soon be over, every garage sale seller looks around at what's left and makes a subconscious decision. either they are panicking about the thought of actually having to return all of their items inside their home or wondering how they're going to haul off the rest of their items or they decide to bite the bullet and lower their prices... neither of which sound like the most appealing of options. this is when the haggling is at its best and you typically walk away with the best deals (refer to where it all began if you don't believe me.) 

the other positive about going later in the day is that you're much more likely to get friends to go along with you. the majority of the time i go alone, but the times that i've had friends express an interest in my hobby and come along have been so much fun. we learn about each other in some interesting ways (personal styles, stress levels, who will do anything - even pay too much - to avoid conflict.) and we laugh. a lot. i once went to an estate sale with my family while i was back home in indiana and we probably spent an hour there, just laughing, reminiscing, finding great deals, and enjoying each others company. 

the conclusion: both sides win 

for me, i usually tend to steer towards the early bird method. there is just something so peaceful for me about driving around the city when there are few other cars out and going on a little adventure before my husband opens his big brown eyes to the morning. during busy season at work, when i have to work on saturdays, i can still keep up with my hobby and get to the office early. other days though, like this past weekend, other more important obligations arise. i wanted to go to an early morning breakfast at a good friends house. he'd just moved into a new place and wanted to start off this new chapter by serving his friends (by making some incredible pancakes and eggs - josh even added peanut butter chips to my pancakes! that's true friendship) and covering his house in prayer. it was important to me that i make this breakfast a priority and be there on time, so i appreciated the flexibility that my hobby provides. 

as in most hobbies in life, any garage saler has to evaluate their options and make the decision that works best for them. this takes a willingness to be flexible, especially when the schedule effects other people in their life - relationships always trump things. so if there's a relationship that i need to invest in, my interests and desires take a back seat... the beautiful thing about garage saleing is, there's always next time. 

first things first.

in order to accomplish anything in life whether at work, with your family, relationships, or in a hobby, the first thing you need to know is how to take the first step. the truth is though, the first step is rarely the easiest and even more rarely the most clear. 


after my first brush with love in garage saleing and realizing this could be just what i'd been hoping to find to help make my house feel more like home and discover treasures to get crafty with, without breaking my budget (which as an accountant and strict goal setter, i cannot stand doing!) i quickly followed up with, "where do i begin?" i started by asking ross how he'd found out about the yard sale. i could've guessed because it's the same answer that we all give when someone inquires about where our generation found something: 

so on a friday night, i pulled up google too. i found a couple sites that were hard to navigate and didn't seem very clear or reliable. i found one link to craigslist, which i'd used before only to search for housing when we were looking for an apartment in bloomington, indiana for our first 5 months of marriage and again when we were looking for a lease in charlotte, north carolina.  it proved to be a pretty helpful tool because it seemed to be a popular marketing tool for sellers.

so my process as i began my garage saleing adventures entailed going to craigslist every friday and searching for yard sales near me. there were usually lots to sort through. not only would i usually have to open each link to see how close the sale was to me (which could take 15-20 minutes) but then i'd have to read the description to see if there was something i'd be interested in seeing. and then the controversial street view search. this entails the top 5-7 sales i found on any given saturday and then copy and pasting the listed address into google maps. i've taken some heat about this from friends of mine who don't garage sale, but here's my theory. 

i'm going to go off on a quick tangent here because i think it's important to explain. i'm not looking up a house to judge on how nice of things are going to be at the sale. i know there are plenty of people (myself included) who have nice things, but not the biggest house on the block. but i can tell you in my own life, it would be very hard for me to part with most of the things i have because every single item i own has its own special place. its own home within my home. and usually a story to go along with it (especially since ross and i are still in the newlywed stage where half of the things in our home were given to us as wedding gifts, so each gift represents an important part of the community of people we love that so graciously helped us set up our first home together.) but i've found that people who have been blessed with large houses and the ability to fill each of the rooms in those homes, are more willing to part with those things in order to clear out the clutter. therefore, it's much more likely i'll find a great deal at the garage sales of larger homes because they'll practically give it away just so they do not have to take it back inside and because they want to share in the joy they've found in those items. this does not mean that i don't go to a home if it's the smallest one on my list and it doesn't mean that i never find amazing things at these houses because i certainly have (and i usually get to hear the story to go with it... more of these to come in future posts! i love hearing people's stories.)

back to the point. after weeks of this process, i would find myself feeling unmotivated. as my busy season at work started to approach (i'm a tax accountant), i also found that i didn't have the 30 (or more) minutes that it would take to go through this process. one particularly busy friday, i had a thought pop into my head  to see if there were any yard sale apps for the iphone. i wasn't expecting to find what i did, but was really just looking to see what was out there and what it could help me with. what i found made me giddy. 

i use "yard sale mapper" now. it does all the work for me. it searches craigslist and other websites and then all i have to do is type in a zip code where i want to look and it will show me on a map where all the sales are. once i click on a particular sale, it shows me the description, and even does the street view for you and gives you directions to the house. it now takes little planning and takes out the stress. there's another one that i've never used, but it looks like a good one called garage sale rover. the nice thing about this one is that you can use your computer to look at sales if you prefer or if you don't have a smart phone. 

if you've ever wondered what garage sales are like or thought about going to one, but never known where to start, just try downloading one of these and playing around with it. it might surprise you how many there are near you, especially as springs arrives. even if you're not sold on saleing yet, looking into these apps is worth a shot - you just might surprise yourself at what treasure you might find! 

where it all began.

on a sunny morning in mid-june, i woke up with a house full. my sister and her family stayed the night with us on their way down to hilton head island for their summer vacation. i was so excited to have them here - not only was it their first time seeing ross' and my new home, but it was their first time visiting charlotte since we'd moved away from indiana - and i miss them so much.

after a morning of packing up and eating a big breakfast (my favorite meal of the day!) they were ready to hit the road. my sweet nieces were outside playing in our backyard staying out of the way while the rest of us had been packing up. when we went outside to load up the car, i noticed that one of the lights we'd just put in around our deck was broken.  i asked the girls if they knew anything about it, they said no and i believed them, but with these sweet little faces, can you blame me??

the fam waved as they pulled out of the driveway headed for the coast. i played with the light for awhile to no avail, all the while thinking about how expensive owning a house becomes. just in the previous two months, we'd put a garage door on our garage (who builds a garage and never finishes it off with a door?), started updates to one of our bathrooms, painted the entire house, and bought just about every lawn tool you can imagine. and as soon as you get something nice in your home, you may as well start the countdown to when it's going to break, chip, or get scratched up. while mulling all this over, my happiness levels were plummeting. "what had we gotten ourselves into?" my over dramatic self began to wonder.

i went in the house to find ross and announced that i was in a bummed mood because of all the expenses that come with home ownership and it was his responsibility to cheer me up.  he thought for maybe 30 seconds, picked up his phone and started punching buttons. within another minute, he was walking out the door, keys in hand. 

i soon found myself pulling up behind a few other cars in the nicest, most historic neighborhood in charlotte - myers park. as we were getting out of the car, i reminded him that i was still wearing the indiana shirt that i'd slept in the night before, no makeup, with my hair pulled back. he told me to stop being weird.

                                                                                           (one of myers park's beautiful tree lined streets) 

right about that moment i looked up to see a gorgeous (and huge) house. with lots of people walking around in the driveway. i realized.......what he'd brought me to was a garage sale. what he'd done was planted a new found love. 

fast forward 20 minutes. 

we were loading up our car with two baskets, a 6 ft tall fake tree, a big yellow book on decorating (that matches the color scheme in our navy and yellow family room), two cookbooks (one of which i'd been wanting for awhile, but refused to spend the money), and my personal favorite, two tennis raquets with a cover for one of them. so a total of 8 items. can you guess how much we spent? (go ahead, guess a number in your head...........) 

$12.00

ross succeeded at his mission. 

when we got home, we walked to freedom park to play tennis.

the why.

like most 20something women who live their daily lives working their first (or second...or third........) big girl careers, i spend most of my time dreaming, both day and night, about everything but my day job. i love this stage of life... from adventures in this new state to bonding for hours with new friends to making a new house a home, can you blame me for constantly dreaming? 

(uptown charlotte...yeah, we don't call it downtown here because it's literally the highest point in the city - via)

ross and i bought our first home in april 2011. it's the most perfect little house i've ever seen and we lay in bed on a regular basis and ask if it really is ours. we feel so blessed to get the deal we did on this 1940s house with all the character of 70 year old architecture in the best location we could've hoped for. 

                                                                                              (our house on move in day)
for someone who's always been somewhat of a nerd - caring more about numbers than new fashion and more about learning than latest gossip or fads, i was surprised at how quickly i got into the process of transforming this little house into our first home together. i dreamt of it being a space we were proud of, an inviting and open home where our friends would feel welcome anytime and comfortable enough to stay as long as they liked. after moving away from indiana, the only state i'd ever known, ross and i have been so blessed by the community we've been surrounded by in north carolina, and we wanted our home to be a place where we could begin to give back a little. from bonfires to ping pong tournaments to progressive dinners to midnight bonding sessions to (most recently) super bowl parties (which we obnoxiously decorated for in all colts decor) we've been learning what it means to be be immersed in community, transparency, and love... the way God intended. 

                             (3 of my amazing friends here. they're the ones who encouraged me to start this blog and jessee, the one in turquoise, even came up with the name!) 
with these new found dreams about our home, i quickly learned that if you're not careful, the materiality of things will take over. over the coming days, weeks, months or maybe even years, i'll go into much more detail and focus more on the practical side of this blog purpose, but i thought it was important to start with the why. and nothing i do would be complete without a list, so i'll finish with just that. 


1. this is going to be a place where i keep track of my adventures of making this house a home
2. practically, that means, i'm going to be sharing my adventures at garage sales and the occasional craigslist triumph with the hope that you can benefit from my successes too and learn from my failures
3. i'm an accountant. not a writer. so i'll apologize in advance if my writing style isn't eloquent and if my grammar isn't perfect. 
4. at the foundation of a good sale and my desire to create a space where my friends always feel welcome, is God's call to each of us to be good stewards with what we've been given 
5. enjoy :) 

1 Peter 4:10-11

¹⁰ As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: ¹¹ whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.