Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Dump Day: Window Obsession

 Dump-Day with Mr. Dump

Hello, Friends.  Welcome to another installment of Dump-Day with Mr. Dump! 


Mrs. Dump has a slight obsession with windows.  It doesn't matter where we're shopping, what we're bidding on, or how much the price is...Mrs. Dump is going to own something with glass and a frame.  Case in point:  See below...

This window was purchased at Metrolina Expo, during Antique Week last spring.  Mrs. Dump decided to "man up" and pay a whopping $5.00 (no...we didn't haggle)!


Most "Dump-days"  feature a project that I worked on.  Unfortunately, due to some small time restraints, Mrs. Dump gets the credit for this one.  After her recent Waterfall Vanity was finished, Sarah had some leftover paint.  Finally, she decided to makeover this window!


All that was needed was ONE coat of paint, some Windex, and little sandpaper...


Now it's ready for a great home!  Get ready Sleepy Poet shoppers, this will be in the booth for your purchasing pleasure Friday morning!

Happy Dump-day (and Junkin')!

Mr. Dump

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Waterfall Vanity Makeover

In honor of my favorite high school tune, "Waterfalls" by TLC, I'm bringing a little TLC to this waterfall vanity.  


Typically when I find furniture for a great price, there is something that needs to be hammered, wood glued, or tightened.  Not this time...  The only thing that this piece needed was a fresh new look and an "in your face" attitude.


The quote on top of the mirror was a little soft for Left-Eye.  In an attempt to add a little gangsta flair, that was the first thing I scraped off.  Although, she probably would have been happy with...

"Dreams are hopeless aspirations 
In hopes of comin' true
Believe in yourself
The rest is up to me and you" 

Now you are going to be singing that song all day!!!  Sorry....


Through further inspection, the similarities continue.  If you look closely, you'll see two different knobs...  I think I like the left one better... Imagine that!  I wonder what Lisa would think.... 


In order to "stick to the rivers and the lakes that I'm used to" I started this makeover with a nice sand-job.  Pretty easy and painless.


I painted the entire piece white.  This seemed a little too boring so I went over the drawer fronts with a turquoise color.


The biggest pain was covering the round mirror with rectangular pieces of tape. 


After the paint dried, I roughed up the edges and added a furniture wax. 


"Three letters took her to her final resting place..."  DIY! 



I really like how the drawers turned out.  I went a little crazy with the sander, but I think that it paid off!
 

Mr. Dump wanted to join the photo shoot.  Even he couldn't keep his eyes off her!


Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

Monday, June 25, 2012

YUUUP!!!

(In your best Monster Truck Voice...) Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

Most of our Sundays are spent relaxing at home, shopping casually, or painting a little because we're behind.  This Sunday, however, we decided to try something new...

An AUCTION!!!!!




Being that most auctions happen on Saturday, we were SUPER surprised to see that an auction was happening only an hour and a half away.  We may have a slight auction addiction to drive an hour and a half away...but TRUST me...it was TOTALLY worth it!  

The auction started at 1:00 p.m and was in a small sauna warehouse that was located in Salisbury, NC.  The second we walked in, we were surprised to see that DON was there.  If you're not sure about who Don is, check out our recent post: Don's Window Box.  I'm a little obsessed with Don, and I desperately wanted to get his autograph.  Mr. Dump told me to play it cool and stop drooling.

Here he is reading calmly before the auction begins...



As the awe of seeing Don began to wear off, we noticed that many other dealers were walking around as well.  Even though we've only just started in this business, we felt like we were rolling with the big dogs.  Have we found the mother load????

They decided to auction the room of furniture first.  We were lucky enough to stand behind Don, and watch him win EVERY piece of furniture that was auctioned off.  Seriously!!!!!  Have you seen the buildings and tractor trailers???  You have enough, Don!  Leave some for the little people.

Here's Don bidding...on everything...


Here's Don's trailer after he finished with the furniture room...(this was empty when he started)


Here's our trailer after the furniture room...(okay, it's not really a trailer, it's a 4Runner)... PATHETIC!


So after the furniture room was auctioned off, Don decided to take his place back on the couch (that he bought of course).  He let his posse handle the "chotchky" room (see the six pictures at the beginning of the post).  


FOUR AND A HALF smelly, sweaty hours later, we added some of these items to our collection...(not pictured are five boxes of bottles, two boxes of Ball jars, three knock-off candy jars, an old lantern, and an antique wooden washboard).



All-in-all, it was another great day (even though it was a little intimidating to play with the Big Boys!).

Our title tells one of our other obsessions... Storage Wars!!!  Has anyone ever bought a storage unit?  We are fascinated by the idea but too scared to pull the trigger!  

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah




Thursday, June 21, 2012

Black Beauty

Sometimes I like to play a little game called "Grab it and Paint it."  There's no planning, there's no fretting, there's just painting. My sister found this adorable table that desperately needed a makeover.  My mom had a little black paint left over in the sprayer (yes - I've gotten my mother into this hobby too) so I sprinted to the basement and grabbed this beauty.


30 minutes later plus a knob change... And here she is...  (30 minutes might be a little exaggeration... I distressed, brushed on some poly, and drooled on it a couple of times)...


Don't you LOOOOVE that beautiful window behind the table?!?  More projects with that baby soon!


Happy Junkin'!

Sarah

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Dump Day: Don's Window Box

Dump-Day with Mr. Dump

Hello, Friends.  Welcome to another installment of Dump-Day with Mr. Dump!  For our newest D and D followers, Dump-Day gives me, Mr. Dump, an opportunity to share a different perspective on this crazy hobby that my wife and I enjoy.


So let me tell you about a place that Sarah and I like to visit:


It's a place where hubcaps go to die...


A place where junk piles are never-ending...


A place with buildings upon buildings, full of J-U-N-K!!!!


Where radioactive trucks are something to laugh about...


We call this place Don's (revealing the real identity of this place would create competition and therefore is not allowed).  Don's consists of about ten to twenty acres that are dedicated to one man's junking habits!  There IS a method to his placement of product, but Sarah and I have yet to figure it out.  All we know is that you have to wear long pants, boots, (next time we will wear gloves) and sometimes a hard hat.  Be sure, too, that your tetanus shots are up-to-date.


Cline's Antiques... I mean.... Don's is so vast, that you can't carry around all the goodies you find.  You have to put your merchandise in a pile (notice the gray coat and sunglasses claiming our turf!).  

The more merchandise you have, the cheaper Don's prices tend to go.  Fair warning:  Don doesn't haggle.  He gives you the rock-bottom price!!!!  If you don't like it, he'll tell you to move on!  Below is the start of our pile from our most recent trip...

  

We consider this a small load!!!!

 

We found this window box at Don's!  It was already blue...which means NO PAINTING!!!!  The top window was broken, so we decided to use some old materials to fill the void.


Chicken wire and Windex (what a great country song title) is all this needed!


Where else do you enjoy junkin'?  We've shared our secret place, and we'd love it if you shared yours!

Now if we could only think of something cool to do with old hubcaps...

Happy Junkin'!!!!

Mr. Dump


Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Treasure Hunting

After a weekend in DC, this is what the back of my car looks like...



And this is what comes out...


I felt a bit like Mary Poppins as I pulled and pulled more treasures out of the back.  I tried to strap two trunks and two mirrors to the top of the 4Runner, but Laura said that she would junk-sit until I see her again... (Although I'm pretty sure they'll be conveniently hung and placed around her house by the weekend.)


In two days, we went to 3 barn sales, 9 thrift stores, 7 Goodwills, 1 Goodwill Outlet (yes, it does exist!), 2 yard sales, 7 estate sales, and 1 fancy store for inspiration.  When the stores closed on Sunday evening, we even did a little sidewalk shopping - Monday is trash day in DC!  An important lesson that I learned... If it is in the yard, it is off limits....  I'm still bummed about a door that Laura wouldn't let me take...  It would have been so pretty...

I didn't have a lot of time to take pictures during our shopping experience (you wouldn't believe how feisty the DC shoppers are! - especially the feeble hoarders that we encountered).  But I was able to capture this priceless moment....


Snowcones out of a food truck... YUMMY!  Even dedicated thrifters have to take a break every once in a while...  Be on the lookout for information on specific pieces that we found!  Time to de-spider my car and clean up my treasures!

Happy Junkin'!

Sarah