Phase Two: Some Backstory, How it works and Our First Big Score
Jump into Part Three of our homeownership journey!
Here we go. Phase Two!
Thus far, I have shared the story of how we got our house. You’ve also had a pretty decent rundown on the items we were able to pillage from the basements and barns of loved ones (i.e. Phase 1), so today it’s time to dive into the recycle-furnishing phase.
Phase Two will be much more appreciated if I preface it with a little financial backstory.
While our house has three floors, we have moved into the main floor only for now and are saving the other two floors for after we replenish our savings. You see, for Alex, there are two deities. Jesus is on top of course, but Dave Ramsey is high up there. It was important to us that we put as much down as possible on a house before taking on any debt.
We may have gotten a little caught up in the moment however, because much to Dave Ramsey’s would-be horror, we had exactly 36 dollars left after the transaction for the sale of our house went through.
Thanks to my Grandpa's negotiation coaching and the power of Jesus and/or Dave Ramsey, I was able to talk the realtor into paying our closing costs, so that was positive!
We had already cleaned out our fridge so that night we heated the oven, went through our box of pantry goods, and celebrated our newfound homeownership over a warm loaf of bread and the last of the olive oil. It wasn’t the celebration meal I had pictured, but I’ll have you know that God is good to us and has a pretty good knack for timing. That week Alex’s boss sent him up to work in Portland (Alex is a Supervisor at UPS), putting us up in a fancy hotel, and paying our fuel and meals.
AND! Our hotel was running a promotion where they gave everyone champagne and chocolate mousse vouchers, so our celebration over bread and oil in our boxed-up little duplex turned into a real grown-up dinner date with my best black dress and a Champagne toast. You see, God does have access to my imagination after all and He’s also got a knack for embellishing.
Over UPS-Sponsored almond croissants one morning, we sat next to a little old couple who had been married longer than either of our parents have been alive. We asked them their story and if you squinted a little it kind of sounded a bit like ours, complete with a last minute elopement and lots of counter-cultural life decisions. They told us that out of the millions of people who marry, they were the lucky ones and we were going to be as well.
There was powdered sugar in Alex’s mustache, but I kissed him anyways.
The next few weeks were a bit of a gamble, but our paychecks started trickling back in and we could upgrade from soups to actual indulgent solid meals that you eat on a plate! We put enough together to pay the floor man, watching our savings go back down into double digits. A few more paychecks trickled in and we were eager to start building up our “safety net” as per the 10 commandments of Dave Ramsey to get back in his holy good graces.
That’s when we got to learn about property taxes. They are due in November, a month after we bought the house, and apparently, when you buy a house on three tax lots they are kind of HUGE. Like the scene in UP where they keep breaking their piggy bank, we busted our budding safety net and handed what was left of our savings back over to the US Government.
I hope you like your new textbooks, kids.
First meal in our new house!
Thankfully we were already down, so being kicked with that nasty plague that everyone got around the holidays didn’t allow much room for bruising. Alex only stayed home from work for a couple days, but we were both pretty depleted for a week and a half. We spent our final dollars on things like ibuprofen, ginger, and whiskey, as whiskey is cheaper than a week’s worth of cough syrup for two. That bug was worse than COVID, I tell you!
It was all very romantic, I promise!
Other than when we were sick, our spirits were pretty high. It was a little exciting to be living out my beatnik Patti Smith dreams, but only because we knew it was short-term.* inserts nervous laughter *
As you’ll remember, my Mom, Grandma, and Glenn had all been hard at work on our house while we were sick. Getting over our bug and moving into a house that had all kinds of great improvements was the lift our spirits needed!
We moved into a livable main floor and were ready to get back to work on building up that Dave Ramsey safety net and set a little aside for furnishings.
Christmas was around the corner and we were eager to celebrate our first holiday season in our new home.
Backstory complete!
Phase Two. As noted in the last post, this is where things get spicy!
Having little money, it is obvious to start furnishing a home by re-using what you already have access to and reducing the amount of stuff you need. We talked about that in Phase 1.
Alex and his dad unintentionally matching at our first lil Christmas party!
The Recycle Phase, Phase Two, is where you craft careful negotiations to pay actual money for the junk that other people have but you can’t just get for free. We obviously were on a budget, but as an artist, I get real disgruntled when my environment isn’t cute and you simply can’t live with a disgruntled artist. Que Recycling other people’s stuff.
The reason this phase is so exciting is that it’s basically war. You have a goal, you have limited resources, and you must conquer as much as you can in a set period with the fore-mentioned (limited) resources. The fewer recourses you have, the more invested you become in spreading them wisely and the more victorious you feel when acquiring something spectacular for very little.
Enter the key players!
1. Facebook Marketplace:
Pros: You can browse from the comfort of your sofa. You can type in keywords and swipe through photos and descriptions. Measurements are provided. A lot of people on there are desperate to just get rid of stuff. Bartering almost always works and you can usually offer up to 40% less.
Cons: You have to weed out a lot of crap. Most things are not necessarily close by. You end up traveling far distances to source one item.
2. Estate Sales:
Pros: You get to browse a small space and see everything in person. They tend to only have nice things so the junk is weeded out. You can get a whole box or trunk load of treasure in one plunder. Items are usually priced by experts so you don't run into many overpriced goods.
Cons: More and more people are turning to estate sales for goodies. They are very competitive and prices have skyrocketed over the past few years. They are cheaper than antique stores but can be more than Facebook Marketplace at times. You have to take multiple trips, first seeing what is all there on day one and claiming the more competitive items, and going back on the final day to barter for whatever is left. Bartering only works at the end of the day on the last day when the good stuff is often gone.
4. Antique Stores
Pros: They have great stuff. Not much crap to weed out. They have a wider selection than estate sales. You can find things there that you can’t get on the marketplace or at estate sales.
Cons: They tend to be the most expensive outlet for recycled stuff and nattering usually only gets you down about 10% at most. It’s also the least appropriate place for bartering as they are an actual business and not just people cleaning out their junk.
5. Thrift Shops
Pros: You can get super random funky stuff.
Cons: They are very competitive and prices are worse than antique stores for stuff that’s less valuable than antique store stuff MOST of the time. You still have to look though because when you do score, it tends to be big.
So there you have it! All of the key players in Phase Two: Recycling.
We’ll start with my best Phase Two acquisition since it was my very first purchase.
Back between the bread & olive oil days, and the soup days, there was an estate sale dangerously close to my route to work. I purposefully took back roads on Friday and even Saturday on the way in. I was pretty low on cash and couldn’t go and tempt myself with the likes of an Estate Sale!
But I did have a somewhat stressful wedding gown appointment that morning (Mothers of the Brides are my nemesis) so I needed to get my heart rate back down with a little retail therapy. I would go to the Estate sale to calm my nerves and get my mind off things. I even left my wallet in the car so I would have to behave.
Ha! Like that’s a good restraint.
It was 20 minutes until closing. The house looked like it had been full of some great stuff due to the quality of what was left. I made it through the whole house without being tempted by anything until I go to the back bedroom and my heart rate shot up, not down!
Alex and I have been sharing the double bed I have always had since we got married. I may or may not have a small hogging tendency so needless to say we decided that when we moved we would save up to upgrade to a queen.
I knew it needed to happen, but I LOVE that bed frame. I’ve always had it and it’s part of a three-piece set from the 1930s. They didn’t even make queen beds back then so there was no way I would find a frame that would look remotely good with my vanity and dresser, meaning I would have to forgo the entire set!
Lo and behold. In the back bedroom, a frame and mattress set that while new, perfectly matched my bedroom furniture.
There was one small problem. The bed wasn’t a Queen. It was a King! I have always found Kind beds a bit excessive, and our bedroom is not large. I checked the price tags because these things tend to help decision-making.
They were asking $900 for the bed frame and $600 for the mattress. I looked up the mattress and saw that it was worth about $1500 new. I didn’t even bother looking up the frame because I knew it was worth well over 2K. They were big ticket items so they weren’t eligible for the last day 50% off discount. I didn’t even have fifteen hundred dollars to spend. But I did have three.
I wanted the bed. It was huge, and I couldn’t afford it but it went with my beloved vanity and dresser and I had to have it.
I took a deep breath to get my heart rate back down to normal. I casually approached the cashier, expecting to be laughed at, but channeling every ounce of confidence I could muster. They had already started packing up and getting ready to close up.
“Excuse me,” I said, dropping my chin and tilting my head just a little as I’ve seen my grandfather do. “I like the king bed and mattress.” Pause. “Do you think you could do three hundred for the pair?”
The cashier didn’t even look up from the papers she was packing up.
“Oh yeah, get that thing out of here!”
I did it! I had made the conquest.
But there was another problem. Both I and my little Subaru are not big enough to deal with a King size bed. They were going to be closing in less than 20 minutes. It was time to get my heart rate back up and make some frantic phone calls to everyone I know who owns a pickup!
My cousin Ellie happened to be in the neighborhood and she was able to hook me up. Her truck is a shortbed, so we knew we would need two trips, but it all worked out.
I texted my new neighbor and asked if her hubby might be willing to help Alex get the mattress up the stairs when we got there. We didn’t know at the time that this neighbor happened to be Sweet Home’s police chief and probably had at least a zillion more important things to be doing!
So. Phase Two. We successfully recycled an almost-new bed and were able to distribute the thousand-plus dollars we were planning to save for one toward other projects, i.e. solid food and that ever elusive safety blanket… And maybe some goodies along the way.
I have acquired far too many treasures in Phase Two to properly introduce them all in one blog post, so now that you have the backstory and a good briefing on how Phase Two works, I will leave you hanging for the next post where I will share more of my second-hand acquisitions!
I will also need to introduce you to The Girls — a 1920’s Botticelli lithograph that has been bossing me around incessantly, but that will also likely require its blogpost as “sharing” simply isn’t an option for them.
Stay tuned! Much more fun to come.
Now that you’re three posts into this saga, and undoubtedly committed, I gotta know your favorite part so far. Let me know in the comments!
Love ya!