Craigslist Crawl: Card Catalogue!

I have always had a soft spot for old library card catalogues - something about the tiny drawers just seems so purposeful. Unfortunately (for me) the rest of the world has caught on to the romance of these pieces, and the prices are going through the roof. Stupid old supply and demand!

In one of my regular Craigslist crawls, I actually found a unit for a very respectable price, but I thought "I have too much furniture as it is... where would I even put this?... what would I put inside of it?..." and all the usual methods of talking yourself out of something you really REALLY want. Then, almost by destiny, I stumbled onto this article on Apartment Therapy. Clearly, the universe was trying to tell me something.

A few days later I drove to a remote Public Storage unit in Gardena, and came home with this little beauty...

The graininess of that Craigslist pic doesn't even show the years of dirt, tape, pen markings, and scratches that couldn't mar the potential of this gorgeous piece. I took it straight home and got to work with some Scott's Liquid Gold (which is really a miracle product) and Goo Gone. I couldn't believe how the much the wood glowed, when I was done!

I also added some simple legs from Lowes, and stained them to match the color of the cabinet.

This is totally my new favorite piece (aren't' they all, though?). And yes, I did use it to organize my life, and take back my kitchen junk drawer (which had actually expanded to two junk drawers!).

Now I have a place for every thing, and a thing for every place. Just the way I like it!

Disaster Watch 2013: Bobcatting!

The holidays are over, people, and so is the time for slacking off! We've been chipping away at the World's Worst Backyard, while fervently hoping that someone from HGTV would just whisk us away on a luxury vacation and install water features and fire pits while we're getting spa treatments. Apparently there is no Santa Claus, because that did not happen.

And while we'd been eating holiday cookies and sipping eggnog, our weed collection has been thriving! Check out Garrett, attempting to stem the tide (pun intended).

No, that's not grass he's standing on, those are geranium weeds that he's chopped down to the nub. Seeing how much work there was still to do, and feeling a bit overwhelmed with it all, I decided to put aside the wimpy weed whackers and wheelbarrows, and call in the big guns.

That's right, we rented a Bobcat! I had first answered a craigslist ad for a Bobcat operator who would also haul the dirt away, but he wanted over $1500! Then I found American Rentals, who rents and delivers Bobcats for the bargain price of $441.50. After renting a dumpster for $166, I was still at less than half of the price of the first estimate. Plus we got to drive the Bobcat, which was good fun. 

The trickest part was getting it up the driveway, under the patio cover, and into the yard, without unintentionally tearing anything down. But we did it! And after a long day's work, our Disaster is a little less dire. 

All the stumps and plastic bins of questionable contents have been removed and disposed of. I never though it would be so nice to see a backyard composed entirely of dirt!