lena's table update

Brandon hasn't quite gotten it finished, but I thought you might like a preview of how it's going. 

freebie

Our next door neighbor let us scavenge through her old garage and said we could keep whatever we could salvage.  Brandon found this:

 

A few hours later, we had it looking like this:

We removed and replaced the back with a piece that we stained with Old English furniture oil!  We cleaned the mildew off, hammered a few nails back in, rubbed it down with a wood refinisher and we were done.  Now we just have to find somewhere to put it...

use it up

I want to say that the "use it up" part of this frugal experiment--I mean, lifestyle--is my least favorite so far, but I have a feeling that the "do without" part might be worse.  I cleaned out the bathroom cabinets last week in an attempt to organize and inventory and discovered we had maybe twenty bars of soap and a few bottles of liquid hand soap--scented, full of pthalates, and very un-organic--that we've collected over the years from hotels, our trip to Paris, and the ubiquitous holiday gifting of of bath items.  Most of them are kept for emergencies, although we've never had a soap emergency that I can recall.  What to do with them?  I could Freecycle them, but the most frugal thing to do is to use them up.  So...after we ran out of unscented Method hand soap last week in the bathroom, I put out the Crabtree & Evelyn rose-scented liquid soap leftover from our wedding.  It was nice at the wedding, but the heavy scent of roses is a little much for everyday, and it kind of reminds me of old people.  I am dreading a bit the weeks where we'll all smell like sandalwood, however.  Maybe I can just Freecycle that one bar?  Who bought that, anyway?  (Probably me...)

I've also finally come to a comfortable place about what choices to make for chemical-free vs. frugal.  I've decided that it just doesn't make sense to replace all our plastics with alternatives, especially when sometimes plastic just makes more sense (freezer storage, plates and cups for the girls, etc.).  I am ridding the house of all food-based plastic that might contain BPA, which includes things marked with a 7 recycling symbol and unmarked clear plastic containers.  We've slowly started replacing our non-stick frying pans with stainless steel ones from the thrift store (and from Brandon's mom, who got most of our old stainless steel stuff when we "upgraded" a few years ago to non-stick!).  We have a couple of cast iron, but unless someone has a secret for using those on a glass cooktop, we'll have to limit their use to the oven or the grill outside. 

So far our changes have been small but easy.  The weather has finally cooled a bit so we can turn off the a/c and open the doors and windows, which is wonderful.  Brandon started a trend of line-drying most of our clothes and the girls' diapers outside, and now I've started doing it as well.  It saves money and ensures that we all get outside for a little while every day.  Speaking of cooler weather, we did have an insulation guy out a couple of weeks ago.  He wanted to spray foam insulation over the entire attic roof, as well as above and under the girls' room.  All for the low price of $3800!  We've decided that we'll try to insulate as best we can ourselves over and below the girls' room.  We'll let the walls go for now, and see how it is once we do the roof and floor, which will be easier and cheaper than the walls anyway.  We also need to install a storm door (purchased months ago but still in the workshop) and seal up the windows a bit.  Hopefully those changes will make it more comfortable, and if not...I guess we'll have to swap rooms with them or dress them really warm ;) 

lena's table

Although we love our mid-century modern dining table and chairs, we've decided that we might be better off selling the set.  We're not sure its delicate lines will survive a toddler seated on either side of it, although there is a theory that mac and cheese work as a preservative when rubbed into the cracks of old wood. 

A search for a new table and chairs began, long before our new experiment in frugality began.  We couldn't find anything we liked in a Mission or Craftsman style that we liked, or that we could afford.  Everything on Craigslist was "New!" and that just wasn't what we wanted.  So I queried my cousins and sisters..."Anyone remember Grandmother's old oak table?  The round one?  Do you know what happened to it after she died?"  Everyone remembered it, but no one seemed to remember its fate.  Someone thought someone else had gotten it, but no one knew for sure.  Until I mentioned it to my sister Kathy, who said that Grandmother gave the table to her, but she didn't have room for it, so she left it at Grandmother's house, where my brother and his family now live.

I immediately sent a lengthy email to my brother asking about the table's whereabouts and if we could possibly borrow it if they weren't using it.  Days passed, and the response finally came.  The email contained just two letters:  "o k"  Hooray!  A few months passed as he tried to actually locate the table in the storage shed and forge a path to carry it out.  Word came..."it's in pretty bad shape"..."it's missing all the veneer"..."are you sure you want this thing?"  We worried but continued to assure everyone that we did indeed want the old table.

Finally, nephew Henry went for a visit and managed a few photos of the table (see below).  Mom and Dad drove up last week and delivered it!  Brandon's been working on it steadily since it arrived, and it's just awaiting a coat of tung oil before it's ready to move into the house.  You'll have to wait to see what it looks like now that Brandon's done some work on it!