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In my last post I mentioned an online group called Free*Cycle that I joined a little over a year ago. Since I have had a lot of fun recycling community junk, I thought it would be fun to write about a few things that I have acquired as well as a few things I have let go of.
Some of the things I have offered range from the potty seat (see my last post), to lots of clothes, a broken microwave, shoes, and a wooden rocking chair that had fallen apart and a pile of lattice.
You wouldn't believe the stuff people are so excited about getting.
As for the received items, I must say that the washing machine takes the cake. However, I now have a deep freezer, a set of China dishes, a chandelier and a lawn mower that I gave tomy nephew. The stuff is totally FREE. You just have to pick it up.
The washing machine turned out to be the real steal though. I didn't have one because the town house where I lived didn't have the hook-ups for one. Now that we were moving into a house I figured I should at least try my luck and request one. I wasn't sure what would happen, but hey, you never know. Right? It made since that some lucky person would get a new set for Christmas and I would get their old one. That's exactly what happened too. Some Lady who had 5 kids got a new front loader and I was just in time to take the old one off her hands. It was a large capacity Maytag. Not new by any means, but I was never so excited to do laundry in my own house. The Machine was great. Never any problems.
I had been using the machine for about 6 months and planned to use it till it quit. Until the day I was at Lowe's, looking for inspiration of some sort. As I was wondering around the store, I happened upon the clearance appliances. Out of nowhere, someone came up to me as I was looking and said that the prices are always negotiable if I was interested in anything.
Not sure where the boldness came from when I offered $50.00 for the Whirlpool I was looking at. What was there to loose? I wasn't in the need. I was so shocked when my offer was excepted that I actually said "whoa, that was too easy, how bout $45.00?". When he said okay again, I kinda freaked out a bit.
The thought of a new machine for $45.00 was almost too good to be true, so I asked him why it was there and what happens if I get it home and it doesn't work.
Turns out that all appliances sold on the floor, come with a one year warranty The reason it was there at all was because it was dropped on delivery... Lucky me!
I came home, called a friend of mine, sold her my "free washer" for $30.00 and am the proud owner of my first new washer. Originally, it was priced over $400.00. In the end... It cost me a whopping $15.00. Last I heard, the "old" machine is still working too.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
One Year Ago...Today.
It is hard to believe that one year ago today was the first night we slept in the house we are living in today. Even harder to believe, is that we actually moved housing in the dead of winter. As unfortunate as it may seem though, it was rather perfect timing. I was on Winter break from school and the weather was unseasonably warm. Last year, we didn't even need a coat (okay, we were somewhat acclimated), whereas right now we are under a winter weather advisory until late tomorrow. Please, oh please don't cancel school tomorrow. I just need a day to myself!
It is kind of interesting how we ended up in this little town in the middle of nowhere. It is at least 5 or 6 miles to the nearest gas station, or grocery store, but we do have the convenience of the post office being directly across the street from us and the Church bells add such sweet melodies to the quiet neighborhood. In this town that is all we get: a Church and a Post Office. Ironically, I'm almost always out of stamps. The good part about where we are is that the location is mid point to both campuses that I was attending, I'm still only 3 miles from my brother's house and the Thru Way is about 10 miles closer then it was when we lived in town.
How we ended up here?
Andy and I new that we were going to need to move soon. We needed more space and something less expensive. Sounds pretty impossible doesn't it?
About the time we started looking for housing, I had joined a local online group called Free*cycle (sorry about the * but I don't want it to come up in a search). People in the community list things they no longer need or want or they request things they are in need of. The cool part is that everything is FREE, no strings attached. When you join, they ask that you offer or respond to a "Wanted" post before requesting something though. That wasn't too hard. Someone posted that they needed a child's potty seat. I happened to have one that Madeline had outgrown so, I offered it. Well it was a week or so before we were able to meet up and exchange this "potty seat" but that was okay, because we got to be friends a bit during that week. We are both pretty scattered which made it easy to understand why trading was such a chore. We never actually met though. I ended up just putting it outside and she stopped by to get it. We continued to email back and forth though. Then, because I knew the town where she lived, I asked her if she knew of any houses that might be for rent.
She emailed me a few days later with a name and # she had read about at the post office. I called, but the house was already rented. I asked him to take my # just in case. In case of what? He already rented his house and he only had one.
Several days later though, I got a call from him. He was surprised he didn't think to mention that the lady he was renting to, was moving out from across the street. He gave me the address, but didn't know if was going to be rented out or not. Well, I jumped on it. I drove right to the Post Office and asked who the owner was. Interestingly, the owner lived next door. Since no one was home, I left a note.
That night, I received a call and was excited to hear that it was very much a possibility if I was still interested in it once I looked at it. It had 3 bedrooms, a garage, and a basement. Plus, it was $150.00 less per month then what I was currently paying for a two bedroom townhouse.
The only problem? The owner hadn't been inside the house more them 20 min total in the 13 years she owned the place. Evidently, when she bought the house, she acquired it with Betty; the woman who moved in, 28 years ago. Betty was moving out because she broke her hip and needed a one level house. The condition was unknown, but I was still able to look at it if I wanted to. Of course, we (I) did.
What I saw was the most adorable old house that needed some paint and a family. What Andy saw was an old house that smelt like an old lady, a kitchen with canary yellow walls, brown paneling and lots of dust. No Way, he said when we left. I didn't say much about it after we left, but I quit looking for other places.
Time was running out and we needed to make a decision. Andy actually wanted to look at the house again, so we did. The owner told us she would give us an allowance for paint if we were interested and we left that evening with a set of keys. That was the first week of December.
This place has come along way. It is amazing what a can (or two or more) of paint can do to a room. My mom and step dad came out for a couple days and we got the walls, ceilings and cabinets painted in less then a week. The upstairs is still waiting... a year later.
So, thats what we did a year ago today. We moved in.
It is kind of interesting how we ended up in this little town in the middle of nowhere. It is at least 5 or 6 miles to the nearest gas station, or grocery store, but we do have the convenience of the post office being directly across the street from us and the Church bells add such sweet melodies to the quiet neighborhood. In this town that is all we get: a Church and a Post Office. Ironically, I'm almost always out of stamps. The good part about where we are is that the location is mid point to both campuses that I was attending, I'm still only 3 miles from my brother's house and the Thru Way is about 10 miles closer then it was when we lived in town.
How we ended up here?
Andy and I new that we were going to need to move soon. We needed more space and something less expensive. Sounds pretty impossible doesn't it?
About the time we started looking for housing, I had joined a local online group called Free*cycle (sorry about the * but I don't want it to come up in a search). People in the community list things they no longer need or want or they request things they are in need of. The cool part is that everything is FREE, no strings attached. When you join, they ask that you offer or respond to a "Wanted" post before requesting something though. That wasn't too hard. Someone posted that they needed a child's potty seat. I happened to have one that Madeline had outgrown so, I offered it. Well it was a week or so before we were able to meet up and exchange this "potty seat" but that was okay, because we got to be friends a bit during that week. We are both pretty scattered which made it easy to understand why trading was such a chore. We never actually met though. I ended up just putting it outside and she stopped by to get it. We continued to email back and forth though. Then, because I knew the town where she lived, I asked her if she knew of any houses that might be for rent.
She emailed me a few days later with a name and # she had read about at the post office. I called, but the house was already rented. I asked him to take my # just in case. In case of what? He already rented his house and he only had one.
Several days later though, I got a call from him. He was surprised he didn't think to mention that the lady he was renting to, was moving out from across the street. He gave me the address, but didn't know if was going to be rented out or not. Well, I jumped on it. I drove right to the Post Office and asked who the owner was. Interestingly, the owner lived next door. Since no one was home, I left a note.
That night, I received a call and was excited to hear that it was very much a possibility if I was still interested in it once I looked at it. It had 3 bedrooms, a garage, and a basement. Plus, it was $150.00 less per month then what I was currently paying for a two bedroom townhouse.
The only problem? The owner hadn't been inside the house more them 20 min total in the 13 years she owned the place. Evidently, when she bought the house, she acquired it with Betty; the woman who moved in, 28 years ago. Betty was moving out because she broke her hip and needed a one level house. The condition was unknown, but I was still able to look at it if I wanted to. Of course, we (I) did.
What I saw was the most adorable old house that needed some paint and a family. What Andy saw was an old house that smelt like an old lady, a kitchen with canary yellow walls, brown paneling and lots of dust. No Way, he said when we left. I didn't say much about it after we left, but I quit looking for other places.
Time was running out and we needed to make a decision. Andy actually wanted to look at the house again, so we did. The owner told us she would give us an allowance for paint if we were interested and we left that evening with a set of keys. That was the first week of December.
This place has come along way. It is amazing what a can (or two or more) of paint can do to a room. My mom and step dad came out for a couple days and we got the walls, ceilings and cabinets painted in less then a week. The upstairs is still waiting... a year later.
So, thats what we did a year ago today. We moved in.
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