It was a gem of a garage sale day! The find of the day...maybe the decade was a huge bin of Legos for $9.25. Well actually it was $10 but as the boys and I were washing thru them in the sink we discovered 75 cents in change also in the bin. LOL! Have you ever seen a sink f-i-l-l-e-d with soapy water and thousands of Legos? It's quite a sight! And I've never had such willing participants in the washing of anything before! If you've ever bought Legos at all, you know that this was a totally outrageous deal! It came with the bin and lid and about 25 instruction picture inserts. I am totally Mom of the decade today!
There was another box of approximately 2x this many for $30...I was tempted, but I didn't want to blow most of my garage sale cash in one spot. I'm totally happy with this find! My boys spend a great amount of time and brain power using Legos to make all kinds of things. I love that they are interested in building and creating in this way and I think or rather, I know it's especially good for Julian. Joal and I even enjoy a little construction time of our own once in a while too. :) The only time I dislike them is when I step on a stray. Bad. Very bad.
Other cool finds...a 50 cent wooden paper towel holder...a few coloring books, a silk Ficus tree. Nothing as impressive as the Legos. That one will be hard to top!
Couple of funny garage sale stories: At one stop on a cul-de-sac there were quite a few too many cars parked around the garage sale house. We pulled to the side and parked, out of the way, but not in anyone's grass or blocking any driveways. When we returned to the car after shopping, there was an old lady (old) in a blue housecoat standing on her front steps with a dustmop in her hand and she did *not* look very happy.
Deb and I were approaching our car and she shouted "Do you know who's car that is blocking my driveway?" "No, sorry" we said. Sure enough, there was a small car parked behind us, and it was protruding across the access to her driveway by about 2 feet. I'm not sure that could be defined as "blocking" but apparently she thought so. She stood there for a bit and we got on in our car, but we could hear and see her grumbling loudly. Before we pulled away a yound woman carrying a very tiny baby was walking to the offending car. We didn't hear what the old lady said (we were trying to get away in fear of the dustmop-toting granny) but it was obvious she was giving the young woman what for. The funny part is I would bet dollars to donuts that the old lady wasn't even going anywhere...she just didn't want her driveway blocked. At all. Bless her heart.
At another stop, we were walking down the short driveway to where the items were spread out when an older, pot-bellied poorly-kempt man wearing only shorts and houseshoes came out the front door. He seemd a little...um, maybe sloshed and disoriented and he said "I have 3 nice antique beds for sale in the house, if you wanna come in and see them." Dude. Not on my life! I told Deb a minute later..."I had to resist the urge to turn and run back down the driveway." She said "me too." Creepy. We got out of there really fast.
And finally, our first stop of the day was in Bellemeade, (an upscale, old-money part of Nashville...where Al and Tipper have a house). The house was wildly huge--at least three stories, maybe 4 and the sale was in the basement/garage area that opened onto a beautiful patio/driveway. The owner was a very chatty lady! She was telling people about stuff and encouraging everyone to make sure they knew that the sale was in all rooms of the basement. All 4,000 square feet of the basement.
Let me tell you, that was some basement. One room of it was filled with maybe a few hundred file-size boxes of tv shows that had been recorded on VHS tapes. Thousands of tapes...of tv shows...stuff like McGuyver, Rush Limbaugh, McCloud, Deep Space Nine, etc...it looked like someone had a full-time job of recording tv shows. This house was also selling their indoor play gym...like most people have a jungle gym outside for small children to climb, swing, slide on...these guys had an indoor one for sale. I didn't know such a thing existed. It was a serious jungle gym too.
It bugged my sister (who has all the makings of being a decorator) that the "4000 square foot" basement--was completely unfinished. The walls were roughed in but that was about it. I couldn't live in a house and not finish out the basement. Too much fun to be had...especially in one that size. Wild. Can you imagine the kind of scrapping that lady could do in her 4000 square foot basement??! Crops!
Oh and it was definately the day for old-style Kirby vacuums. I think we saw at least one at each of the first 6 stops. :)
No unmentionables today...thankfully. Although one lady who claimed to be having a garage sale in order to pay her bills while she's writing her visionary book, tried to tell us that some small decorative tins were "antique" and a good bargain at $2 each. They looked very much like some I've seen at the dollar store. Most defiantely not "antique".
So, now you know about our Saturday garage sale adventures. Most people understand that garage sales are about deals and...most people are very friendly and honest. Thankfully we don't run into many creeps like the dude with the beds.
And it is so much easier with Karen, the GPS!
Happy Saturday!
