Curb Sale Finds

Labor Day Weekend was good to Douglas and me. A good friend from college came to visit me. We had a blast looking at old pictures and talking about the good ole days. She and I also explored New York city. Therefore, Douglas and I did not do any projects around the house. We did score a couple of great finds on the curb in our neighborhood. The first one was a drop leaf table. Our neighbor was upset when we took it home. It turns out that he had been eying it, but he did not take it in time. It was ours!

The table is very unique. It is 34.25″ wide.  It has a large drop leaf on either side, but it folds down to only 12.5″ deep. There is a drawer in the top of the one side. There were some coasters in the drawers. Two years ago for my birthday, Douglas bought me six sets of coasters to add to the ones that I already owned. Then, when he moved in he brought the ones that he had as well. Suffice it to say that we do NOT need any more coasters. We will give them away or sell them in a garage sale.

When the leaves are down, the table forms a box which is accessible via a roller door. I have never seen anything like it on a table.

There is a stamp on the underside of one of the leaves that reads: Made in Romania 31 DEC 1989. It seems sad that someone was working on New Year’s Eve. The table is obviously not old but is very unique and made of wood.

There was a long crack in one of the legs and the one side was pulling away from the bottom, but those flaws were easy to fix.

We used wood glue and clamps to rejoin that side to the base.

We will be able to use the table into the living room when we have a large group over. The table that I am currently using is too small to fit many people. The table (below on the left) is 48″ x 30″. Four people can comfortably use it, but there is no room for serving dishes, so everyone has to get their food from the kitchen. That is not a problem, but difficulty arises when we have more than two people over for dinner. When both leaves are raised, this table (below on the right) measures 63″ x 11″. Much bigger! IN this case bigger will be better because we like to entertain.

So, now the question is where to keep the table when we are not using it. There was a table in the kitchen before I moved in. You can see it in the first picture below. For the past couple of years, that area has looked the way it does in the second photo.

I always thought the space was too small for a table, but this one folds down very small. The table fits perfectly between the two doors. I plan to refinish it eventually, but for now I will use it as is. We can always open up one side if we need more work space. As you can see, Douglas already put it in use to store the dog food.

On top of the wine crate in the pictures above is Douglas’ other find from last weekend. He has a collection of old fishing reels, ones that he inherited from his grandfather and others that were given to him. He found this box on his walk with Kahlua.

Inside there was a reel that had never been used, a spinner lure and two flies still in the boxes. He is very excited about his find.

We are going to have to start instating the rule that every time we bring something into the house we take something out. We have way too much stuff, but these were good finds that we can use!

Happy Homemaking!