getting dirty.

Published on by Quandie

Are you one of those people who love to dig through piles of dirty, gunky, rusty, smelly stuff at garage sales?  Do you feel a special thrill knowing that you might unearth some fabulous treasure from the mound of unrecognizable stuff?  Do you love getting dirty?

Well, quite honestly, I don’t.  I often walk away from what are probably great deals because I just don’t want to get my hands dirty.  Or more importantly, I don’t want to encounter any big hairy spiders or scurrying mice!

But I made an exception the other day.  My friend Sue texted me to let me know that there was a garage sale just a block over from my house, and they had lots of old rusty junk!  I was in the middle of painting something, so I was dirty already anyway, so why not?

I called up nnK to see if she would be my partner in crime.  Her mom, we call her “the Jude”, was visiting so she let us take her beautiful, clean convertible.  That Judy, she is a saint.  She is also my number one packer at my Carriage House Sale, FYI.

Anyway, we popped over to the sale.  The first thing that drew my eye was a crate full of old blue canning jars.  Then I saw another, and another!  There were 4 crates in all, full of totally filthy blue canning jars.

Ball jars

I am so tempted to make a comment about dirty Balls here.  What is wrong with me today?  But I have to tell you, these Balls were super dirty.  Luckily nnK helped me dig through them because all of the ones with lids were at the bottom.  I brought home 20 of them.  I washed them up and now they are sparkly clean, but you should have seen the sludge that was left behind in my kitchen sink.

This ended up being one of those sales where they have some really cool stuff that unfortunately wasn’t taken care of and now was mostly ruined.  I hate seeing that, don’t you?

However, while looking through all of the items on the $4 table, I couldn’t help but take a closer look at the table itself.  It was kind of ‘vintage farmhouse fabulous.’  There was no tag on it though.  So I asked, “how much for the table itself?”  The sellers kind of looked at each other, and then the wife said “well, I guess it’s $4 too!”

dirty farmhouse table

Sold!  To the girl who doesn’t like to get dirty!  One small problem, how were we going to get it home?  I voted for nnK and I carrying it the one block home on foot.  It was pretty filthy, and the Jude’s car was shiny clean and all leathery and stuff.  But no, she insisted, ‘just pile it on’.  So, we did.

Judy and the table

Yep, that’s Judy back there under the table.  See what I mean?  She’s a trooper.

Ken had already left his mark on this table before I got around to taking the ‘before’ pictures.  He has shored up the legs, added supports under the drawers where there were none, and covered up a gaping hole above the middle drawer.  Now I just have to work my magic on it.

The first step will be giving it a bath, and then I’m going to try to salvage the very stained top.

dirty table top

And then I’m going to treat it to a milk paint makeover.  Stay tuned to see how it turns out.

25 thoughts on “getting dirty.”

  2. Still laughing about the “dirty Balls” good one! Obviously I am not hanging with the right crowd. I have got to find me a garage sale posse. I have six of the reproduction
    Ball jars and here you go scoring more of the originals. How many does that make in your collection. Love the table so charming hmmm…keeper or Carriage House sale candidate?

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    1. I am probably bordering on hoarder status with the Ball jars now. I’ll have to unload some somewhere. As for the table, I’ll have to wait until I see how it turns out and then whether or not I have a spot for it. I’m going to start work on it today!

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  3. You are feeling frisky today! Must be the thrill of a great find!! Can’t wait to see the table quandified!

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    1. The jars and table are fab, but I have hit a totally dry spell with dressers! I might have to expand my normal search parameters to find some. I love your latest Inglenook dresser!

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    1. Ken is more like a magical furniture repair fairy. I go to work at the day job, and come home to find magically repaired furniture in my carriage house!

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  10. For once I wasn’t thinking dirty (I know Quandie is wondering what happened to the real Mr. Q.) I was thinking of the song “Bell Jar” by the bangles, mostly cause I never could figure out what exactly was meant by the phrase, “living in a bell jar.”

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  12. Have we ever discussed that I collect rare, vintage fruit jars. Not the basic blue Balls though ;). If you find any unique closures or colors, esp. Amber let me know. I’ll send you some pics as I can’t post them here.

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