What a Weekend!

Well, I’ll begin by showing off my latest DIY project. I changed our old mailbox! I ordered more interesting vinyl numbers off the internet, took a big chunk of my day unscrewing the old rusted screws, found a new base from our scrap wood, cut it to size with our new table saw, and attached the platform and new mailbox to the post! Simple, but not quick.

Old mailbox

New mailbox!

We’ve been checking out surplus building materials from places where we’ve been shopping – carpet remnants, tile rejects, etc. We got a tip about the Black Hills Homebuilders Association Auction this past weekend. I went Friday to scope it out. It looked promising.

So… Saturday we went at 9 for the beginning of the auction and found they wouldn’t be getting to the stuff we wanted for a few hours. So… we went to the Downtown Pumpkin Festival!

Now, I’m really sorry, but we forgot the camera at home so we didn’t get pictures of the Giant Pumpkin Contest (they were HUGE – huge like 1200 pounds huge!), the inspiring farmers market, the free samples of delicious sausage (bought spicy breakfast and Czech), the daschund races, the beer garden, and the many locals in t-shirts for the chilly yet sunny weather. It was great fun!

At noon-ish, we went back to the auction. And yet again, I love Rob’s many skills! He really is very very skilled at so many things! He is really skilled at auctions! We didn’t get some of the stuff we were interested in, but what we did get… man oh man! We got some GREAT deals!!!

Our first purchase was a bathroom exhaust fan and light (with a free one thrown in) for $30. Not a crazy good deal, more like “on sale at Lowe’s.”

Our next was a Moen shower faucet and bath fixture, with valves. It’s WAY nicer than the ones at Lowe’s – heavy in your hand and everything! Plus, a really nice design. Now, we checked online and it retails for $557. We got it for $80! oh YEA!

Getting excited now at the cheapness of stuff that we wanted (and apparently others weren’t interested in), I picked up a box of 7 doorknobs (the ones in our house are all different!) for $10. These retail around $40 each set.

Rob got a water pump for the aquaponics system we have planned for the greenhouse for $10. It’s meant to be a hot tub water pump and is super nice!

Then, the tile was up! Oh boy! We prioritized and made our plan. Our first two choices went for much higher than we were willing to pay. When some nice black tile went up, we decided to bid and maybe make a black and white bathroom (always classic)… we got our future upstairs bathroom floor for $40!

We plan on mixing the bigger tile with the smaller matching ones to cover the floor.

The last one is our best deal yet! There was some very pretty slate that I was just wanting to see what it went for. When no one was really interested, we got this for the future kitchen (plenty at over 100 sq.ft) for $40! I am falling more and more in love with it every time I see it. Some of the pieces remind me of a sunset. Plus, it’ll look great with the concrete countertops we have planned!

 

In all, it was a VERY successful weekend! And I’m happy that our remodel budget is happy too! Now, if radiant floor heat was just cheaper…