On Saturday afternoon I was driving home from doing a few errands (*cough* getting a glue pad at Michaels*cough*), when I spotted a white piece of furniture on the side of the road. I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but I clearly saw the sign on it that said 'FREE'. The wheels in my head were turning. But so were the wheels on my car. I decided to be strong so I didn't turn around, I just headed home.
I couldn't stop thinking about the roadside treasure though. I'd caught a glimpse of some nice curved lines on the top of the piece...
Fast forward to the evening. I convinced BGD to go out for dinner, leaving Ebby and a friend in charge of the boys. We made it not even a mile from our house and BGD stopped the car, turned it around, and scooped up some roadside treasure of his own.
For him, a recumbent bike--with just one small problem. The sign said 'Works perfectly, has broken axle'. Which I guess means it works perfectly if you have one leg. Undeterred and with the cargo hitch still attached to the car from beach trips, we loaded it up.
We made a quick trip home and dropped off the bike, leaving the cargo hitch empty...
As we headed out again, I told BGD about the treasure I had seen earlier. It wasn't directly on our route, but it was just one turn away. He agreed that we could check it out after dinner.
With full bellies and under the cover of darkness, we headed home, on the lookout. Our first stop was the site of what had been a huge yard sale during the day on Saturday. We'd seen some stuff piled up on the curb on our way by and wondered if it was free yard sale leftovers. Upon closer investigation we were met with 2 obstacles: no clear sign that said 'free' and the yard salers themselves still milling around in their driveway (at 9pm). We figured they were going to do a 2nd day of their sale on Sunday, so we drove away. With nothing.
Next stop: the white furniture piece. As it was now dark, I couldn't remember exactly how far up the road I'd seen it. And I worried that it would be, gasp, gone. But it wasn't! It was still there as we pulled over to investigate. Much to my delight and BGD's dismay, we discovered that it was a baby changing table.
I loved the lines and the simplicity. He hated that fact that it was used to clean up someone's else baby poop. Understandable. I still loaded it into the cargo tray.
The next morning we had a chance to examine our treasures.
BGD discovered that the repair to the recumbent bike is going to be a bit more complex than he originally hoped. He's weighing his options now and we'll see if the bike ends up at the swap pile at the dump or in our basement workout area.
I had much more luck with my changing table.
I immediately chucked the stained plastic changing pad and cleaned the rest of the piece with soap and a bit of bleach. Next I sanded off the *delightful* stenciling. Buh-bye ugly flowers. Then I painted in my favorite furniture color of late: Sea Sparkle from Lowe's. It's bright but not too bright for the basement.
Ta-da, my new fabric/crafty storage table!
I was waiting for the paint to cure a bit before loading it up with goodies, but I think it will be quite useful down in my studio.
Useful, charming and best of all, free.
