Table Talk

My lunch breaks have been few and far between here lately so apologies for inconsistent posting.

I've talked about the perks of Boom Town life lotsa times on here. It's so easy to get bummed out by the 2 hour waits at restaurants, low inventory at stores, and putting your life in your hands every time you get on the road. I like to post more happy things about how great boom towns really can be!

You guys, we're getting a Chipotle! And there's like FOUR Starbucks here now and we're getting another HEB. And most importantly, Craigslist has a hidden treasure basically every single day. I have to stop myself from snatching them all up. I completely relate to hoarders now. MUST BUY ALL THE THINGS! While I've been a Craigslist Frequent Flyer since we moved here, Wednesday's purchase of our new kitchen table is by far my biggest win!

I'm sure you saw it on Facebook because I couldn't wait like 2 minutes after we picked it up to post about it. I read the caption to D to make sure it didn't sound snotty or tacky. But I just LOVE a good deal and wanted to shout it from on top of a mountain!

D and I had been eyeing Restoration Hardware dining tables for... probably 2 years. We went by the RH Outlet in New Braufels a couple weekends ago and pet them and sat at them and swooned over them and then went home with an empty pickup truck.

Even at Outlet prices, they were out of our budget. This beaut is originally $2,195 *shudder*

I started doing research and found some Ana White furniture plans you could follow to DIY yourself one with kind of a similar vibe and D and I thought it sounded like such a great compromise! And we loved the idea that he would have hand built our kitchen table.

I mean, yea. It's a little outdoorsy and definitely not the same class as RH but we thought we could shorten it a little and it would be a charming addition to the kitchen. Especially since Ana White boasts that it can be built for $65 and a ton of elbow grease!

But then... we just kept using our old table. And watching Mindy Project reruns. And lots of things that weren't building our own kitchen table.

So earlier this week I spotted this ad on Craigslist:

And my jaw hit the floor. Hubba hubba!

That night, we hauled our booties over to East Odessa to take a look at it. When the guy text me directions and the end was "it's the house with the 3-car garage on the corner" I started squirming in my seat like a kid at Christmas. Those are the magic words you want to hear when doing a Craigslist deal.

D was on the fence going over there. He wasn't as crazy about the idea of a round table and didn't think it would be big enough but agreed to take a look at it. At $300, it was topping out our price point (yea, we're cheap-o's) and it we weren't so sure it was "Brand New Never Used" as advertised. I promised him if it wasn't a dime, we'd walk away. When the guy opened the garage and we walked in, he gave me a big eyes, happy frown? Do you know what I mean? Like "Holy cow, that's a baller table, poker face poker face" If you know D, you know the face, I bet.

When the guy lifted the big tag still attached to it and said "ugh, it looks like I paid over a grand for it", I barely contained my internal tap dance. And I don't even know how to tap dance.

Needless to say,

In to the truck it went

And after some finagling, grunting, two squashed fingers and a short stand off between D and I about the best way to get it through the doorway,

It's absolutely a RH knock off. I have zero false beliefs that this is a real deal RH table. But no one else (except all of the internets, now) needs to know that! It is a dead ringer! D thought I was going to cry I was so happy that night when we finally got the table in our little dining area with our dirty, hand-me-down rug and unfinished walls and our dogs playing around the foot of it. I just love good deals and I love nesting in our new home!!!

The very first thing Tiny did was lay down on one of the legs. Like a little puppy chaise lounge. <3

Now to figure out the chair situation. These old ones are getting sold with the old table. Looks like we're going to need 6 (it's a 60" table) and unlike with the table, D and I have very different chair tastes. Time to save our pennies and keep our Craigslist eyes peeled!