More "not new" at The Foundry Buffalo

These mirrors are created by a gentleman who also works at Buffalo ReUse doing "green" demolition of buildings. With green demolition, as much of the building as possible is salvaged for resale at Buffalo ReUse (went there today, more about that in a future post). The reddish mirror is made from flooring at an old John Deere factory. The ones I liked were made with wood that still included bark. I think the spaces at The Foundry are free, or very low cost. They prefer neighborhood (East side), women/minority, and/or low-income individuals, but anyone can apply and if there is space, you have a good chance of getting it.

How could anyone let this mid-century modern gem get away for $112?

Well, I let it get away, but I wasn't happy about it. The finish needed a little work, but it's an American of Martinsville piece! So beautifully constructed: dovetail joints, solid walnut...and the bones of the piece were excellent condition. It's a shame people pay three times as much for crappy particle board furniture when something like this is available for a few hours of elbow grease.

I have no place to put this. Still, I would have purchased it anyway if only I had a van and two strong guys to carry it. With a tiny bit of work, I could have turned it into a gem and sold it for a huge profit. (I love refinishing furniture. Housework, not so much.) Sigh.

I seem to need something every other day. This time, it's gloves.

I thought going all-used would be easy because at this point in my life, I have everything I need, right? Wrong. Amazing all the little things that pop up. Yesterday, I found myself without gloves--in Buffalo, NY, winters, that is not acceptable.
The thing is, I'm forgetful. To offset that, I have a pair of gloves for each jacket. I keep 'em in the pockets of my jackets, so, when I need them, the gloves are there. And I almost never lose any gloves because I am so used to stuffing them in my pockets.
Enter the "not new" dress jacket I bought. I have been swapping out the gloves between that and my leather jacket. Didn't check before running out the other day, and ended up without gloves.
I have small hopes for finding "not new" dress gloves that please me. Gloves are one of the few things I splurge on, getting ones I really like for looks and warmth. For my "not new" dress jacket, I'd like to get longer black leather gloves. We'll see what happens. At this late date, I probably won't even be able to get any on clearance. Sigh.

Organization is a key skill for going "not new"...unfortunately, I'm lacking.

Haven't had to buy much lately. (I did purchase a gift...my first I'll be giving that's "not new," but I haven't given it yet, so info will have to wait for another post.) I did decide to keep the $25 Chefman blender as I've been to several other sales and thirft stores and haven't found what I wanted, plus, I happened to wander into Ollie's again and they don't have any more available, so that sealed the deal.
My problem now is trying to organize stuff I feel I should keep on hand. For instance, I have a broken phone charger for my car. The wire on that thing could make a handy tie for a plant...it is strong, yet the rubber coating would protect the plant. But, how am I going to keep things from getting crazy if I start holding onto stupid little things like that? Sigh. I saved it because I felt I had a good place for it, but I am worried about becoming a pack rat (I already have those tendencies).

It is amazing how often I'm forced to buy "new."

It's just short of 2 months since I decided to spend a year buying nothing "new." In that short time, there have been 3 birthdays (gifts and cards), a death (card and flowers), a broken thermostat, toaster and blender and now, the pegs (plastic) holding up two of the shelves in my kitchen cabinets have failed. Pretty sure from perusing the odds and ends at the thrift stores that I'm not going to find those there and it's definitely not worth the time and gas to try (especially since it is 5 degrees F today). I was at least lucky enough to find some on clearance at Lowe's ($5 as opposed to $8). I'm having company in from out of town this week, so it was not something I wanted to put off.
If you're curious and too tired to look through my posts, I replaced the toaster with a $1 used toaster from an estate sale (after a week or two). The thermostat was replaced with a new one (though, I did first try to find one at a re-use shop) and I'm still hoping to find a used Ninja blender somewhere, someday.