Furnishing Our New Digs

Moving out of your RV and into a house necessitates a certain amount of shopping whether you like it or not. Now, I love shopping at thrift stores, second hand shops, estate sales, Ikea like stores and even furniture stores but I cannot stand going into a mall. Recently I've been dragged into a couple malls here in Tucson under duress and came up with a great idea while looking for a way to escape. Why hasn't anyone invented the "Man Mall"?  Lets start by putting Home Depot at one end and Lowe's at the other end as anchors.  Just think of the competition this would create; you could park once and shop both stores. Now that we have the anchor stores lets add Cabela's, Bass Pro Shop, Dick's Sporting Goods, Ace Hardware, a couple pubs (after hours and hours of shopping I will need a libation), Woodcraft Supply, Harbor Freight Tools, Camping World, Hobbytown, Grainger Industrial Supply, Victoria's Secret, Northern Tool, McMaster Carr, Autozone, Tractor Supply, a motorcycle shop, a stone & granite store, a welding shop, a few thrift stores and finally in the food court there would be just one restaurant: Hooters.  This is the kind of mall I would shop at!

A couple people have asked how we're doing furnishing a 2000 sq. ft. empty house so I thought I'd post a few of our finds. We found many pieces at a thrift store here in Catalina called The Golden Goose . This store is unique in that all of the merchandise comes from the estates of the upscale homes in the gigantic retirement community of Saddlebrooke. Here's a few finds:

Vintage oak armoire from the Goose $112.  I brought this home on the roof of the Jetta, whew!  A couple days ago I bought a 2000 Ford F150 pick up so this won't happen again. We can't live with one car so I may as well drive a white pick up truck like everyone else in Arizona.

Mission bed with matching footboard, St. David thrift store $50

19th century wash stand, wrong pitcher but otherwise very nice, Craig's List $75

Ikea chair and ottoman, estate sale $25

Antique Chinese ginger jar from estate sale $100.  In recent years many ginger jars have become ornate and are sold as decorative items. This is a real ginger jar that was used to ship commodities like salt, oil and spices. The white marks on it aren't damage; prior to shipping the lids were fastened down with cement which acted as a seal to prevent tampering. This was a rare find.

The antique Carrom board on the wall is from the Goose $38.  We splurged and bought the table and chairs new because we liked the "pub feel" of the benches and corner chair.  It's also a higher than normal height which we've been looking for.

I saw this Ikea style desk in World Markets but it was too big and cost $250 so I built it my size for $75. Chair $10 from the Goose.

1.6 gal flush toilet, from the Goose $30.  Our house had old style 5 gal. flush toilets so this was a good change.  The funny thing is that there are always nice toilets for sale at the Goose. We think this is because the goods come from Saddlebrooke retirees who are changing to tall handicap toilets.  There's also always a a pile of used walkers for sale.