Great garage sale!

Wow! Nancy had a wonderful two-day garage sale! Made over $1100, and got rid of gobs and gobs of stuff, to boot. My good friend D came in from Wimberley (Texas hill country region) to steer me right and kick my butt when my energy or drive was failing me. The upshot of all of this: I have kitchen cabinets that are now half-empty, and it will be much easier to pack up when the house sells. And my self-confidences is standing on its own hind legs and crowing, folks, CROWING.

Most of the money came from not-large-ticket items, and the profits were fairly well-split between Friday and Saturday. Holy cow - Friday was amazingly busy. We had (mentally) geared up for an 8 am start. Then I noticed a car sitting in front of the house, so I went outside. The driver asked when we were starting, I told him the time, and he said he would just sit outside until we were open. Well, I recognized the guy: he frequents the garage sales in this area, buys the better stuff, and then re-sells it for a profit. I don't care - more power to him. So this time we introduced ourselves, and I opened the garage and let him poke around while we were getting set up. I knew that he had been at a garage sale of mine a few years back. Anyway, after some chit-chat, T said he was a painter (interior/exterior) and I said that I did faux painting. He took my business card and also gave me some of his. He said he frequently gets asked if he does faux stuff or if he knows of anyone who does. Voila! Of course, it is probably a little late in the game (for my Houston contacts, anyway), but hey, it is nice to have someone think you have something to contribute.

Well, once the garage door was open on Friday, all hell broke loose. People swarmed us, plain and simple. It was after 8:30 before I was able to break free and put up the signs at the highway and entrance to my street! Fortunately, I had placed an ad in our regional weekly newspaper. So that brought in some folks, obviously. And I guess the signs did the rest. D sent me back inside partway thru the Friday sale, telling me that I HAD to find more things, since we were running out of items to show. So I did as directed. So amazing at the kinds of things that sold.

We celebrated with dinner at a local sushi restaurant. Well, we started the "celebration" with a glass of beer (each) at the house. Then we had two carafes of hot sake at Kenshin Sushi (great food there!), along with the food. And followed that with a glass of wine each back at the house.

Saturday seemed much slower, so I was surprised when the sales for that day were very similar to Friday's. OMG - so happy to see so much stuff out of the garage, out of the house. One nice Hispanic man was quite interested in any tools that I might be selling. He also chimed in and offered to find a second quote on getting my front tree (the one that split during Ike) chopped down. He said something about the fact that I needed a guy to kind of run intereference for me on this matter. (He is married, by the way and had his wife with him.) He also said to let him know when the house sells and I am ready to part with the rest of the tools.

More progress: the alarm company guy disconnected the alarm to the back (kitchen) door on Thursday, in preparation for the door replacement on Friday. And then the long-awaited replacement door was installed on Friday - it is SO much better than the old one, both in quality and in installation.

On Tuesday, a guy is coming out to give me an estimate on the tree removal. On Thursday (hopefully), the back door will be reconnected to the alarm system, and on Saturday someone from the church-affiliated donation center will pick up my couch and bring it to the center for re-sale. Busy girl, I am, she said. Now if I can only be so fortunate as to have a quick sale on the house. But....

Anyway, just coming down from my successful-sale "high". We ate at BJ's Restaurant, which is a place that brews its own beer (D and I like the Nutty Brewnette). They have a fantastic appetizer combo plate that was tasty and a little innovative. So nice to NOT be eating alone, to have someone to talk with.

Oh - and we played a few practice hands of Texas Hold'em, too. We got a little stumped on the poker "hierarchy", but other than that, did okay. We played with some of the "profits" as our bank. Of course, I would have to play it frequently to remember the rules about the flop and the burn and all of that. But I can see where it would get people out and trying to win.

It will be SO nice to NOT have to get up and face the herds who will paw thru your stuff, tomorrow. But hey - at least they bought the stuff! And my neighbor S sent over two beers for us to have with lunch today - good friend and neighbor! Anyway, gotta push off and get to bed. Catch up with y'all soon!