Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Yard Sale at a McMansion

Last Saturday (Memorial Day weekend) I went a little further than I normally travel for yardsales because I heard of a huge church yardsale. And since there weren't many advertised near my house, I decided to go. Plus, I saw an estate sale classified ad which was near the church.

I went to the estate sale first since it opened earlier. I think it was mislabeled - since basically, it was an indoor yardsale or indoor moving sale. To me, an estate sale is a sale that occurs after someone has passed away and it includes everything that you would find in a house (food, half full boxes of detergent, furniture, books, clothing, collectibles, junk, stuff, odds and ends, doodads, and whatnots.) And if I'm lucky, vintage spice tins to add to my collection.

But before I got to the estate sale, I had to take a hike to get to it. You had to park up on the street and then walk down a super long driveway. They should have had valet parking. Seriously. They had the signs to prove that they've done valet parking in the past.

The sale was actually an indoor moving sale. But I guess calling it an estate sale makes it sound classier (to some, not me). Like the way Martha Stewart always calls a yardsale a "tag sale". But actually when I read "estate sale" it makes me think that it could be a professionally run sale with high prices. Like I said, this sale was more like an indoor moving sale with reasonable prices.

I believe this quaint 9000+ square foot house with pool will be going on the market soon, so it could be yours, for the right price. Of course I would love it since, I too, decorate much like this myself (of course!!), and have the same taste in architectural details but I prefer something a bit more upscale. Nothing but the best for the queen. But then if I lived there, I would have to drive a lot further to get to my favorite thrift store, so that ain't gonna happen.

The only thing I bought was an American Girl doll for $20. Although if you bought a lot, you were allowed to leave your merchandise so you could go retrieve your car and drive it up the house to load your purchases.

The start of the yardsale hike:


The journey continues.....


Finally arrived:


I couldn't get the entire ceiling in the pic so I did a separate pic of just the chandelier.




Main Kitchen area - some of those things on the ceiling are speakers.
I didn't take a pic of the second kitchen which was on the bottom level.




stuff in the garage for sale:


The church sale was very good. I did buy a bunch of stuff, but sorry, no pics. There were something like 78 vendors set up (each paying $25 a spot). Plus the church had their collection of stuff to sell. There were lots of customers too. A well organized yardsale with a good following/reputation can really earn a church or organization a lot of money.

2 comments:

Mary said...

My excate thoughts concerning an "estate sale". As you described "To me, an estate sale is a sale that occurs after someone has passed away and it includes everything that you would find in a house (food, half full boxes of detergent, furniture, books, clothing, collectibles, junk, stuff, odds and ends, doodads, and whatnots.)". I become cranky when I drive to an estate sale and it's basically an indoor yard sale. OH MY WORD! I love a good church yard sale tho!

Anonymous said...

In upstate NY, I am finding that many people moving into retirement homes are having estate sales. It is a real treat to find out it is not a professional running the sale and they really are selling the whole estate. Since they are still living, you can get some great stories on where their items came from, which is USUALLY a good thing. Some items, I wouldn't want to know about their history, i.e., whips, personal toiletries, bed pan, ha.ha. You can also get great prices because the family just wants to pack them up and be done with it. I can also tell if they are nice people so I would want there stuff. If they are miserable, I don't buy anything because I don't want their attitude haunting my house. Keep up the great work!!!
Rusticbuilder