This is the before shot of a pair of lamps I purchased at a church donation center. I don’t have the shades yet as I had to order them, but here’s the conversation I had with cranky contractor. Haha! The guy finally smiled. Check this out.
We are in the final stages of the master bedroom remodel and shock of ALL shocks, the queen of lamps doesn’t have a set of them for the bedroom anymore. I used all available in other rooms so, yay! I get to buy a new pair.
*Looks right at you*
This isn’t the part where cranky is smiling that comes in a few minutes later when I tell him that I’m going to make the purchase a personal challenge because I’m not paying a fortune for the items.
Trust me. I looked and every pair I liked was thousands of dollars. One set was three states away and thousands of dollars and I was tempted, but I worked out a budget for our remodel and I was sticking to it.
So, the search began. You have to imagine me completely delighted with the prospect of finding what I want and pulling the trigger on the purchase quickly. Hey, that’s what I do. I see what I want and if it’s in the budget, I don’t think about it. I buy it. But then, within two measly days of searching on popular online marketplace venues, I realized I wasn't fast enough. Sheesh! There were trolls jumping me for every single thing I wanted. Seriously. I couldn’t believe it. I’d see a pair of lamps for 150.00 bucks and if I didn’t message or click right away, the posting changed to 150.00 each. That’s why you need some sort of personal VPN. If the listing wasn’t altered to my detriment, the item I wanted suddenly disappeared because it was sold within seconds of me viewing it. So frustrating. Bad for me, but this last problem -good for the seller so there’s an upside, right?
Then. THEN I’m out driving around to pick up another items cranky contractor needs at the hardware store when I remember that there’s a church donation thrift store place that’s on the way.
*Points right at you.”
You guys have to know I had to stop. And BAM! That set of lamps in the picture above is right there. I see the price. It’s twenty-five dollars and sixty nine cents. I’m thinking a little more than fifty bucks for the two. Score! So, you can imagine my surprise when the nice lady at the register says ‘I think it’s forty percent off of these.’ I’m stoked, but then she says, ‘That will be fifteen—’
I didn’t let her finish when I said, “Oh, I want the two of them.”
“Yes, dear. They are twenty-five dollars and sixty nine cents for both with forty percent off.”
Yes! I was so excited to win my personal challenge so fabulously that I could barely contain myself when I showed off my win.
“Ta-da!” I say to cranky contractor a half hour later. “The new lamps. I found them.”
He blinks and then looks them over. “Nice, but are you sure the color is right?”
Of course the color wasn’t right. How many lamps had he seen me paint over the years? How many times—? Wait, you guys don’t even know about my genie lamp. Man, I will blog about that another time. Still my best lamp find, but I digress.
I push him on the shoulder and do a tsk, tsk. “The color will be changed, no worries. Ask me how much I paid for them.” I’m all confident like and add, “Come on. Guess.”
He appears to be appraising them and then he answers, “Twenty-five dollars and sixty nine cents apiece.”
The bugger! He’d cheated, but it was okay. I beamed. “Nope I paid that for the two less forty percent. Both lamps for a little over fifteen bucks!”
“Hallelujah! And you didn’t break the bank lamp lady that you are.”
“Nope. Not yet,” I said with a big fat smile. “Not to worry. I still have to pick the paint. It might be gild and oh, I have the lampshades to order. Finials too!”
“#$#@!%$%# don’t wreck your challenge goal. It was finally within my budget.”
“Cheap, cheap!” I yelled from my workroom. It’s really an office/studio where I work on my art stuff and write.
“How much are the shades? What’s gild?”
“Never mind.” Truthfully, I wasn’t going to gild them. Gold wasn’t the right look for the room. And, I’m not going to tell you how much the shades are costing. I don’t want to think about the amount, but when they arrive, I am expecting them to be delivered by two hot guys with white gloves who not only put the shades on the harps, but they stay to open up an expensive bottle of champagne in honor of the occasion. 😉
So here’s the after…
As always, thanks for stopping by!
Riley