Dinning In

I have a dinning room. I feel so fancy. Oh, and a Stickley Cherry Dinning Room set that we got at a garage sale for $30. Yes, it was a steal. Yes, we felt a little guilty. But it’s so nice! For the first time in my married life, I have 6 matching chairs around my table. The lord has been really good to us, providing just the right furniture to help fill up our new house. The glass-doored cupboard between the windows is actually the top of a hutch (the bottom is on the right-hand wall) that we got for free. It will be the perfect thing to display my delft china in.

Someday this room will be painted “Cayuga Lake Blue” and will also house my antique buffet that my mother is storing for me right now. It feels lovely to have a room that’s meant to be a little more formal. I look forward to serving many dinners with good friends in this place in the years to come.

I guess I should really tell you the whole story about the dinning room set, for those who haven’t already heard it. Back when we were in the trailer park (and could spy on all our neighbors) I saw Jen pull into the driveway next door with a trailer load of furniture one afternoon.
I yelled out my kitchen window (where I was standing doing dishes) “Where’d you get the treasures, Jen?”
She told me of a garage sale down the road, and showed off the desk and shelf unit she’d gotten for great prices.
“Did they have anything else?” I asked, always looking for a deal, and knowing we had a house to fill up.
“They had a table and 6 chairs” she remembered. “Wanted $45 for it.”
I turned to Jeremy Excitedly – “Oooo, Honey! Can we go see it?!”
The kids were sleeping, and Jen was, as I said, just on the other side of the wall (close enough to hear them if they woke up) so we jumped in the suburban and zipped around the corner to check out the sale.
One look and I knew I wanted. Jeremy played it cool and offered the lady $30. I could barely contain myself when she accepted. We started hauling it out to the trunk right away, and as I carried a chair out upside down, I saw a label on the bottom.
“Honey, this says this chair was made in Syracuse!” I said, surprised to find out it had been made just over an hour away, in our own state.
“Is it Stickley?!” Jeremy yelped. (I know, it’s hard to imagine Jeremy yelping, but that is the closest word to describe the surprise and excitment in his voice).
“Uh, yeah” I confirmed, “Is that a good thing?”
He assured me that yes, indeed, that was a very good thing!
I guess not being from the area originally, I have an excuse as to not knowing the Stickly Brand Furniture. For those in the same boat as I, I’ll just tell you, it’s well known (to everyone but us in the boat) very quality furniture. In fact, Jeremy found a similar set selling on Ebay that week for $1600.
The set is in very good condition – apparently it was used in a breakfast nook and only two of the chairs show wear. One has a crack Jeremy can fix. And it was ours for $30. You see why we left the sale feeling like theives! 🙂