On The Hunt: From Trash to Treasure

A few months ago my daughter asked "when I'm I going to be old enough to have a dresser?" Old enough to have your own dresser? Hum. It really hadn't occurred to me that owning a dresser would bring a little girl the satisfaction of feeling older and established in the world.

For the past seven years of Fiona's life I have always hung her clothes in her closet and stuffed the other odd assortment of underwear, socks and pj's into baskets shoved under her bed. It had worked for awhile (OK seven years), but even I could see that Fiona was onto something. She was right. Fiona desired a dresser and desperately needed a make-over in her room.

Looking for a dresser proved to be interesting. At the mention to friends and family it seemed everyone had a dresser they weren't using that they were willing to give. (Thank you all so much.) But yet, each dresser didn't seem to fit her, my amazing daughter. I hunted Goodwill stores, on Craigs List, poked my head at garage sales but always came up empty handed.

I was on "a hunt". A serious hunt...one of those I know what I'm looking for, but not willing to pay what it is worth hunt. (OK, I gotta' be honest here.) Until...

As I was driving to the park one day with Grandma Bonnie and the kids, I spotted it. Seriously, could that beautiful dresser be sitting at the curb next to a random mismatch of furniture? (Well, beautiful in my eyes and it was the University District, so anything goes!) Was it just waiting on the curb for the trash? No way, I'm sure someone is just moving and waiting for the moving van. To make sure, I swung around and asked my mother-in-law if she had just seen that dresser. "What dresser?" she exclaimed as she knew I was on "the hunt". She too, thought it was odd and encouraged me to knock on the door of the house it was in front of.

In high heels and all, I burst out of my car and stormed up to the door. "Ah, excuse me sir? Is that dresser on the curb for free?"

Unbelievably it was FREE. Yes, it needed some minor repair and a lot of refinishing love. But, I could see purpose and a vision behind the old beauty. Best of all, my daughter was elated. As we pulled drawers apart and began stuffing it into the car (after I pulled the 50 lb bag of chicken feed while still in high heels) she couldn't stop telling the man, "This is going to be my dresser!".

After about six days of stain, varnish and sanding (all items we've had on hand from previous projects.) The hunt was over. As we placed the find into Fiona's room she exclaimed, "it was like the dresser was made for me, thank you mommy!" And it was...it looked amazing in her room.

I couldn't help but sigh a sigh of relief knowing I fulfilled a wish of my daughter's and that "the hunt" was over. It was a short sigh of relief of course when Keegan looked longingly at me and exclaimed, "Mommy, when are you going to get me a dresser?"

The hunt continues...

From inside the little blue bungalow,
Katie Jean