A Streamlined Purge

I am back after a break from the blog last week. We do not have any estate sales scheduled for next week but we did book two new sales for March so I will be doing a newsletter with these updates. In the meantime, things have been very busy as usual! The North Scottsdale estate sale featuring Brie's jewelry caravan started Thursday evening, February 19. Sales were fantastic the first evening, I sold two high-end necklaces among many other pieces. One was the large Navajo-made pink conch shell lariat which was purchased along with statement rings in pink conch and orange spiny oyster shell by Navajo artist Tia Long. The other was a Buffalo Dancer heart set including the necklace, cuff bracelet and earrings. The estate home is located at the end of a cul de sac and apparently there was some confusion about parking rules. We started the sale at 3:00 PM on Thursday with the intention to run until 6:00 PM. However the neighbors called Scottsdale PD immediately and thankfully they did not shut us down but they said parking is not allowed at all on weekdays prior to 4:00 PM. Robin made the decision to postpone Friday's sale and resume on Saturday. The weather was windy on Sunday so the cashier station was moved to the garage. Luckily there was enough room because some of the garage items sold. However, sales were not nearly as good for me once we moved into the garage.

Robin decided to continue the sale the following weekend, Saturday at 50% and Sunday at 75% off. Record high temperatures were predicted for the weekend and thankfully her crew put up an EZ-Up tent for us. For the second weekend, I decided to mix things up and bring in more budget-friendly pieces. I left the two large cases and the higher-end items at home and brought my four medium cases - one with vintage Native American, one with new Native American, one with Southwest Style and one with Mexican and other sterling silver jewelry. I also spent a couple of days sludging through a huge box loaded with budget-friendly costume jewelry which was in my garage in Mount Prospect for years. I made it almost all the way through the box so I brought whatever I had priced to the sale as well. I let it go for 50% off even though after commission I would only receive 75% off the tag price. I am looking to liquidate just about all of the costume jewelry. I did keep about 20 special pieces to bring to Prescott including some fabulous clear rhinestone brooches which I have an idea to repurpose into necklaces. Sales were pretty good the second weekend and I did sell a number of costume jewelry pieces so overall it was worthwhile. Kuochun was such a trooper, because of the parking situation and my knee making driving painful, he drove back and forth twice a day, 25 minutes each way to drop me off and pick me up these five days. Hopefully another opportunity will come up in the future!

Prior to knowing that I would try and sell costume jewelry at the estate sale, I shipped a box stuffed with budget-friendly costume jewelry to the office so we could host a Whatnot show with it. The plan is to host that show next week and get back to a regular schedule as well. I think I will see how it goes and if sales are decent, I'll ship another box there. Ideally I what I offer in Prescott will be curated and everything else will go for sale in Illinois.

About a week and a half ago, I decided to try a Facebook purge and social media posting with the cuff bracelets shown in the main photo. Due to 2025 being so life-changing, I did not post any jewelry to Facebook groups. However, sales had really been declining prior to that and I was finding that it was not worth the effort to take a Saturday evening to shoot photos, then Sunday all day and night to prepare the jewelry purges, post everything separately to a dozen Facebook groups and answer questions, only to have it not result in sales. This time, I tried numbering the items and adding the description and price to the main posting, so I would not have to take the time to copy and paste all the individual information to each group. Although I did not sell anything, I think it turned out cute and took a fraction of the time it used to, although this is only a third of the number of items I used to post per week. I will probably try it again once things settle down.

Last Wednesday Ryan the handyman came to continue working on the first floor projects. He set up the frame for the pocket door leading to my bedroom and was able to drywall the area as well. As a temporary measure, he put up half of the original double door. It is not finished by any means, the door does not even have hardware but I already love it! It is so nice not having the door swinging into the room. I did not realize how often I was walking around it to get to my laundry basket, desk etc. Ryan was not able to find matching baseboard yet. Once Prescott is finished, I am going to order a decorative door on Etsy. While Ryan was waiting for the drywall compound to dry, he installed pine wood around the ugly ceiling beam which used to have a ceiling fan attached to it and spans the ceiling horizontally between what is now a sitting area adjacent to my room and my office space. I was skeptical at first because I did not want it to look like a box, but he did a beautiful job and it actually looks like a beam. Next steps are to do some finishing work, then he will stain it a walnut color so it will match my office furniture. The plan is to move the office furniture to the current sitting area which is no longer used with Mother gone and get a round dining table for where the office furniture is. But first, I need to try and sell some of the living room furniture, including the green sofa which Kuochun does not care for and move the grey sofa back to where it was. I may wait until the Prescott stuff is out of the garage and then have a sale, allowing people to come into the living room and buy furniture there.

Last Friday was the day I could finally get the two U-Boxes emptied in Prescott and stop paying storage on them. Everything went smoothly with the move, the movers did not unwrap the furniture or put the dining room table together but Kuochun and I did it before we left. Due to the fireplace being moved from my room to the living room space, it made the space even smaller and the two club chairs look huge in there! Actually, even though my Heywood-Wakefield dining room set was made at about the same time the house was built (1952) all the furniture looks so big! Hopefully it is a matter of just getting used to it.

I did not think to take photos of the furniture the way I left it but I did take a few other photos. The bathtub is gone, the tile is in place for the walk-in shower and the vanity has been replaced. The rest of the bathroom is as it was. Kuochun wanted a handheld shower head and I just wanted a simple one, not handheld but I got it to make him happy. Now he does not like it, ugh! The fireplace has been tiled and the background above painted. The next step is for wooden strips to be installed over the painted section. It will like the vanity but vertical instead of horizontal, then a TV mounted over it. Kuochun wants a huge TV but Tina our designer said no, it would cover up the entire wood section. Plus I think it will be too large for the space. He will be able to have a large TV in his bedroom. It looks like the TV currently in my bedroom in Scottsdale will be the right size and then I can put up a larger TV in its place. Once the pocket door situation is complete, the TV will be mounted on the wall. There is a TV in each bedroom in Prescott already so we will not need to buy another TV unless Kuochun wants a better one for his room. Then he is welcome to buy it himself! Mike and Frank wrapped up this round of furniture very well and so far it made it through without damage but the arm on one of the club chairs looks like someone took a fist to it. I am sure this was due to how the furniture was loaded, and then it being in storage for nearly six months. Hopefully the upholsterer will be able to fix it. New fabric was ordered for my chairs but as I suspected, the existing fabric goes great and in my opinion could have been kept as is.

Even though the girls took over the back seat of the car, I was able to get quite a few items out of Scottsdale and up to Prescott. Almost all of the artwork is now there, except for the Witco Viking ship which will go in Kuochun's room and three pieces of art which belonged to Mother and Dad which I could hang in my room. I was also able to bring two bins of kitchen items in order to provide stability for the art, along with almost all of my new purchases for the shop, including the cactus-shaped welcome sign. It was wonderful to be able to step into the shop for the first time to get a feel for its size. It is narrower than the garage side but is going to be a dream space. The double doors with built-in blinds are beautiful and the lights come on automatically when the doors are opened. The contractor, Victor is doing a fabulous job on everything and when we arrived he was finishing up leveling the floor in the shop. Next steps will be to install the carpet tiles, cabinets and appliances, and a remnant needs to be found for the countertop. I am going to see if my leftover breezeway tiles from Mount Prospect can be used as a backsplash. Melinda brought them here for me two years ago but I do not think there is quite enough to tile the floor in the laundry room. Next Friday is cleaning day in Scottsdale so we may take a ride up there again with more stuff, and for Kuochun to set up the internet so we can remotely control the thermostat.

I met one of the women who lives next door on Pine St just adjacent to our garage, her name is Mary. She is originally from Minnesota and seems very nice. She gave us a great tip - the garbage can goes on Washington Ave, not on Pine St for pickup. The contractor was there and said he had put the can on Pine St and was wondering why the garbage was not picked up. She also proceeded to tell me about all of the critters in the area (which I am already freaked out about) including the javelina who travel in packs, come out the creek which is close by and are very protective of their babies (and by the way, they are always having babies!) Apparently they hate dogs and coyotes. I told Kuochun he cannot walk the girls late at night, they will need to use the yard. Victor backed that up and said the javelina will not be able to get into the yard. The fence is made of wood and very tall, and javelina cannot see very well. Mary also said there are skunks and raccoons which of course I am used to. I have not seen any squirrels in Arizona yet, even though they have "normal" trees in Prescott. Mary is renting her home and her landlord lives next door. There are just three homes on Pine St, the home across the way has been vacant for several years and is just now starting to show activity of being fixed up. That was the best news I heard all year! Mary said it was a hoarder house and had lots of mice, and it needs to be totally gutted. When the other house is done it will be a nice little spot. Hopefully Mary will not mind if I have a couple of pop-up sales per year. I will be sure to ask the customers not to block their driveways.

Kuochun let me know that he needs to go to China, the place where his parents' ashes are located is closing down so the ashes need to be moved. This coincides with the national day of honoring the dead in China, which is April 5 this year. Kuochun's granddaughter's birthday is in April as well. He is leaving March 31 and will return May 3. That means I will be on dog-walking duty! Hopefully my knee will be feeling better by then. It took some time but I was finally approved for physical therapy and will be starting March 10 and going twice per week for 8 weeks. Things have been so busy I have not been good about doing my homework but once I recover from all the extra activities lately I will do it every day. The getting up and down from a chair is no big deal but the holding my leg out and twisting it is more challenging. The last two weeks were filled with early days because we had to be up at 6:00 AM Friday to be sure we made it to Prescott by 8:30 for the movers, plus the handyman arriving before 7:00 AM Wednesday and four estate sale days of leaving the house by 8:00 AM.

We are getting closer to being able to stay in Prescott but are not there yet. The hope is that before Kuochun leaves for China, we can get the stuff out of the garage and up to Prescott. The main thing we are waiting for now is for the wallpaper pro to become available so he can do the accent wall in Kuochun's room. The room is small so understandably Tina does not want him to have to work around Kuochun's bedroom furniture. Victor is going on vacation to Mexico and he will resume work on March 10. I have no news about the Arizona room. This photo shows how the backyard looks now - the concrete is ready to go. The ball is in my court to talk to the landscaper about the scope of the project, which will be simple but include new evergreen plantings which will look good year-round and the grassy section for the girls.

At least half the items in the U-Boxes were for the shop but they were put in the garage while it is being worked on. There was another setback - when I visited the home with Sue G, I could not get the back door open. It turned out the door was installed improperly by the previous owner and now it is permanently wedged in place. This has to be fixed and to do so, I will need to buy a new door. Because currently the only working door is the front door, it is not safe to stay there in the event of a fire until the door is replaced. I feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel though and so grateful that the experience with Tina, Victor and all of her other recommended pros has been wonderful.

When Kuochun returns from China, it will be hot here in Scottsdale - in the high 90s every day for sure. Kuochun thinks he wants to stay in Scottsdale until mid-June but by then highs are in the 110s. I said why not go to Prescott where it will be in the 70s-80s? By then I will be more than ready to set up shop and start doing Whatnot shows. I would like to get experience under my belt this summer before the fall and holiday seasons hit.

But one thing at a time - first steps are to get as much jewelry as possible ready to sell. There is so much to polish and price! Plus, this is the most fabulous collection of Native American jewelry that I have ever had, and this is with having to turn down a lot of beautiful pieces because I cannot buy them all. I also would like to get back to making beaded jewelry - I have so many supplies and several ideas that I would like to run with. I keep pushing the Whatnot show dates back but I do still eventually plan to have at least three shows to sell a lot of the beads and jewelry-making supplies. I just cannot get to them all because many of them are in the garage and the rest have not been bagged and priced yet. The wall of pantry cabinets in the kitchen as well as all of the shelving in my closet are filled with beads, jewelry-making supplies, rubber stamps, paper for making cards and jewelry which needs repair. Mother was so good at making the stamped cards and I should try to carry on the tradition.

Over the past two weeks, I posted five gorgeous pieces from the Tucson Gem Show including three of the cuff bracelets in my featured photo - #1, #2 and #3 as well as this Birdseye Kingman turquoise pendant by Sunshine Reeves and the cross pendant by Eula Wylie. Then because of the estate sale, I was not able to post anything new for 12 days until I grabbed this one of a kind Royston turquoise pendant out of my "to-do first" box. This is a pricey piece but natural turquoise in this size does not come around every day!

That is all the news for all, see you next week!