Well it was back to Prescott for continued plumbing work on Thursday. They did their best but were not able to install the garbage disposer. They traveled to the plumbing supply store which was nearby to get the unit but in the end they did not have any push buttons in stock and one had to be ordered. They are scheduled to come back Monday once the parts are in and will do the maintenance at that time. The other choice was to have an electrical switch installed under the sink and we would have to reach under there to turn the unit on and off each time. This did not sound convenient, especially since the kitchen has a farmhouse style sink and the cabinets below it are on the smaller side and quite low.
My Tuesday dental appointment was postponed a week on Monday because the compressor broke down. Kuochun and I decided to stay in Scottsdale until Thursday anyway. I am not looking forward to it but it needs to be done.
Kuochun and I put together my new TV stand on Friday and took a spare Samsung TV out of the garage to use with it. The TV stand is great quality, and the style is perfect for the room. The TV is so large though and really should be smaller but I will not invest in a new TV at this time. Once I find homes for the extra furniture in my room and the TV I inherited which is on a bulky mount, it will make a lot more sense. The only thing I need to work out is to see if I can get a longer power cord. I am currently using an ugly red extension cord as the current cord is not long enough when moving the TV in front of my bed. I highly recommend Fitueyes if you need a nice TV stand! I came across their website through a Google search and there are several styles to choose from, each in a variety of colors.
The last time I was in Prescott I was on my own and I tried to drive the van but neither key would unlock the doors. As I suspected, the battery had died again. Kuochun had AAA come out and since I had just had the battery replaced in the spring when the van was transported to Arizona, the technician did not replace it. Once it was jumpstarted, he suggested that we run the van for an hour. Kuochun drove it around the block a few times after that and said it was shaking at first but then settled down. The poor old girl is nearly 16 years old. I will definitely need to make sure that I try and keep the battery as active as possible. I do think it should help to have the van in a more mild climate. The folks who installed the battery said it would be best to keep the van in temperatures between 60-90 degrees, which Prescott is the vast majority of the year.
I had someone come forward who was interested in the yellow and black Peddada rug I had posted on Facebook Marketplace but he lives in Phoenix and wanted me to deliver the rug to him. I do need to get these extra bulky items out of the small house in Prescott so I agreed, but I left the listing active as he did not offer to leave a deposit or pay in full. It turned out that a second buyer came forward and she absolutely loved the rug but lives in the Phoenix area as well. She ended up calling an Uber and the first person assigned to the job cancelled but the second person accepted. The driver was a major sourpuss but in the end she agreed to allow Kuochun and me to put the rug in her vehicle, which was a really nice new Chevy Suburban or equivalent. I never heard anything after that so no news is good news! I still have one more 9x9 rug to find a home for as well as Mother's rug which is smaller and much more manageable.
I worked on the pop-up shop as much as I could over the weekend. I basically stuck to daytime hours and then worked on estate sale duties in the evenings. I made some pretty good progress - it was a little overwhelming at first but I moved extra items to the side of the room with the kitchenette and started unwrapping the remaining furniture and unpacking the many pieces of glass. I found the glass tops for my nightstands in Scottsdale as well as what I think are the glass shelves for my chrome displays which are currently in the garage in Scottsdale. All of the glass shelves for my three black and gold display cabinets and the pieces of glass for the two freestanding powder coated displays surfaced too. I am left with one larger piece of glass and a bunch of smaller ones - I am not sure what they go to yet.
I unpacked the box of Mexican pottery that I purchased in Tucson in 2024. Each piece had a small piece of tape with the price on it. I should have left well enough alone but my touch of OCD kicked in and I decided I wanted all of the pricing to look the same. However that was a bad idea because the little P-Touch labels stuck to many of the pieces and a bit of the finish came off when I removed some of them. I had to do it though because leaving the labels on for any period of time would have made things worse. All of the labels were on the bottom of each piece so none of this is visible. I will bring my bin with paper string tags, etc. up to Prescott next time and will use a piece of Scotch tape to attach the string to the inside of each piece. I also unpacked the Paris art glass pieces which belonged to Mother and me, they were already priced from Mother's apartment sale. Next steps will be to unpack all of the vintage home decor goodies that I have been finding for the past year and set up jewelry displays. This will allow me to see what I need as far as jewelry displays go and clear up a lot of the clutter in the room. I am not sure that I have any of the velvet displays with me as moving was such a horrible whirlwind. There are definitely items that are in the pop-up shop that belong in the garage for the sale and vice versa. I think many of the garage sale items currently in the pop-up need pricing, so I will price them in the pop-up and put them in the garage after that. I did not remember to take a progress photo of the space but I will do that next time. It is a mixed feeling - I want to do this job but I do not want to do it at the same time! It is not the same having to do this type of work on my own but I will be strong and get through it.
Victor was going to start work on the AZ room tile project but he let me know that he would feel more comfortable with three more boxes of tile. I am very alarmed by this, as I do not think it will be easy to get. I had to special order the tile because there was not enough in stock for the quantity I asked for and it took 16 weeks to arrive. I sure hope I will not have to wait another 16 weeks for this additional tile. They probably cannot pull stock from their other batch because the colors need to match! I could have initially purchased all of their in stock tile and a plain color to go around the edges, like I had in the basement in Mount Prospect but both Tina and I preferred to have the pattern be the same throughout the space. I would be very sad if after all this time waiting for the office to be set up that we would end up having a patchwork job. I will contact the tile company first thing Monday morning to see what they can do.
Another week has flown by with no new items posted but I did receive a Sunday evening Etsy sale of these gorgeous Federico earrings. I absolutely love this 3-D rose collection and have more pieces to post, including a pin / pendant, cuff bracelet, line bracelet and six adjustable rings in various rose sizes. These are easy to post so I should make it a priority. I also sold the second Leander Tahe pendant as shown in the main photo to the customer who inquired about it on Poshmark. I am still planning to keep the rose pendant, and hope for this style again as well as new styles by Leander at the next Gem Show!
I am seriously thinking about postponing the pop-up sale as there is just so much going on and I want to do things right, especially for my first sale in Prescott. Because I have so much to sell and I am concerned about inclement weather with wanting to put items outside I may just wait until the spring. Facing yet another setback with the tile installation is making it difficult to prepare for the sale as my office furniture is waiting in the garage to go into the AZ room. I will keep preparing the areas for sale as time permits, and placing the useful household items such as the appliances on Facebook Marketplace. It is tempting to bring the combination washer / dryer to Scottsdale and sell the set I inherited with the house. It is much newer and would free up a lot of space in the laundry room to have the combined unit there as well. I am going to look into seeing if this is possible before selling. Having the van to transport larger items opens up these possibilities now. As much as I wanted October 1-4 to be my grand opening, overall I think it would alleviate a lot of stress to postpone.
Although my items were not the main focus this week, Whatnot sales were good! Five more pieces from the Geneva estate sold, as well as my beautiful turquoise pendant from the seller's website. Also, four of my pieces and two of Mother's pieces found new homes during the weekly show. After my Kathy Sands "pew-pew" ring was claimed by someone during last Saturday's and the person subsequently changed her mind, another buyer purchased it from the website. Also, a turquoise nugget necklace sold on the website. I am so happy that the sales can keep coming in during this time when I have not been able to post new items to my own channels. There is lots of plumbing work to pay for!
After a long weekend in Prescott, we are still trying to find decent food. I never crave Asian food and Thai is not Kuochun's favorite but he decided to try a Thai place since the Chinese food is not acceptable to him in the area. I went with shrimp fried rice which was prepared exactly to my specifications, so no complaints! Kuochun ordered a rice noodles dish which he did not care for. He wanted to go out for a meal Saturday night and I saw that Cracker Barrel was open so I let him know. I did not have a problem with the taste of the food but it is unhealthy. As I have said before, I would rather have a fabulous "cheat meal" than one that is so-so. The next night, we tried Streets Of New York carry out. I like Streets Of New York a lot, coincidentally there is one right down the street from us in both Scottsdale and Prescott. However my pesto pasta was overcooked and there was way too much runny sauce. Kuochun said the restaurant itself was cute and this was reiterated in their reviews so I think it would be a good idea to try it in person. Next up will probably be Rosati's. They used to be our go-to pizza when I was married and living in Vernon Hills. I have never tried their pasta but would be willing to. Another place that sounds good is Theodore's Fine Foods. They are also downtown and have sandwiches bagels, donuts and pastries. I love a good breakfast sandwich and bagels and lox have grown on Kuochun. We used to work with someone with the last name Baago and Kuochun used to announce at work "I don't like bagels and I don't like Baago!"
That is about all for this week, see you next time!
