I have such a love for Craig's List. I browse there the way some people browse Target or the mall. I don't often buy anything (except, perhaps, a camper and a boat) but I love to look. It started when I was searching for a camper and scoured the RV section daily, now it's just kind of looking for anything that suits my fancy.

Last week the browse was for patio furniture. Actually, I started looking for a bench and somehow ended up looking at tables and chairs. One listing caught my eye - a five piece outdoor set, in green, for $20. So I bought it, without taking a really good look at it. $20 was unbeatable.

After getting the set home I realized a few things - the table and chairs are much too big for my small lanai, someone had used the chairs to rest boards on when they were painted and there were paint stripes on the chair arms, the legs were rusting and uneven where the rust had completely eaten the aluminum, and the chairs couldn't be used without pads as they were too low and too deep.




No big deal - I quickly decided to repaint the entire set and sell it on Craig's List.

I began by cleaning the chairs and sanding the arms with an electric sander. I used the same black spray paint the boys used for the bench ends and painted the chairs. After they dried I flipped them over and painted the sides I couldn't see/reach earlier. It took two days to paint the chairs but most of that was dry time, actual painting time was about 20 minutes per chair, max.

When I say "I painted the furniture" I might mean "me and some guys who didn't want to do schoolwork painted the furniture"

After the chairs were finished and completely dry I turned them on their sides, measured the lengths of the legs and evened them out with a jigsaw.

I took the table apart and painted each of the three (previously) green pieces with the black spray paint.


The plexiglass top got a good cleaning up, and the table was reassembled.


I priced cushions everywhere I could think of and even considered making my own but for what I needed I'd be spending a minimum of $80, which just wouldn't be recouped in the sale of the set so I decided to skip the cushions. The new owner can then purchase cushions of their choosing.


I was able to use the set during a party last week. No one ate at the table, it became the pizza table, but the chairs were perfect for sitting around the fire that evening.


The set is now relisted on Craig's List and, hopefully, will find a home with a new owner soon. Right now it's in my back yard, and the longer it sits there the more tempted I am to drill a hole in the center of the table, insert a huge umbrella, and keep the set.

Total cost: furniture - $20, paint - $17.

Off subject, but we have bananas in the backyard! Last year we got a few, maybe six, and this year we've got quite the bumper crop!