HEADING TO HEATH: GRANITE BEFORE THE STORM

Nothing on a building site happens in a vacuum.  While we were shopping for the elusive granite slab of our dreams, we were also picking out brick and trying to find a vendor for the pre-finished cabinets we’d chosen for the kitchen.  (Cabinets – another long story I won’t go into right now.)

Holiday Interruptted

On a Saturday in late December, after our disappointing return visit to the granite slab yard, we were on our way to a holiday event with the family in Flower Mound.  Our fabricator had given us the names and addresses of some other slab yards to check out and one of them was sort of on the way to Flower Mound.

Now, what works for one person might not work for someone else and visa versa.  So, if you’re looking for granite or marble, don’t let me stop you from going to MSI over on Valley Branch Lane, but we won’t be going back.  Remember the price game I mentioned when I started talking about slabs.  Well, MSI ain’t playing.  Yes, the price game is irritating, but it’s better than a poke in the eye and that’s about all we got.

See, MSI won’t even tell you a price range, much less a price.  No ABC.  No 123.  No Low, Medium, High.  You just go in there, write down which slabs you like and they turn the list over to your fabricator.  One thing we’ve learned is that Bill naturally gravitates to the most expensive slabs in any slab yard.  Having him write down what he likes and then waiting to hear from a fabricator would just be an exercise in futility.  You have to say, “Bill, you can only look at X.”  Without that, we were wasting our time.

It Hit Us Like a Brick Wall

After wasting time at MSI, we continued the trek to Flower Mound.  We were discussing the cabinets, which we planned to look into after our family event.  The phone rang and it was the guy who is building next door to us in Heath.  “Uh Bill, I thought you said you were having some sort of pattern in your brick.”

Come to find out the masons had finished up with the job they were working and started bricking our house.  The only problem was that they’d never given us pricing for the work we wanted done.  Standard brick-laying was included, but we had some special treatments we wanted done – if we could afford it.  The whole issue of our cast stone was up in the air also.  The masons were laying on straight brick as if no cast stone or brick patterns were involved.  Our options were being walled-up you might say.

The next hour or so was filled with flurries of phone calls and text messages.  We wanted to enjoy our family get-together, especially since this was one of the only times we’d see some of them in a year, but it was hard with all the building issues we were handling.  Just about the time we were wrapping up the blind gift exchange a frantic Bill let me know we had to go – RIGHT THAT MINUTE.

GPS FAIL

By the time we got to the car, Bill was nearly hysterical.  Basically, we had a choice of paying either $750 or $2200 and either way we went about it, we wouldn’t get exactly what we’d wanted in the first place.  We also needed to get from Flower Mound to Grand Prairie for the cabinet appointment and we needed to get there fast.  Of course, as we madly drove south, communicating unsatisfactorily with our builder, that’s when we discovered that all that new road construction out by the airport isn’t on our latest GPS update.

Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty and it didn’t get any prettier.  To give our builder’s rep his due, he kept trying to convince us that everything was going to be OK.  The high point make that low point of the conversation was when he told me in order to make it right, if he had to, then he’d have them tear down every brick and start all over.

That was the wrong thing to say to me at that moment.The last thing I wanted was another delay and I was certain, whatever happened, I’d end up with another added expense.  Their favorite increment of add-on was about $300.  We were sitting at the desk of the cabinet vendor when I unloaded my angst on the builder’s rep.  It was not my finest moment of the build.

By necessity, granite fell several slots on the priority table that day.  A couple of weeks passed before we returned to the search for granite, but Lesson Three in Taking Granite for Granted will be next week.

TRAVEL HERE: NEBRASKA FURNITURE MART, TEXAS

It’s Big!
I’d heard that the big furniture store over in The Colony was finally open.  Since we were on the Northwest side of Dallas for another house-related errand, we decided to drop into the brand-spanking new Nebraska Furniture Mart.  The old saw about everything being bigger in Texas may finally be true, now that we have Nebraska Furniture Mart here in the Metroplex.

My husband is an investor by trade and a decorator by desire, so a furniture store by Warren Buffet was a temptation he could not resist.  I’d already been online to check out their selection, but nothing could have prepared me for the real thing.

Getting There

We’d just merged onto the George from I-35 when we made the decision to visit the behemoth furniture store.  So, we took Josey north, because we remembered it being built somewhere in that vicinity.  Unsure of which way to turn when we got to 121, I checked the GPS on my phone.  It let me know that I needed to go right.  Soon I could see the store, but the GPS wanted to take me past it and then wrap back around.  We turned off the GPS and followed our noses.

If You Build It They Will Come

Though the furniture store itself is actually complete, everything around it is still under construction, so drive with extreme caution.  The place is so huge that it’s hard to figure out exactly where you should park.  On the weekday afternoon we visited there was plenty of parking, but who knows what it will be like on weekends.

The Eloi going to dinner, in a scene from the 1960’s movie version of H.G. Wells Time Machine, is deeply ingrained on my mind.  Anytime I find myself in a casual crowd that grows as it enters an edifice, I’m right there with the Eloi.  The poor things were just following their appetite into the communal dining room with no understanding they were fattening themselves up to be someone else’s dinner.  A little later they are harvested as they strolled into yet another cavern at the direction of their hosts.

That should give you an idea of the Nebraska Furniture Mart.  You wander towards it with your mouth open, trying to imagine the delights held behind the massive walls of the building.  As we entered, we were handed a map, but it took us awhile to open it, because the scene is so overwhelming.  What looks unbelievably large from the outside seems to grow once you get inside.

Sticker Shock

Right inside the door we entered was an “accessory bazaar”, think Z Gallarie/Pier One/Kirkland/Crate& Barrel/etc.  We veered to the right, distracted by the siren call of patio furniture.  I mean we are building a patio that overlooks a pond and a golf course.  After seeing a $1300 chair, we walked out of the patio furniture department and through more accessory type stuff to the Home Entertainment Furniture Department.  Can you say $7K isn’t in our budget for home entertainment furniture?

At the back of the store was a fan and lighting gallery.  This is where our amazement became true sticker shock.  I have two words for you:  Lamps Plus.  The selection puts Nebraska to shame, the brands are the same and once you buy your lighting fixtures you can actually afford light bulbs.

We test drove a few chairs in the office furniture department and went over to check out the “Hard Surface Flooring and Countertops.”  Do not buy granite from these people.  It was all level one granite with level three pricing.  What scares me is that they didn’t say whether the $45/sq ft price included installation or not.  I was afraid to ask.  More advice:  Do not pay $45 for Brown Baltic and Santa Cecelia – with or without installation.  You really can get it a lot cheaper than that.

Carpets were next.  We were interested in those.  With so much wood flooring going in, we’re going to need some area rugs.  I’ve got to tell you they have some gorgeous stuff, their selection is humongous and there seems to be a wide variety of pricing.  Surprisingly, some of the prices actually looked like something we might pay.  However, there were also prices that sent us howling.  I am sure there are people in Dallas who buy $20K area rugs, but that wouldn’t be us.

Come On Up

Another sci-fi scene that looms large in my memory bank is the elevator scene from The Twilight Zone’s “To Serve Man” Episode.  I was certainly feeling like the fatted calf of consumerism as I stepped off the Nebraska Furniture Store elevator into the dining department.  Since barstools are another thing on our shopping list, we lingered in that section for a while.  They did have one of the larger collections of barstools that we’ve run into anywhere else and some reasonable pricing, but we didn’t fall in love.  The perfect barstools are still mere figments of our imagination.

As we made our way across the upper level of the store, Bill stopped to admire a dining room table.  He commented that the price seemed reasonable.  Then I pointed out that the chairs were separate.  Bill changed his mind about affordability and we decided we were very happy with our consignment store find.

If you are actually looking for furniture (as opposed to accessories, lighting, granite and rugs) allow plenty of time to browse this store.  When they say they have an unequaled selection, they are not kidding. All we did was stroll across the front half of the upper level and even that did take some time.

As we wandered west to east in the front aisle we noticed that while most of the furniture was spread out in glorious array to our right, on the left side were glassed-in storefronts.  Gazing across the facades I saw names like Thomasville, Drexel Heritage and Herendon.  This is the real stuff folks.  The kind of furniture your mom and your aunts used to buy before we became addicted to disposable fashion.  There’s wood in them there tabletops!!  In my next life, the one where I can afford my champagne taste, I’m going to walk right in there and pick out my stuff.  Since I’m not quite there yet, we kept walking and made a circuit of the rest of the upper level.

Time for Lunch

All that sticker shock created an appetite.  The map told us a Subway was somewhere in the building, so we headed back down one of the many escalators and found ourselves in the pool table and fitness areas.  Next was electronics.  And then (hit the spotlight) Subway.

During lunch we discussed the huge number of salespeople they’d hired to staff the sales floor.  We tripped over them constantly.  I’ll give them creds though.  They would politely offer to help and then fade away when we smiled and said, “Just looking.”  We hate being shadowed by a hungry salespeople, especially those that want to chat us up.  Though it would be great for the local economy if this place keeps all these people, we think it’s a grand opening ploy and that staff reductions are inevitable – probably a lot will disappear through attrition, but they would have to sell a lot of furnishings to support all the people they have hired.

Bill’s Favorite Part

Unwittingly, we saved the best for last.  Wandering out of Subway, we headed to the left, because that was the only part of the place we hadn’t seen.  Voila!  The appliance department!

Bill loved it.  They had an entire appliance department very much like what you’d see at the local Lowe’s or Home Depot, but then they had little individual sections carved out along the wall for Viking, Sub Zero, Miele and the like.  FYI, GE Monogram had it’s own little cubbyhole which impressed us.

Then we landed in TV’s and we were worn out.  Time to head to the hacienda.  Have you heard the the DMA has a new exhibit?  Come back next week and I’ll tell you about Michael Borremans.

HEADING TO HEATH: TAKING GRANITE FOR GRANTED – LESSON 2

The Cold Bitter Truth

A slab yard in deep winter is a sad place.  All the good stuff is gone.  The folks at the slab yard were very nice and quite willing to stomp around the chilly yard with us as long as we wanted to, but the truth of the matter was, the yard was full of dogs – and I’m not talking the cute cuddly kind.  Oh, they still had some pretty slabs, but every thing good was either reserved (something I’ll tell you more about) or lone orphans too small on their own to do us much good.

There’s Inventory and Then Again, There’s Inventory

Slab yards have a phrase I hate:  “Keep an eye on our website.”  Trying to fall in love with a piece of granite online is like trying to kiss through a screen.  It just doesn’t do a thing for me.  Bill, bless his heart, can spend hours comparing slabs online.  I last about 90 seconds on a good day.  I just can’t extrapolate a tiny rectangle on the screen into a kitchen counter.  Let’s say that somehow you do manage to find a piece of granite you think you want.  Try calling the granite yard and see what happens.

That’s on Reserve

What you’ll usually hear when you ask about a piece of granite, in person or online, is, “That’s on reserve.”  Reserve is the magic thing you do between falling in love with a piece of granite and discovering you can’t afford it.  The slab yard puts it on reserve so they can tell your fabricator how much it costs and he can, in turn, work up his quote and give you sticker shock.  Before I was through with our granite procurement, I grew to hate “That’s on reserve.”

Reserve can last anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks.  Take our second visit to the slab yard, for instance.  We wandered around and found nothing that would work.  Oh, we saw orphans we loved, pieces we couldn’t afford and a lot of reserved pieces, but nothing that we could have in our kitchen.  In order to make us feel better they put some slabs on reserve for us.  Not that we understood what they were doing, because weeks later we discovered the four slabs, none of which we wanted, were still reserved for us.

That’s in Tulsa

On our second trip to the slab yard we discovered some of the slabs we were looking at online weren’t even in that slab yard.  Some of the slabs were actually pieces which had been purchased by the slab yard and were in transit.  When were they supposed to arrive?  Sometime in March?  That wasn’t helping us.  We needed our slabs in weeks, not months.

Big vendors, like Verona Marble, also put slabs out on consignment to other yards and those yards can be all over the place.  Sometimes that’s at a place across town.  Sometimes it’s far away.  Slabs in Tulsa weren’t doing me much good since I’m extrapolation-challenged, but that didn’t stop them from showing me a picture of them.

Just Walk Away Renee

So, at the end of the day, we sadly left the slab yard.  We were told to keep checking online. (Yeah, sure, I’ll get right on that.)  They put slabs on reserve for us.  Then we called the fabricator and got a list of other places to visit.  Come back next week and you can visit these other yards with us.

HEADING TO HEATH: TAKING GRANITE FOR GRANTED – LESSON 1

Next time you walk into someone’s kitchen and see a slab of granite on their countertop, don’t just walk past it.  Stop and admire it.  Your host and hostess will most likely puff up like you’ve complimented them on a grandchild.

Just in case you’re ever foolish enough to want to build your own house (something we’ll NEVER do again) then let me give you a primer on selecting granite.

First Loves in the Slab Yard

Back in the early days of our build when we were still blissfully unaware of all the headaches ahead, our builder told us to go on over to the granite place and pick out a slab.  They were a little premature.  Since we had no place to store the pair of slabs we’d need, the trip was pretty much in vain.  In fact, it left us with a misconceived assumption that later brought only heartache.

See, we went to the granite yard in September and they had what seemed like zillions of beautiful slabs.  We ASSUMED they always had that many slabs – not like we asked or anything.  It just seemed reasonable.  They were in the marble and granite slab business, so why wouldn’t they always have lots of marble and granite slabs.  We wrote “lapidus juniperious” and ‘carrera marble” in our notebooks and walked away.

The Price Game

We did learn one important thing on this first visit.  For the most part, granite yards are not going to tell you a price.  Their customer is your fabricator and the fabricator doesn’t want you to know what his mark-up is.  There are exceptions to that rule, of course, but none of the places our fabricator recommended were among the exceptions – and we inherited our fabricator from our contractor.

Instead of knowing actual prices, you play the price game.  At Verona Marble Company they had price levels 1,2,3 and on up, but we were told level three or the Verona Value slabs were our best bet in our price range.  Verona Value is truly a good deal if you can find what you want.

You know how show dogs have certain traits that make them winners.  The traits don’t necessarily make them a better dog pet-wise, but they do make a big difference in the arena.  Granite and marble are a lot like that.  When a professional buyer is looking for, let’s say, lapidarius, there are certain traits they expect to see when they go to the mining areas.

Now, just like the show dogs, there might be a perfectly beautiful, perfectly desirable piece of granite available that isn’t quite up to lapidarius standards, but when a buyer from a major slab yard asks for lapidarius, no granite miner in his right mind is going to pull out the second rate stuff.  I’m sure there are slab yards all over the place that make their living selling substandard slabs, but that’s why you want to be careful about who you buy from.  There’s nothing wrong with choosing a mutt, but no one should sell you a mutt when the price tag belongs on a purebred.

Verona takes the middle ground.  Much of what they have is the best of the best.  They truly have beautiful slabs, but some of those beautiful slabs are mutts and if they are mutts, then you get a bargain.  Other slab yards choose abc or some other scheme besides numerical grading, but the effects are the same.  You wander around the slab yard guess-timating whether or not you are going to be able to afford what you are falling in love with.

A Chilly Second Visit

By late December it seemed as if we were getting close enough to countertop time that we’d better revisit the slab yard – only it was a virtually empty slab yard.  No juniperious anything.  The lapidus wasn’t exactly right, either.  It was also very, very cold.  See, Verona Marble starts getting their shipments in early spring and when we visited them in September their inventory was at a peak.  The bad news is that they don’t get any shipments after that, so by December we were pretty much looking at leftovers.  If we did happen to like a slab, it was an orphan – the only one of its kind and not big enough to cover our footage.

That’s when our education really began.  Come back next week for Lesson Two in Taking Granite for Granted.

Favorite Dallas Restaurants Visited, Revisited…and Visited Again

Most of you know my husband and I are having a house built in Heath. As we’ve shopped around for tile, granite, wood floors, cabinets and the like, we’ve eaten a lot of meals out. A goodly number of these meals have been drive-thru fast food, which is part of the reason I had to get back on Jenny Craig, but we’ve also enjoyed a few of our old standards. We highly recommend these to you.

Hook, Line & Sinker

As I’ve said before, we love Hook, Line & Sinker (HL&S).  It was just around the corner from us at our old house.  We miss it almost as much as we do the creek that wandered past our backyard.  When life takes us over to Far North Dallas nowadays, it’s not unusual for us to cozy up to a plate at HL&S.  Hubby loves their grilled trout.  My fav dish is their shrimp basket with fried shrimp, hushpuppies and crinkle fries, but on our last visit I tried to be good.  Oh the sacrifice! (Wink, wink!)  The Shrimp Kabobs were delicious.  I substituted grilled veggies for the rice.  Yum!

On our last visit it was a little too chilly to enjoy the patio, but the funky bayou vibe of the interior was just fine.  Not to mention the great blues music playing in the background.  After our meal was through we strolled over to Lekka, the Obzeet’s replacement next door to HL&S.  Cool place with live music and funky decor shopping, but with HL&S just next door, it’s doubtful we’ll ever actually have a meal there.

Abuelo’s

I think Abuelo’s is my favorite Tex-Mex spot right now, with the obvious exception of Joe T. Garcia’s in Ft. Worth.  (The Fiesta Patio at Joe T’s is my personal Culinary Nirvana.)  At Abuelo’s I love their avocado enchiladas, which they call Enchiladas de Cozumel.  They slather them with a seafood sauce that is to DIE for.  Bring that out to me with a Platinum Margarita and I am a very happy girl.  (Not the best thing for my diet, but a girl has got to eat!  Lets call it grilled seafood and avocados with lime on our food diary.)

On my last visit, I played with the new computerized thingie they have sitting on the tables.  While waiting for Bill to return from the restroom I joined their rewards program.  ( I don’t know why I wasn’t already on it.)  Since then I’ve gotten a coupon for a free entree, just for signing up and then they sent me a coupon for a free dessert in honor of my birthday.  I may just have to love them a little bit more, but after I move to Heath it will be quite a drive.

Chili’s

I’ve been a fan of Chili’s ever since it first opened on Greenville Avenue – a location which longer exists.  It was just a hole in the wall, built around a kitchen that made the best fries in the world.  I always ordered a Pride with Fries and a Schilitz.  That ought to tell you how long ago it was.  The whole margarita thing wasn’t even a part of their culture yet.  Then they built a bar to serve margaritas while you waited in line.  Soon after that they “improved” the fries and whatever they did ruined them forever.  It’s still a great quick meal and it won’t break the bank, but I miss its hole in the wall days.

My last Chili’s fix was in Wylie and I ordered from their “guiltess” menu.  Unfortunately, the waitress was not familiar with their latest menu changes.  After taking our order she disappeared for awhile and then came back to inform me that they didn’t have exactly what I was ordering anymore, but that she could get it exactly as they used to serve it.  That seemed odd, but I wasn’t in an arguing mood so I said sure – I told her I just liked what I saw on the menu.

What I saw on the menu was a small sirloin with avocado slices (have you noticed a trend here).  What I got had no avocado slices.  I wasn’t happy.  I pointed out the error to the waitress and she was all kinds of sorry, but she didn’t bring me any avocado slices.  Neither did the manager who came to apologize.  Come on guys, all I wanted was some avocado slices.  Somewhat of a fail, but not enough to keep me away.  They’ll be convenient in my new home, because there’s a location right in Rockwall, I-30 at Horizon.

BJ’s Brewhouse

OK, BJ’s  is turning me into a regular client.  Somewhere along the way they got me to join their loyalty program and it keeps luring me back, time after time.  BOGO’s, free this, free that and great food.  It doesn’t hurt that the restaurant is also one of Bill’s favorites.

If I’m gonna cheat and have pizza, then this is one of those places this will happen.  They’ve got a light microbrew beer called Lightswitch which goes great with the pizza and the beer only has 103 calories.  If I’m good I’ll go to the EnLIGHTened Menu and have the Mediterranean Chicken Pita Tacos.  We’re talking yum-yum!  Who cares whether it’s enlightened or not, because the tacos are delish!  (The pearlized orzo is not so delicious.  I’ve told them to change to the non-pealized type and I’m watching.)  There are a lot of BJ’s around Dallas, but when we get to Heath the nearest BJ’s fix will be Town East.

Palio’s Pizza Cafe

Here’s another place where I’ll cheat the diet and have pizza.  Palio’s helps me feel better about that by offering a whole wheat crust.  Bill likes it because not only do they have great pizza, but he can bring in his own wine.  We like the King.  We’ve scouted out locations for this favorite spot all over Dallas.  “Our” location is currently in Rowlett on 66 at Dalrock Road, but as soon as the Heath house is finished we’ll be moving our loyalty to the Rockwall location at Horizon and Ridge Road.

Next time you just can’t decide what you want to eat, this list should help you out a little bit.  Enjoy!

HEADING TO HEATH: DALLAS CONSIGNMENT STORES I HAVE LOVED PART CINQ

Remember The Consignment Embassy?

After visiting consignment stores all over Dallas, it boiled down to the fact that we still loved the dining room suite we’d seen in the first store we visited, The Consignment Embassy.  So Bill got on the phone and tried to negotiate with them to get a better price.  He made a little headway, but not much.

On a very cold, very wet day he assigned me the task of checking one more store – one that I’d put on the list, but we hadn’t made it to.  Come to find out, they were owned by the same people as The Consignment Embassy.

Design by Consign 

The videographer I work for is over in West Plano.  Design by Consign is in McKinney.  On a cold rainy day, Bill assigned me the job of going by Design by Consign to see if they had anything that would beat what we liked at The Consignment Embassy.  Once I got there, we were supposed to pow wow.

Well, after a miserable drive I found the store and danced across the mud puddles to see what they had.  What they had was more dining room suites than I’d seen any place else and they were great prices.  Did I love them more than the one at The Consignment Embassy?  Maybe not, but if you save me enough money, I can like a table a whole lot – as long as it’s real furniture and not the stuff they pass as furniture at most places.

Design by Consign had two that I liked a lot and two more that I wouldn’t kick out of my house – for the right price.  Problem was, the pow wowing wasn’t going well.  Bill in Heath, cold, wet and in the dark, as he tried to deal with some issues there.  Meanwhile, my phone was running out of juice.  After a testy exchange, I planned to go buy the table I wanted at The Consignment Embassy.

HOLD YOUR HORSES!

I’m not sure whether it’s good news or bad, but when I arrived, Ice Queen was holding court  did her best to ignore me.  When I arrived I told her I was Bill’s wife and she made some snitty remark to that, but I was too cold to get what she was saying.  I asked her if I could remove the decorative items on the table.  She said yes, but just as she came over to assist me a delivery truck came up.  They were obviously more important than selling me the table, so she abandoned me.  Good thing.  With the decor removed I saw things about the table I hadn’t noticed before.

I wanted the table, but I didn’t want it if Bill was going to kill me for buying it.  Cold, wet and confused I slunk out of the store and ran home to pout a little bit.  When I got there I realized Bill had been having it worse than me, so I got over it.  When I shared my concerns, he agreed I’d been wise to hold off.

Bill needed to see the tables I’d found at Design by Consign, but there were also two shops on my consignment store list we hadn’t made it to.  We’d resolve the dining room table dilemma soon.

The End of the Story 

Bill’s plan was to go to all the other stores before going back to the Consignment Embassy.  In his heart he was afraid that we wouldn’t find anything else and “our” table would be sold.  He thought I was right to put off buying it if I had concerns, but he also really wanted that table.  My plan was for him to see the tables at Design by Consign and then take a look at Consignment Embassy.  Then if we had to, we still had a couple of more places to go and we’d reconsider the table at Consignment Heaven.  We’d really liked it, but we knew that if we bought it, then we’d have to find chairs for it.  Both of us just wanted the table at the Consignment Embassy, but we are timid consignment shoppers.

We went to Design by Consign.  Bill saw the value of the other tables, but like me, his heart was already taken.  We discussed various plans of attacks, but when I said, “If you like the table in spite of my concerns, then we don’t have to go to any other stores,” he bee-lined it to the Consignment Embassy.

Thank goodness it was the Ice Queen’s day off.  At this point, we must have been famous at the shop.  The decorations came off the table and the conversation began – and this time there were no delivery men.  The table and chairs are beyond gorgeous, they’d just been loved a little more than we realized on our first trip.  Had it been loved too much or just enough?  We finally agreed to a price that made the love just enough, but not before Bill fell in and out of love with some other things in the shop.

How we took possession of the gi-normous table, eight chairs and two leaves is a whole ‘nother story.  As promised I finished our consignment story tale.  Come back next week for some more adventures in home building.

HEADING TO HEATH: DALLAS CONSIGNMENT STORES I HAVE LOVED PART QUARTE

Back to the Riverfront Consignment Stores

So we’d made it part of the way through my list of Dallas Consignment Stores on our first day of consignment shopping.  We’d bought a cabinet to use as a vanity, found at least one dining room suite we loved and had several more stores to shop.  We closed down the shop where we bought the cabinet, so it was time to go home, but Bill loved the Riverfront area and vowed we’d be back.

A week or so after our first adventure we decided to finish our list.  Bill wanted to get back to Riverfront.  I’d had one more Riverfront store on my list and he’d seen several he liked when he went to pick up the cabinet.

Lots of Furniture

Like Again and Again, down the Riverfront Street, Lots of Furniture is sort of a Land of Unwanted Furniture, but where A&A has interesting pieces from the last century, LOF reaches back further in time and covers a lot more geography.  It’s more antique store than consignment store.  Many of the gorgeous pieces would look great in a French Chateau, but they were designed for house much bigger than my little house on the pond.  Though completely untrained in that sort of thing, I do have an eye.  Come to find out, a good portion of the gorgeous pieces I lusted after were actually French and were at one time in some chateau or other French abode.

Whatever the size of your abode, put Lots of Furniture on your list of Saturday afternoon things to do.  Just making your way through the makeshift aisles will be somewhat of an adventure.  You’ll get to play with several cats, at least one dog – you’re on your own with the other furry things.  The owner seems like a very nice guy, but the recession has sort of bitten his derriere.  Please go buy his stuff so LOF will be there in the future to wander through aimlessly.

More Riverfront Consignment Stores

It was a chilly damp day, but after taking in Lots of Furniture we consignment-stored our way down Riverfront.  Many of the stores were cheek-and-jowl along the thoroughfare.  Still, I was pretty much frozen when our jaunt down the street was over.  We really didn’t find what we were looking for, but there was a lot to see.

With more stores on our list, we thawed out as we headed north again.

Knox Henderson Consignment Stores

Nick Brock Antiques

This was not on my list.  I could tell from their website that they were outside my budget, but we had to walk past their store to get to Consignment Heaven.  I can say this – they have beautiful things which are reasonably priced for what they are, but they aren’t things I can readily afford.

I can also tell you this.  Consignment store people border on the odd.  From the ice queen at the first shop to the friendly pauper at Lots of Furniture, I can tell the people who run and work at consignment stores are a different breed from those I talk to at the local Haverty’s.  Don’t construe that as criticism.  Different can be both good and bad, according to the circumstances.  The guy at Nick Brock would be great at my next cocktail party.

Just as Bill decided the water was a little deep around there, the sales person engaged me in a conversation.  I spent so many years in the retail business that I’m allergic to, “We’re just looking.”  I’d looked around enough to see that dining room tables did not dominate their inventory, so I gave an abbreviated version of what we were up to.  The clerk hopped up from his desk and showed me what he did have that was in any way related to my request, apologizing all the way that he knew it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.  As I strolled out, he encouraged me to visit often, because they frequently got in new merchandise.  This guy had been more personable than anyone I’d met in two days of consignment shopping.  I wish he’d had something – not that I would have been able to afford it.

Consignment Heaven

How appropriate the name of this little Knox/Henderson shop is!  Talk about chock-a-block.  The merchandise is so densely packed here that they stack the dining room tables one on top of the other and some have chairs atop that.  We found several possibilities at this place.  Bill was just about to buy one.  The price was right and it was a gorgeous piece.  I was concerned about the chairs though.  None were specifically assigned to this table and everything I saw looked more English than French.  I just wouldn’t approve the sale.

We’re almost at the end of my consignment tale.  Come back next week and I promise to finish.

HEADING TO HEATH: DALLAS CONSIGHMENT STORES I HAVE LOVED PART TROIS

So we’ve been out all day.  We’ve found one thing we loved and a bunch that were interesting, but not what we were looking for.  We sort of want to quit, but there’s enough time for one more, maybe.

Again and Again

You have got to go here.  It’s at the edge of the Design District on Riverfront – just a block off Dragon Street, which is reason enough to visit.  It’s like the Land of Unwanted Toys, but all the toys are furniture, and like the Land of Unwanted Toys, it’s full of possibilities.

If refurbishing and re-purposing furniture were my passion, this would be ground zero.  I can just see some designer -to-the-stars swishing in and pointing to a truckload of stuff.  Then I flash-forward to the star’s housewarming party and everybody is blown into next week, if not the next century, because everything in the house is so cool.  The designer saw style in the avocado green paint and chrome lamps, but first he cleaned it.

Since refurbishing and re-purposing furniture is not my passion, I kinda didn’t want to touch anything, because the whole place is something less than sanitary.  I should know…I visited their restroom.  All that being said, you really need to go here.  They said they’d only been there a couple of years, but it sort of looks like some of this stuff might have been living there awhile when the shop arrived.

Most of the stuff was interesting but unusable in my French Chateau on the Golf Course.  Then there was the marble-topped cabinet.

We were the only people in the warehouse storefront when we started.  As we wandered around the cabinet caught our eye, but it needed some love – which takes us back to that whole refurbishing/re-purposing thing.We weren’t sure we were the right folks to love it back into someone’s home.  As we checked out the other nooks and crannies of the store several more people came in.  Like us, they kept they’re hands close to their bodies, just in case one of the unwanted toys tried to reach out and grab them.  That is until they approached our cabinet.  Then they were all over it.  Testing the doors and feeling the inlaid wood.  You” be glad to know that I did not run over and swat any of their hands.

As soon as we were alone in the store again, Bill made a bee line to the front desk.  Of course he’s playing it cool, wringing his hands that the thing is in such pitiful condition.  Newsflash!  We would have paid full price and considered ourselves lucky.  Taking his lead I stood around with my arms crossed shaking my head a lot and opining that it was just too much for us to take on.  I listed all the possible craftsmen, including a locksmith, that we’d have to employ to make it usable.  Meanwhile I was wringing my hands in glee.  Yep – we bought it and we got a great deal on it!  Look for it soon in our new home.

Our day was over, but our consignment store adventures are not.  There’s still a dining table to buy.  Come back next week and I’ll finish my tale.

HEADING TO HEATH: DALLAS CONSIGNMENT STORES I HAVE LOVED, PART DUEX

Without further ado, I’ll plow into my list of consignment stores.  If you want to start at the beginning, click here.

Estates Etc.

This consignment store on Beltline near Coit better fit my previous perception of consignment shopping.  There were a few marvelous pieces in the store, but most of the stuff wasn’t my cup of tea and the pieces I did like weren’t what I was looking for.  We did find a decent table at a decent price, but it didn’t stack up against what we’d already found.  Worth the stop, but iffy.

B&B Furniture Consignment

Consignment lovers!  This treasure trove is right next door to B&B Resale Boutique which has clothing.  It was a little hard to find.  The address was on Coit, but the store is on the back side of a building and even from Arapaho (the cross street), you have to be looking for it to see it.  It’s worth the hunt.   They didn’t have anything I needed, but they had things I wanted.  I LOVE china and pottery.  They had complete sets of gorgeous china and pottery.  I wanted to stay and handle, but none of the furniture was promising enough to linger.  I did notice that the resale shop was hopping with business.  I’ve never bought any consignment clothing, (except my wedding dress, which is another story) but if you like consignment shopping, I’m guessing you’d like this place.

Nicole’s Estate Resale – GONE

The Consignment Store – Almost gone.  The center they’re in (Beltline at Montfort) priced them out of business.  It was kind of sad, because it was Bill’s favorite consignment store.  I sort of thought the people who ran it were a little rude, but I thought that might just be part of the consignment store allure.

Furniture by Consignment

This place is on the southeast corner of Marsh at Forest.  Like B&B, it was not immediately obvious, partly because the signage isn’t very good.  However, it’s a must-see with possibilities.  Saying it was overstocked is probably an understatement.  You could barely get through the merchandise.  The prices were good and there were some nice pieces.  If you were decorating a college apartment or a first home, this should be on your list.  The quality is good and there are some real treasures.  There’s also a lot that is just fine for getting by and the price reflects it.  I wouldn’t be embarrassed to own most of it.  It just wouldn’t be my first choice.  At my age, I should get what I want.

Area 25

Intriguing shop just west of Inwood Shopping Center.  No dining room table or chest for a vanity, but lots of stuff and most of it pretty nice.  They’re mix is a little more edgy than the North Dallas counterparts we’d visited up to that point, but we did see some mirrors and other pieces we liked.  In fact, I suspect visiting this store may become a regular habit.  Parking is a challenge, but once inside it’s a downright adventure.

Turtle Creek Consignment – It claimed to be upscale, but I guess it was too upscale, because it’s gone.

Dulce

Talk about an adventure?  One expects edgy from the Oak Lawn area.  I didn’t expect scary.  Maybe if we could have parked up front it might have seemed more approachable.  The rear parking lot was fine, but then a sign suggested we enter what looked like the rear end of a restaurant.  I swear Sweeney Todd was back there washing his hands.  We timidly asked about Dulce and Sweeney cocked his head to an ominous door.  A sign directed us to “ring bell”.  We did and were suddenly transported from Sweeney Todd to a consignment store.  I think the word I’m looking for is eclectic.  That’s a good thing, but the mix didn’t seem to include anything we were interested in.  We also got the vibe that they weren’t very interested in us either.  Like maybe if we’d asked about an item they might say, “It’s not for you!”

The day was getting away from us, but we thought we’d go try one more place.  It was down in the Design District and we did have some luck there.  Come back next week and I’ll tell you about it.

TRAVEL HERE:  SENIOR FOLLIES LIGHT UP EISEMANN CENTER WITH JOY

A few weeks ago I took you back to the Crow Collection of Art and discussed artistic connections within their latest exhibition. Talk about connections! Life is full of them. That’s how I ended up at the Spectacular Senior Follies a few Sundays ago.

It Started with the Lot

So we were looking for a new home and ended up with a lot in Heath’s Buffalo Creek community.  Had we hesitated at all in making our offer we would have been out of luck.  Two other couples were also considering the same lot.  One of those couples is now lives next door and we virtually built our houses together. One day, during the build, I suggested we go grab a bite, but they couldn’t because they had The Senior Follies – as in she was a showgirl in the revue and he was on the board, so he’d be helping out in other ways.  Pete suggested we should try to see one of the shows that weekend, but we were overwhelmed with other things.

Then They Needed a Videographer

One evening, after our houses were built, our next door neighbors joined us for happy hour.  As we enjoyed our view of the pond, we got to talking about Pete and Sherry’s involvement in The Follies.  That led to us discussing videography at the Eisemann, since that’s where the show is presented and one of my clients, LeniCam Video Productions,  frequently records shows there.  Come to find out, Pete is the Chairman of the Senior Follies Board and he was interested in improving the quality of the videos of the show.  Did I ever have the guy for him!

The Sunday Matinee 

Somehow September is always a crazy month for me, but we did manage to attend the Sunday matinee of the 2015 Spectacular Senior Follies.  We didn’t know exactly what to expect, but we really didn’t expect a packed house.  I mean this was the last of five performances of this bunch of senior citizens.  Who besides their neighbors, family and friends were going to go?  Turns out there were a lot of people!

See, this wasn’t their maiden voyage.  It was their seventh year and in those seven years they’ve built up quite a following.  Walking up to the theater we saw buses from retirement centers all over the Metroplex.  In fact, people of all ages were flocking in from all directions.

As we entered the theater we were greeted by Pete himself, who was searching for programs.  Seems they were about to run out.  When we got to our seats I perused my program and was amazed by the talented performers involved in the show.  I immediately recognized the name of Rose Mary Rumbley, a gifted author, comedienne and my mom’s absolute favorite book reviewer.  Digging deeper I saw Jackie Troup Miller who was oftentimes a dance partner of Donald O’Conner, one of my favorite dancers on the silver screen.There was the lead singer of the Dallas Doo-Wop tribute band, members of the Dallas Symphony Chorus, ballroom dance champions, ex-Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and the list goes on.

The Beat Goes On

The curtains opened on The Sixties.  White go-go boots, mod prints, mini-skirts and bell bottomed trousers dominated the stage as the energetic seniors proved you are only as old as you feel – and these guys were feeling pretty young!  The first act was a series of tributes to stars of the sixties and seventies:  The Captain & Tenille, Sonny & Cher, Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Bee Gees, Elvis Presley, Bread, Johnny Cash and more.  I actually had tears in my eyes during their rendition of “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria” from The Sound of Music.

After Intermission it was time for the Showgirls.  This segment is a tradition of the show and the audiences whoops and hollers as each showgirl is introduced, making her entrance down the double staircase.  The rest of the act was a vaudevillian.  There was more singing and dancing, but they also had comedy skits, military tributes and a patriotic extravaganza.  OK, so I cried again when they sang the Air Force song.  How many times did my daddy and I croon that tune together?

Do I think you should plan to attend the 2017 Spectacular Follies.  Well if you’re looking for a really good time then I certainly do.  If you’re a performing arts snob who is looking for every missed note or disharmony, you should probably stay home, because the heart of this show is ever so much more important than technicalities.  I’m on the cusp of senior citizenship and watching these guys reminded me that aging is only a state of mind.