The Red Hen: potting bench

For those of you who have read my previous post about the potting bench , you know that I have a thing for turning junk into something cute. I am always looking at things and thinking to myself "how else can that be used" or "what else could I do with that besides what it was intended for?" Kind of a sickness I have, if you will.

My Mom and my sister both have these cool old bikes parked by their front porches. I absolutely love them. They decorate them for each season and they always look soo cute. I have been secretly (or not so secretly) coveting them for sometime now. I know, I know it says in the Bible "Thou Shalt Not Covet". But, does that really apply to old bikes?

I have been "on the hunt" for one of these bikes, looking on KSL.com, eyeballing every yard sale we pass on a Saturday, telling all my friends, and asking my husband if we can go to the dump to look for one. This last request he adamantly refuses to entertain.

You see my sister, Julie was taking some things to the dump when lo and behold there was a man unloading a jewel of a bike from his truck. She asked if she could have it and he was only too happy to give it to her. He thought she was crazy, but he gave it to her. Her husband was not so pleased. His response? "Honey, you are supposed to LEAVE things at the dump, not BRING things HOME!" But, since he is such a great guy he let her keep it anyway. (I think he didn't want to take the chance of making another dump run - - who knows what she would have brought home the next time?!?)

Which brings me to the point of this post. The other day I stopped in at a bike store in town because they had a spinning bike outside and I have been looking for one to keep me in shape over the winter. I chatted with the guy about it while trying to contain my two supervisors who were trying to ride every bike in the store.

Then I asked him if he ever got any old bikes just dropped off at his store. He gave me a weird look and then said "well yeah, I have some out back, you can look at them if you'd like to." After digging through a pile (literally a pile) of bikes he came to a really cool one. I asked how much he wanted for it and he said $20. Personally, I think he was anxious to get rid of me and the supervisors, but whatever I'll take it!

He then looked at my car (Honda Accord) and said "did you want to come back later and pick it up with a truck?" I laughed and said no, "We're just going to put it in the trunk of my car." He gave me the "you're wacky on the junk" look and wheeled it over to the car. I giggled and thought to myself - - dude, if you only knew the crazy things I have had in the back of this Honda, you would be AMAZED at what will fit back there. But that's a post for another day.

I was so excited I had to call Mark and tell him. This is how our conversation went:

Me: Hey honey, guess what?! I FOUND AN OLD BIKE AND IT ONLY COST $20!!

Loving Husband: WHAT? You paid $20 for an old beater bike?! What in the world are you going to do with it?

Me: Decorate it cute and put it on our porch.

Loving Husband: Oh, no. That thing is NOT going in our yard. It will just junk it up. It will totally look like junk. No way! That is not going in our yard.

Me: (Giggling uncontrollably) Honey, remember on Christmas Vacation when Clark Griswold is in the forest getting the Christmas tree and Russ says to him "I don't think that thing will fit in our yard Dad." and Clark says "It's not going in our yard Russ, it's going in our Living Room!"

Loving Husband: Yeah, so, what about it?

Me: Well, it's not going in our yard, it's going on our porch.

Loving Husband: Oh yeah, you are one funny girl. We'll see about that.

Me: Just hold your judgement until I get done with it OK? Remember the potting bench?

Loving Husband: Grudgingly agrees - mumbles something incoherent and changes the subject.

I rest my case.

Here is a close up of the bike. I really didn't do much to it. I bought a basket at a craft store, painted it black (is there any other color?), put it on with some zip-ties (greatest invention ever!) and put some flowers in it. I still need to fix the tires - I just love the white-walls! And I think the fenders are cool too.

When I asked the guy how told he thought it was, he said about 40 years old. My teenagers thought that should qualify it as an antique. I then pointed out to them that that was as old as I was. My next sentence was "you better run, and run fast NOW!" Oh yeah, everyone's a comedian at my house!

I love to garden. Usually when I plant my flowers in pots each Spring, I am either doing it on a card table in the garage or on the floor of the garage, or some other random place. For YEARS I have wanted a potting bench, for obvious reasons and well, because I thought it would "look cute" in my yard somewhere.

Last week I was browsing through some on-line ads and came across this jewel:

The ad didn't name a price, it just said "make offer".

I looked and saw lots of potential. Mark looked and saw crap. He said "Do you REALLY want to BUY that . . . THING?!?" My response was "Well yeah, I'll offer them $20 and see if they take it."

In the description it stated that it was made out of Tiger Wood (NOT Tiger Woods). And let me tell you that was not just a catchy name! When I got it home I realized that the wood really was pretty ugly, but no matter. I had BIG plans for this bad boy. It had great lines and lots of potential.

Within about 3 hours of getting it in my garage, I had it sanded and painted. Then I did a second coat of paint and then "distressed it a little".