Gateleg Table

Remember when you used to play treasure hunt? Digging in the sand box with your trusty shovel hoping to find ‘treasures’ that will be crammed in your makeshift chest hidden underneath your bed or your wardrobe cabinet.

Can you imagine how an adult would react upon seeing a mature individual digging through dirt? What about having to observe an older kin squeeze himself into the insides of your cabinet or under grandma’s gateleg garden table? More often than not, you’ll be tagged as childish or immature and the list goes on. As an adult, one can still play treasure hunt but in a different level and in a different name — bargain hunting.

Believe me, if you have an eye for quality, you’ll amass riches. It doesn’t matter if you purchased such item from an expensive shop or from a garage sale, there are treasures to be found everywhere you just need to open your eyes to spot the HOT item.

My grandma loves to go window shopping. Back when she was young, she would raid the mall, browse through the bookstore, though she barely buys anything. The price usually scares her away. She was used to going to thrift stores, garage sales and charity bazaars.

Her gateleg garden table I mentioned earlier was acquired from a neighbor’s garage sale. I asked her how much she paid for the gateleg garden table. With a little grin she said, ‘it was dirt cheap!’ I assumed that she haggled her way—again. She then narrated that when she purchased the same, the table was ‘only good chopped up’ but grandma, like a good girl scout that she was, applied a few coating of oak stain and then sealed the gateleg garden table. And presto! It turned out to be an elegant piece of furniture in her garden. Looks expensive but reality tells you otherwise.