E really loves cars, trains, train tracks, all that kind of stuff. Anytime we play at a friend's house who has a train and tracks, he will play with those for extended periods of time.
We had been avoiding the whole "train table" because they are so BIG, and not cute, and we don't have an official playroom, but use the good 'ol "formal dining room" for play......but I know my child would love it. My sister found a few on the online classifieds up in the Woodlands, and we were THIS CLOSE to buying a handmade, not painted one for $25, but the lady never called her back. I decided then to look on Craig's List - and lo and behold, there it was. THE listing. Thomas the Train Table and cars/tracks - AND, the people live in Katy. AND, they had posted the listing just the day before. AND, it was only $100.
The guy said someone wanted to come after work and look at it, but he didn't have a time - and this stay at home mom said, "I can come anytime!" Was that snarky? Anyway, I was able to come at 3 that day - they live literally 8 minutes from my house. The lady was so nice. She was basically wanting to just get rid of stuff, not really try to make money. It's like she has never heard of Goodwill or Katy Christian Ministries, but that's ok because that worked in our favor. She had all this train stuff, box of cars.....I took almost everything. So while it was still in the car last night, I took some pictures to share. (Right now, everything is in the garage under a blanket and tarp. I'm dying to get my hands on it all to sort it all out).
This box she just "threw in" for the heck of it I guess....a Leap Frog with a Thomas book and one extra book, and a Leap Pad thingy, with at least two cartridges. There are also some older kid type puzzles in there that I guess we could keep for later.
This Thomas set is made of plastic, but uses batteries to go around on the tracks. Wasn't sure I wanted it, but then again, would be nice to add in to the toy rotation.
This is the Thomas train-shaped carrier FULL of train cars. I'm not sure if they go only on the wooden tracks, or plastic ones, or both. But it's still a goldmine.
Next set - here are the wooden tracks with train cars that fit on them. I would have been happy with just the table and this set for the $100! I thought it was really sweet that she had all these sets divided out in separate boxes.
And finally, the plastic set. This is the largest set she had, there are a ton of tracks in there, and that big station house thing, a crane, trains....she said this is the one her son played with the most.
This is the end of the train table. It's upside down in the car, so you'll have to use your imagination, but there are two pull out bins on each end for storage.
Another box of blocks she "threw in." I was hesitant again to accept, because we do have some blocks like this - but I could see there are some with wheels in there, and some animal shapes. Can always save for later. Or give away. Actually, my first thought was, "I'll take this because that is a great bin!"
Annnnnd finally the "free" box of cars. There are definitely some in here that are junk-worthy, but then again there are some others that are very worthy of keeping. I started going through the box last night, but then realized I still needed to walk the dogs, so threw everything back in there.
I am thinking that I might bag up several different sets of cars so I can have some in the diaper bag, some in the car, some just to pull out when I see boredom kicking in...and they will be all "new! and exciting!" when I pull them out. Same with rotating out the train sets. I know we won't give it ALL to him at one time on his birthday (coming up soon!!).
Continuing with my bargain theme - I got this table FREE on Sunday. See, this is one reason facebook is actually good - I reconnected with a gal I hadn't seen in about 10 years. She was helping a friend downsize her house. A couple of months ago, I bought a gorgeous trunk, chest of drawers, antique chair, stool, and scrapbook stuff from her. Well on Sunday, she was getting ready to move out of the house and had a room of give-away stuff. This little table is probably from the 40's or 50's (so says my mom). I want to sand and paint it probaby off white, and use it as a side table with my recliner (that I got from Aunt L's estate sale and plan to recover) and use in either Eli's room or the new baby's room.
She also just gave me two great bins full of scrapbook stuff. This one is full of paper.
This one has stickers, stamps, more paper, punches....can't wait to share all this with my scrappin' friends!
So, that wraps up Cheryl's Bargain Week. Hopefully after our annual antiquing trip in October, I will have more finds to share!!!
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