House sales are another good place. A friend of mine does appraisals and she knows I knit. She called to tell me about the sale, and said they had a lot of yarn....which, turned out to be an understatement! I went the next morning and they must have had 30 garbage bags full of yarn....and, each was $3.00 or 4.00. Luckily they had them divided up into like yarns, which was great. I left the synthetic ones(bought one for my neighbor who makes Xmas ornaments and pot holders) but bought for myself all the wools, mohair and cottons. I can't remember how many bags I bought, but it was probably 6 or so. Also included in the bags were sweaters, etc, that the lady had started and not finished....still on the needles. As they were wool, I was able to finish them, and block to fit me...all that most required was sewing up, and perhaps a front plaque and the neck finished...all things that didn't really require a pattern. One bag had the parts of a crocheted afghan.... 4 long stips that only required sewing together. The skirts I sewed up at one end, rounding off the corners, put on a strap 'handle', and then felted them....presto...a bag. I'll probably never have another windfall as good as this one was!

"Can this be fixed diy?" That depends upon the sophistication level and fussiness of the customer and the pride of the contractor. You could wax some shims the same thickness as the corner saw kerfs, fill the chips with gray anchoring epoxy, then pull the shims. You could fill the curved kerf with the same and have the saw cut made straight. You are always going to see these repairs. It is quite subjective as to how objectionable they will be. Some folks will say "Absolutely not!" while others set up the patio furniture and forget them. Were I the concrete guy, I'd bust it up and start over. No way would those pictures get on the interwebby with my name on them. I speak from experience: A month ago, my saw fence drifted and the flange on the sink wasn't wide enough to allow a square re-cut. No crap reveals on my jobs. Ever. The customers had to live with an improperly installed sink with blue masking tape covering the gap for a month while their custom made sink was fabricated. The original sink was an 18 gauge stock Kohler with zero radius corners. The replacement is a 14 gauge tank with radius corners. They didn't mind the wait and I didn't mind not having to replace a 5' x 12' granite island. I fix my screwups. They should too. P.S: An apron sink must be installed parallel to the cabinet front, not the countertop front edge, or the apron ends won't return to the cabinet without a visible gap. This countertop edge and cabinet aren't parallel; the left side of the sink extends past the countertop edge, the right is flush. I clipped the corners to fool your eye. Let's see if these guys have any tricks.

I was going to post something on that "impulse buy" thread too . . . tis a puzzlement! Count me in as another lover of natural materials and color tones Mtn! Luckily I don't have a nearby Home Goods. I used to live about 45 min. from one, much of my early apt. decor after grad. school came from there. Now days I just try to pare down, same as Arapaho, I am determined that nothing comes in without something going out, and also I try to shop the thrift stores first . . . and lately I have become and eBay/Etsy junkie . . . I haven't tried selling yet. I really wish we had a local consignment. The next town over where I used to work had one and I sold a lot of my late mother's stuff there, and also got some GREAT finds for myself. They they went through a dramatic inventory shift and have never recovered. Both towns had consignment clothing stores but they couldn't make it. The Goodwill in my home town used to be great, but too many folks have discovered it. There is one antique spot and one private thrift also now in town, they are both OK but heavens, not the universe that is eBay or Etsy to find just what one is looking for! . . . I think that would be the key to selling some of my mother's nice things, to find the right buyers through eBay or Etsy. But I am pretty swamped right now with other priorities, so am still trying to use local second hand spots to clear out my stuff . . .

I have six of these scattered around the yard. Each is different and I painted them dark green. I paid nothing for them as I picked them up on trash day since some people's trash is my treasure. I think they were called motel chairs because many years ago they sat outside old motels.