… fer Pete’s sake. Cool and damp in Houston today. Some places got rain last night. I don’t think we will/did. Thursday was hot and oppressively humid, and today will likely be similar.
I did home stuff in the morning, but did pickups in the afternoon. Did a grand circle around Houston in fact, starting out heading north on the Beltway, swinging east, then south and finally closing the circle by coming back up through downtown and heading west. Ok, not quite a circle. Lots of driving.
While I was doing pickups I hit one thrift store (the Deseret Industries mentioned a day ago) where I got a pair of tactical shorts and a DVD of Disney’s Swiss Family Robinson. I love the book and loved the movie. I hope it holds up to my adult eye. I always swing through the store if I’m in that part of town.
And after my last pick up (by Hobby Airport) I swung by the Habitat for Humanity reStore (which I try to do when I’m in that part of town). Turns out they had a bunch of doors that will be a very nice upgrade to the BOL. New interior doors were on the list, just not very high. New door knobs were going on the old doors as they got primed and painted (got a bag of knobs at the goodwill). It’s amazing the change in appearance that getting rid of the flat builder grade (cheap) doors and gold doorknobs makes. Upgrading doors and door hardware is straightforward and can be done over time and on a budget. It’s great bang for buck, for updating an older property, especially if the original doors were cheap and nothing special. Buying them new would have been over $800, with another $300 for knobs. Got lucky the reStore had some cheap. This particular reStore almost always has doors. I’ve bought a bunch there.
Secondary market, meatspace. If I needed the doors right away, there are other places I’d have looked besides the big box stores. There are places that just sell doors, and sell manufacture overstock, closeouts, blems, etc. There are architectural salvage stores (where I went to replace a door and some windows on my rent house, which was built in the ’20s or 30’s.) There are other places to look as well. KNOWING those places, that they even exist, is part of what I’ve been encouraging people to do. Start participating in the secondary economy now, while it is voluntary. Swapmeets, bodegas, discount stores, farmer’s markets, yard sales, thrifts, estate and garage sales, and person to person selling are bound to increase as traditional sellers have supply issues or staffing issues, or just can’t pay the bills and close their doors.
Get some practice buying in places that mostly take cash, that don’t have a constant inventory, that might have ‘irregular’ supply chains… (not stolen, I’m not advocating that), but if things go all splodey in the economy, informal economies grow. The line between ‘informal’, ‘grey market’, and ‘black market’ might blur and knowing what is ‘normal’ and what is not can help you avoid any issues. Or seek them out if it comes to that.
Business always finds a way to get done. Become familiar with some of the alternative ways…
And the cash you save will help you stack things higher!
nick