Although the new patio has been complete for months, the project hasn't felt finished because the backyard still looked like a construction zone. Of the 3 pallets of Basalite pavers we bought, we used a little more than half. The excess pavers have sat there, and sat there. They have been piled on pallets smack dab in the middle of the yard, irking me. For 6 months they sat there while we passively thought about what to do with them. I am not proud of this. That's the problem with D.I.Y. projects - you can't blame anyone else for taking a long time to clean up the worksite!
I posted the pavers on Facebook to see if any friends would take them - no luck. What lousy friends I must have to not help solve this heavy dilemma (kidding!). I asked my dad - who said he would take them, but I think he was just being polite.
Finally, we got our act together and posted them on craigslist. We figured we would have to negotiate and deal with a bunch of people. We did have a couple of fake-outs early in the week - people who had questions about the pavers, but didn't really want them. Hey, that's ok - such is the way of craigslist and trying to move awkward, heavy objects off your property.
But then the magical offer came in: "Have Trailer and Cash, interested in pavers". A day later, we were helping our customer load the rest of the pavers and sand into his trailer. I'm not sure how he made it home with what was likely over a ton of concrete pavers and sand in the back of a converted truckbed trailer. I remember learning a valuable lesson when towing some of the equipment we used to install the patio: it's not the hauling, it's the stopping of the vehicle in front of a heavy load. I didn't read anything on Lost Coast Outpost about a guy with an overloaded trailor wreaking havoc on the freeway, so all's well that end's well!
And now the grass can finally start growing back. It's a beautiful thing!
Sounds as if you were trying to sell them?
ReplyDeleteIf you really want to get rid of something, try posting it in the Free section of Craigslist. I've done that at least a couple times and usually end up with a couple dozen replies in the first hour, even with things I didn't think there'd be much interest in.
We were being stubborn and trying to recover some of the $$ we spent on them, which worked out, but took longer. But it's good to know it's possible to get rid of things in a hurry. We did that with our old front door - I put it out on the sidewalk and posted it on craigslist saying where it was and that it was up for grabs. I got several emails asking about it. I think there was literally a race to see who could get to it first - which was great - we didn't have to do a thing!
ReplyDeleteI had about eight cinder blocks- most of them broken- that I wanted to get rid of. I finally posted an ad that included a picture of them. I was really surprised that within ten minutes of posting the ad to get a reply from a guy that wanted them. Within an hour he was at my house. He lived in Elk River and wanted them for something to do with his barn.
ReplyDeleteHad a rather odd rotating peg board display rack of Connie's she allowed me to get rid of. I thought few might be interested in that. Posted an ad with picture and within an hour had close to 30 replies. Gave it to the first responder but it took him a couple days to pick it up.
I believe a lot of people get the stuff to sell in yard sales or even on Craigslist. I was speaking to a gal not long ago that frequented the Free section. She said she saw a table she wanted if only to use it for some nephew or niece's lemonade stand the next day.
She raced over to get it only to find some other guy there to pick it up at the same time. He told her he gets the free stuff and sells it. After she explained that she just wanted it for one event, he let her have it. She gave it to him when the event was over..
Wow, who would have thought there was such a market for free stuff! Grabbing free stuff on craigslist and then turning it around on for profit is a great idea.
ReplyDelete