On Friday I went to work for 2 hours and then took vacation for the rest of the day to head to San Marcos, Texas with my friend, Sunitha, to check out the massive outlet mall there. I have to say that the mall is quite impressive. They pretty much have every store that you can think of. While Sunitha did some shopping for clothes and shoes I hit up the Restoration Hardware outlet. This store gets items that have been discontinued, floor models, and catalog orders that have been returned. I found the Buster chair that I have been wanting (picture below).
We actually wanted 2 chairs for the living room...but the other one that they had in stock had been a floor model and was pretty beat up. The one we grabbed looked brand new, so we definitely lucked out. I ordered one of the Buster ottomans (see picture in post from Nov 21st) from RH online -- their Friends and Family sale was this weekend. That should arrive sometime in January. I also picked up the RH Estate coffee table at the outlet. I don't think that they even sell this in their retail stores anymore, so I was glad to have found one. It, too, looked un-used.
I also found a wooden ladder for the living room. I want to use it for hanging throw blankets. We have an assortment of Notre Dame sweatshirt blankets and other snuggly warm ones that become very necessary when the temperatures dip in December with our lack of house insulation. I could not find a picture of the actual ladder (and ours is in storage until after the house painting), but this one that I saw on a Flickr site is similar to it.
Some time ago I found these RH Cartwright cabinets (the tall and wall-mount varieties) for sale on Craigslist for about 25% of the normal retail cost. A couple in our neighborhood bought a house that had them and they thought the pieces took up too much of the space in their tiny bathroom. We were very happy to get them out of their way.
Other than a few small scratches, they are in great shape and work really well in our guest bathroom. I have been looking for similar fabulous deals on some of the other coordinating pieces. I found the matching large medicine cabinet at the outlet mall and picked it up. Now I just need a low and wide piece of furniture that has a usable top surface, as we have no counter space with our white pedestal sink. I also have visions of replacing the stand-up shower in the guest bathroom with something more fitting the style of the house. But that will have to be the subject of a future effort. :)
Overall, the 5 hours (round-trip) of driving with 2 hours spent looking through a single store was definitely worth it. Plus, I got to spent the day laughing with a great friend -- thanks Sunitha! A huge thank you goes out to Tom, who spent the following day patiently making his own trip to San Marcos to pick up the chair (which would not fit in my car with our other finds). You're the best babe!
