The Simpson Six: Hoarder's Paradise

I posted a couple of years ago about our favorite secret spot to go for things for our house. What do you need? He's got it. Doors, building materials, windows, appliances, tile, flooring, light fixtures, weed spray . . . anything that is carried at big box home improvement stores, he's got.

We were in the market for a new light for our front door. You could barely even see the light we had, because it was so tiny. We have a big house; that tiny little light looked silly, and I've hated it since we moved in. (I also hate the red on the door, but that's going to be fixed soon.)

Have you priced exterior lights lately? They're not cheap. And I am. I guess I should call myself frugal, not cheap....

We packed up the crew and headed to what I affectionately call "Hoarder's Paradise".

The story we've heard is that the man who owns this hidden bit of home owner's delight goes to big box home improvement stores in the surrounding states and buys all of the clearance items. He then brings them to this location and sells them at a fraction of the retail price.

These pictures cannot accurately convey all that is at this crazy place.

There is storage building after storage building, row after row, room after room of stuff.

You need to be flexible. Both in what you're looking for and in your ability to maneuver your way through the conglomeration of items he's got.

Organized? Uh, you've got to be kidding me.

I think he started organized, but that has quickly gone by the wayside.

We were looking for a ceiling fan and a "big exterior light". Chris told the man that and he sort of closed his eyes and thought for a minute. I think he was mentally running through his inventory in his mind. No ceiling fans. He quickly led Chris to the location of the big exterior lights.

I stayed in the car with the littles because this isn't exactly a family friendly place. I would quickly lose a small child here, never to be found again.

He showed us four different lovely, brand new, still in boxes light fixtures.

This is the light we got. The original listed price was $69. It was a clearance price of $41.40. We paid $25.00 for it. It's from Lowe's originally.

Since installing it, we've also cleaned the porch to prep it for painting. We're also working on choosing a new color for our house, which needs desperately to be painted.

These are the color schemes we're going between.

We have a Victorian house, which is currently light blue with maroon and white trim, and we have a gray metal roof. I would love to paint it gray, but I don't think that would look right with a gray roof. Chris would love to keep it blue. I hate the current color. I've compromised with a dark blue.