Price and Value

As I am working through the house (and studio) and eliminating the clutter that has accumulated over the past few years, I've also been reading through Sarah Susanka's books (The Not so Big House and it's related genre). She talks a lot of new building but I know that right now (given the housing market and other factors) building is probably out of the question so I am thinking how can I apply these principles to my existing 105 year old house. Within a budget. Our house, though well maintained for a house of it's age, is well, old. It has issues and yet, it is a pretty cool house: brick foursquare, walk up attic with dormers, simple but finely crafted woodwork, hardwood flooring, a huge pantry, decent basement (for it's age). The great thing is I have gotten some good and "thinking outside the box" type of ideas from Sarah's books and a lot of things I can do on a budget.

So, back to my title. All this cleaning out has lead to a priority assessment of our goods. Family heirlooms we keep - we really don't have too many nor are they big items so I think it won't be hard to find a way to keep those things that are beautiful because they were given to us by people we loved or remind us of people we love.

Case in point: Our jadite salt and pepper shakers. About 7 - 8 years ago my husband (who is notoriously hard to shop for and even harder to hide gifts from) mentioned he liked these particular salt & pepper shakers because his grandpa had a set. Since he isn't often sentimental, I struck upon the idea that this might make a pretty decent gift for him that he wouldn't expect. So I started searching ebay and found several sets with fairly high price tags because back in the day Martha Stewart was giving jadite a little comeback in popularity. I can be a little overly frugal in the gift department and I waited for several months for prices to come down - they didn't and I finally ended up buying a set from a local antique dealer for about 1/2 the ebay price (but still a decent amount for salt & pepper shakers).

Fast forward to this morning as I'm picking up the kitchen I notice how banged up the tops are (despite their heirloom-like status, we thought we best would honor his grandfather by actually using the shakers) and I thought, hey, I'll go out on ebay and see if they have any new tops for these. So I type in the search and a huge list comes up with these jadite shakers all selling for around $20. Now to be fair, most of these are reproductions, since it is often inevitable that when something gets popular again, they will reproduce it on a mass scale, however it looked as if even the originals had fallen to less than 1/2 the price I paid for my little set 7 years ago.

So was it a bad investment?

I am sure if my intention was to make a quick buck, I certainly should be frustrated at the fickleness of the supply and demand system BUT I don't feel in the least cheated out of anything BECAUSE of the VALUE we've received from these shakers. So call me crazy but I realize this purchase was one, (unlike many others we've made) that despite market factors, was a wise investment for us. You see, I bought them because they reminded my husband of his grandfather and his memory is priceless. Every time we use them (and they sit always on our dining room table) it is an opportunity to remember his grandpa. Occasionally they will bring to my husband's memory a story of his grandfather to tell our boys and an opportunity to pass on a bit of history even though none of us got to meet Grandpa Boyce.

Now I know we all love our gadgets but I've spent a lot of money (and by association, time) on items that never will give me the same value as a silly pair of shakers has given us. In fact, if we aren't careful some things can really rob us of value even if the price is seemingly low.

So one of my new purchasing criteria is going to have to include the concept of inherent personal value to my already short list of beautiful and useful.

P.S. (I didn't find any new tops for sale so I guess we'll just have to look at the dented ones a little longer).