You've seen the list. Today we planned to make a dent in it, starting with a table top or two. We had about four hours and planned to look for table tops, legs for the thing, browse the Resource Center (old Atlanta Stockade) and look at some fountains.

First to Owen Marble Shop, Inc in Avondale, Georgia. One table top or two? Marble or Granite? We met Mark Owen and his wonderful lab puppy and prowled around his yard looking at everything. He told us about finishes which radically changed the look of granite.

Marble is a little cheaper but subject to acid wear. Of course that might look good. We found three great granites. We wanted to make sure it contrasted with our non-granite kitchen counter and went with our rug and stuff. We found a reddish, a grayish, and a grayish in a big pattern. We're sold, now for the price.

Our size is 50" by 18 1/4" which gives us a 1" overhang. The prices were from $300 to $375, more than we expected. Maybe a glass top or a wood top? We didn't know it at the time but Gordon's brain was in high gear.

I'll get back to this later. See below.

Then to Goodwill in Avondale. Gordon had seen a $35 coffee table with great legs that might fit "the thing." We'd measured the thing before we left to see how much leg we should show. The coffee table certainly had great legs but we'd have to cut them shorter. We decided to look some more.

Still at Goodwill, Gordon noticed a great leather chair that was part of a sofa / chair combo. It was comfy. We offered to buy the chair by itself. We made a deal. Gordon said, "Put it in JoAnn's office." Did I mention that Gordon hates JoAnn office? Now it has a great leather chair:

It's a recliner with very soft leather.

Gordon's mind was on a roll now, thinking about the office as well as our list. We headed to the Resource Center on Glenwood. We didn't know why. Trust Gordon. I think we're looking for a little table for our living room leather chair. Nah!

Arriving at the Resource Center, I realized Gordon was way ahead of us. Our Goodwill chair is for the office so he was thinking about JoAnn's bookshelves. They are practical but horrible. Gordon and JoAnn headed straight to the big white bookshelves and we bought two of them:

One door is off. The doors slide.
There are 3 glass shelves.
It completely filled up the back of the pickup, with the tailgate down.
We'll pick up the other one tomorrow.

They are huge, beautiful, and already a little beat up. (That saves time and worry.) David and I broke one of the side panes and a leg getting it in the house. I'll have to do a bit of repair work tomorrow. Then we'll get rid of our ugly old shelves.

So far we haven't checked anything off our list but we aren't disappointed at all. We've bought three amazing and practical pieces for the office and they didn't cost much.

Back to the granite table top. I had dreamed of that table top for weeks. I was giddy while we were browsing at Owen Marble Shop. Though the price was more than I thought, the stone was so cool.

The Resource Center had six identical buffets. "Terry, get the tape measure." Before I knew it. We'd abandoned the marble top idea completely and replaced it with a buffet. Gordon was thinking: For the $300 that the granite top would cost us, we could buy some else. So, we did. The advantage is that we can put our counter top clutter into the buffet.

Buffet with the screen. We'll still hang it and move the urn.

The storage will give us a place to hide junk
that's now kitchen and living room clutter.

To the Atlanta Water Gardens.
It's a great place to hang out. We found 3 fountains we liked, about 64" tall about 33" wide. We liked the finishes that looked 1000 years old. The one we liked best looked 2,000 years old and weighed 1,700 pounds. The ones we could afford weighed about 650 pounds.

We experimented with screens to lessen the splashing and sound. We found a huge one, 6 feet wide that would look great on our blank wall. It cost a lot of money but would more than pay in a resale. One fountain is enough for now.

Now for our list.
We can cross off the stone table top for now. But who knows, we might find the very one a the right price.