If you enjoy shopping for antiques and collectibles, then you'll be interested in a new business, RePurpose Estate Services, recently opened by Jean Allen of Monroeville.
RePurpose is a direct affiliate of RePurpose Estate Services of Northville, Mich., a company owned and operated by Cari Cucksey, host of the HGTV show “Cash & Cari.” (Cucksey visited Fort Wayne in September to speak at a fundraiser for the Carriage House.)
Allen's business is the third nationwide to affiliate with RePurpose Estate Services and the only one in Indiana.
This is great news for people who love to go to estate auctions but don't like to wait for hours to bid on something only to have it shoot out of their price range.
The difference between an estate auction and an estate sale is that, with a sale, everything is tagged with a price, “not that there is not negotiation,” Allen said. The sales usually are set up in the seller's house and garage.
Unlike a garage sale, buyers will find more antiques and collectibles at an estate sale than clothes and shoes. Allen works with clients to determine what needs to be discarded or donated. The rest she prices to sell in the estate sale.
Allen's first estate sale will be 10 a.m.-5 p.m. July 13-14. For security reasons, she won't disclose the location to the public until Thursday when it will be posted on www.estatesales.net.
I, however, got a sneak peek Tuesday, when Allen and the son and daughter-in-law who are selling his mother's estate were at the house organizing goods.
They did not want their names used for fear someone would figure out where the house is, but the son said Allen has made a tough process easier.
Going through his mother's belongings and deciding what to try to sell and what to donate is an emotional experience, he said, adding that Allen helped in making those decisions.
His mother, an avid collector, has moved to assisted living and took the best of her collection with her, leaving behind a house full of interesting and beautiful possessions including:
•Dozens of wooden rolling pins.
•A huge porcelain stove still operational and in mint condition, with the instruction booklet.
•A beautiful upright wind-up mantel clock, still working.
•Antique quilts.
•A set of china.
•Railroad beacons.
•A pie safe.
•Crocks.
•A painted oil lamp.
The pieces are arranged to be easily viewed.
Allen has planned the flow so the public enters through the front door, can go upstairs and into the backyard and back to the living room, where they pay before exiting out the front door.
What doesn't get sold likely will get donated to a charity.
However, if Allen sees a piece that can be repurposed or refurbished, she will purchase it from her client and store it in her barn in Monroeville. For example, she acquired a 1940s vanity with a big mirror that had a burn mark on the top. She plans to sand it and paint it hot pink; hopefully it will find new life in a little girl's room.
Another example: She and her husband purchased a dresser for $5, restored it and sold it for $300. It helps that her husband does woodworking.
Periodically she has barn sales.
Allen got interested in the business after helping her parents downsize after 38 years in the same home. She recognized a growing need for the service as baby boomers either downsize their parents or downsize their own home.
Her service takes care of every step in the process, from organizing the sale, researching and pricing items, advertising, processing payments and even emptying and cleaning out a house.
For more information on RePurpose Estate Services, call 446-5083 or email RePurposeFortWayne@ gmail.com.
