Our story so far: We had entered the construction phase of our church conversion project.

# # #

Chapter 18

Selling something on Craig’s List can be a pain in the neck. There’s the picture taking and ad writing that take some time, but the real irritation are the looky-loos. Potential buyers who ask a bunch of arcane questions about the dimensions or color or history and after you’ve answered, they disappear into the ether. Or the ones who send text messages riddled with spelling errors at 11 p.m. or 5 a.m. Or the jerks who show up and dicker over ten bucks.

But Craig’s List is an amazing marketplace full of great deals and unique goods for buyers.

We were buyers, and Tyler was an authority. Not too many years before, Tyler turned a $500 gift into an RV we used for several years to travel the country. He bought and repaired increasingly valuable vehicles until he scored a 1983 Pace Arrow from a retiree in what was now our home state of Wisconsin. After we put thousands of miles on the 454-cubic-inch, 375-horsepower engine, he sold the old turd for a profit.

Now, when we needed nearly everything to renovate the old church, Tyler fired up his CSmart app to shop all Craig’s List listings for Milwaukee, Madison, Rockford and Chicago at the same time.

His first find was the magnificent castle doors described in Chapter 9.

His next conquest: A full kitchen.

# # #

Tomorrow: A look at our new(ish) kitchen. See it here.