Project Forty: Transforming the Kitchen, Thanks to a 99p Winning Bid on Ebay

Ebay. What a brilliant idea. The ability to browse nosily through other people’s unwanted goods, watch them, bid on them, win them, click to pay, have them posted to me, all from the comfort of my own home. And sometimes for such ridiculously cheap prices it almost feels wrong. I have bought so many things via Ebay over the years: buttons, lace and fabric; door knobs and lampshades; clothes and shoes; bicycles and bike locks, party supplies, toys and edible glitter, memory cards and phone chargers, and even our car.

This month I found an absolute bargain on Ebay, and when it arrived it was packaged up as you can see in the photo above. Can you guess what it is yet?

Ta Da:

 

Hoe cool is that? The original kitchen taps were hideous, and two separate taps, so completely useless for washing up, and I’ve been wanting to change them for, like, ever.  So I have been patiently trawling through Ebay for months, keeping an eye out for some second-hand traditional mixer taps that weren’t going for silly prices. And then finally, luck strikes. The guy who listed these taps didn’t bother to put the picture up the right way round, which resulted in less interest, and his listing ended on a Wednesday lunchtime (not the best time to end an Ebay listing), which meant, when there were 4 minutes to go, and still no bids, I started to get all excited. At precisely 2 minutes before the end, I placed my bid. £5. I then had an agonising 90 seconds of waiting and watching, hoping no one out-bid me. No one did, and I won the beauty for 99p! (plus £7 P&P but that doesn’t count!) I did a little dance and waited patiently for the postman. And then, when they arrived, the lovely Mr. B fitted them for me! Ah, bliss. All we needed were two new washers, it didn’t take long at all.

Before:

 

God they were so ugly. I felt they really ruined the look of my whole kitchen (but not enough to actually buy new taps with silly price tags of £150+, I’m not that crazy).