Two of our garden apartment shutters are kaput. I thought it would be easier to pick up a salvaged set rather than repair these, but I have searched high and low and I’ve come up with zilch.

First I went to Eddie’s and Vaccaro’s. Small selections. I figured I could find them upstate at Zaborski’s. I took a trip up there yesterday. There was an entire room full of shutters, but alas, none matched. Then I tried Hoffman’s across the river and they were closed. What a waste!

Oh, wait…it wasn’t a total waste. I did pick up the chunky balusters we’ll be using on our Beacon porch. Eight bucks apiece x 23 = $184 total. I have to strip them, but no modern day trees were harmed and I saved a good $20 apiece. Good thing, since I’ll need that money to pay the carpenter to fix the broken shutters.