Dining Set = Happy Mandie!

I've been keeping my eye on the classifieds in the local paper for stuff we want/need.  One of the things we (and by "we" I mean "I") wanted was a for real dining room table.  I came across an ad for one that sounded like something we'd want, but I passed it up because a dining room set wasn't one of our priority items.  Well, I kept seeing it in the classified week after week, so I figured, "what the heck" and told Jim about it.  We decided to call to see if they could send us a pic of the set or if we could arrange to come see it.  We ended up playing phone tag with the sellers, and I was the last to call, so I figured that meant they sold it.  Another week went by, and I saw the same ad in the classifieds still.  I gave them another call, and finally managed to talk to them.  Fortunately, they just lived in the town over, and we arranged to see the dining set that night.  We liked what we saw, but Jim and I wanted to sleep on the decision.  We called them the next day to tell them we'd buy it.  I'm glad we did because 9 other people called them that day inquiring to come see the set.  9!  After being advertised in the paper for a month with little interest, 9 people wanted to see it the day we decided to buy it!  Whew!  We lucked out, and I think we got a good deal.  We paid $550 for a dining table, 6 chairs, 3 leaves, table pads, and a buffet.  We borrowed the van from Jim's parents, and we picked up the set this morning.  We had to wait until this afternoon when my dad arrived to help unload the table.  It is a heavy son-of-a-gun!  When talking with the sellers, we discovered that they knew the previous owners of our house.  Their children went to school together.  I guess it is a small world after all.  Here are some pics for you see.

This is the buffet.  I love the details on the front doors.

This is the table with no leaves and 6 chairs.

The seller's said it was hardwood, but they are not sure of the type...

maybe oak.

They had bought it from a little old lady that said she bought the set years ago from a dept store called O'Neils.

And now for my favorite part:

The table can expand to seat 12!

This will come in handy when I start to host parties and holiday dinners.

As you can see, even with it fully expanded, we still have room.

We need to find 6 more chairs though first.  :)

I feel more like an adult now!  lol.

We also stopped by a garage sale today and bought a 6 1/2 foot artificial Christmas tree for $4.  Score!  We needed to get one this year anyways for our first Christmas in our house.  When we got home, we put on some Christmas music and assembled the tree to make sure all the parts were there...they were.  Yea!

I'm just so excited and wanted to show everybody my new/old dining room set.  :)

*EDIT*
Here are pics of the table without the chairs so you can see the table details better.