Christine Acosta, Neighbor

My husband and I, along with three of our four daughters, live on the Northwest side of St Charles. Our beautiful girls are 22 (getting married next year), 16, 13 and 6. Our girls keep us busy with trumpet, violin, and piano playing (quiet? not so much) as well as other school activies. We also have two "sons", Patrick, a handsome Siberian Husky, and Dexter, a one-year-old "non-shedding" (so I am told), but lovable, Golden Doodle. 

We are the owners of KEY Estate Sales and with a team of 11 (which includes one of our daughters), conduct estate and moving sales throughout Kane, Dupage, Cook, and Lake counties. I am often asked how I started in the estate sale business, so here is my story...

My start began back in the 80s where my parents were part of Antique Market II and III in downtown St. Charles. Being a teenager myself in the 80s, there was nothing worse than spending a Saturday at the antique store trying to sell a 100-year-old commode (current resale value: $200) to an out of town antiquer! In my early 20's, I decided that antiques were NOT for me- I wanted modern! However, with my early experience peddling antique wares, the next logical step for me was to go into sales and marketing and decorate my new apartment with lots of black, chrome, glass heads (current resale value: not much), and  abstract art!

After reaching middle management status five years later, I noticed my interests began to change... I'm not sure how it happened, or when, but something happened. An Singer antique treadle sewing machine cabinet (current resale value: $75) appeared in my Pier One decorated living room! Around the same time I decided that having an office job was not for me and I wanted to be more hands on in the field.

Working in the field allowed me to have a little more free time... Free time on Fridays, that is, to go garage and estate sale-ing with Mom! I don't really know how she did it, but before I knew it, I was having a blast and picking up vintage items and collectibles for my now not-so-modern home.

This is when I began buying at estate and garage sales and selling on eBay. Within a year, my modern decor, now replaced with an eclectic mix of antiques & traditional accoutrements, was gone. I had left my full time job to sell on eBay full time, and in 1997 I conducted my very first estate sale!

I met my husband in 2000, and within a year I had talked him into working with me conducting estate sales. It has been 11 years of working together on a full time basis and at least weekly, one of us is asked, "HOW do you that??" Well I will tell you the secret to working full time with your spouse is.... Respect for each other, really listening to what the other one has to say, tactful honesty, and iPods... :)

We are very fortunate and very blessed to have such a great family, friends and community and we love what we do!

More information about KEY Estate Sales can be found at: www.keyestatesales.com