I got an English ironing board years ago at a yard sale for almost nothing - it's built like a tank. I make my own covers, so no big deal, but I love all the extra space on top, as its larger than a regular ironing board. I expect it will last the rest of my life easily. I also have an oversized table top version that I leave set up and just set it on my counter cutting area when I need to press something. One of these days I'll be caught up enough on my ongoing quilt projects to tidy up the room and re-organize a bit so I can leave it up all the time....it's going to take me days to tidy it!