Architectural Salvage New Built In
The best/worst thing about having a new/old home is finding a spot for everything that has been accumulated/collected over 30+ years of adulthood. Mr. G and I are huge music lovers and we needed more attractive storage for all our CD’s.
My first inspiration was a chest of drawers the right size to hold them all. We found this lovely piece with Bakelite handles and Art Deco design at a local junk shop/house. Surprisingly it fit in the back seat of a Camry and I was able to haggle the shopkeeper down a few bucks.
Well after cleaning it up and Mr. G uses his mastery of the english alphabet to get all the CD’s unpacked and sorted into the drawers imagine our disappointment when we realize the dang drawers are so heavy it is almost impossible to slide them open. Well pooooo, back to the drawing board.
I had been perusing the internet for home salvage sites for a while. Finally a few weekends later we had the time to check one out. Talk about vintage sensory overload. It was acres of doors, metal trim, sinks stoves and more. We must have walked around that place for more than a hour and just when we thought we had seen enough there it was, a built in bookshelf torn out of a home and waiting for us to find it. Now this wasn’t cheap by any means, so the should we and shouldn’t began. Where would we put it, can we afford it etc. Mr G always the voice of reason says lets go home and think about it. I’m a bit frantic fearing it wont be there long.
Hours later we haven’t spoken of it. I cant get it out of my mind and finally ask and Mr. G is all like that thing is huge how would we get it home. I’m all like no clue lets just buy it and figure the rest out later. Not the direction Mr. G wants to head. A little while later calmer heads prevail (a.k.a. Mr. G), we take measurements and head back to see if it will work.
EEEEE!!!!! It will fit and I haggle once again and get 75 bucks knocked off the price. (I love to haggle as you will see in the future) We rent a truck from Home Depot at a very decent rate I may add. It gets home in one piece and there it sits for a good couple months before we have time to mess with it.
Finally Mr. G has time to sand a little, mend a little, buys a little trim and paint. I’m fairly giddy with anticipation to get this thing into the house. If you cant tell yet I’m not that great at waiting.
Okay!!!!! We are getting closer it is at least in the house. Mr. G gets it all sanded mended and trimmed out……what do you mean it isn’t getting painted tonight. BAH!!!!!
So I wait another day barely able to stand it. Mr. G gets it painted and it is all finished. By the time he gets finished I honestly think it looks like it came with the house and not only were we able to get all the CD’s but the DVD’s also, plus a bit of memorabilia.
And now I can breath and go obsess about something else.
See ya Folks
Come by and visit the shop anytime
http://www.etsy.com/shop/HoneyStopTheCar
New Year Old Treausres
With the new year I have decided to take this blog in a bit of a different direction for a little while. I will admit this blog thing is a bit harder and more overwhelming than I originally thought. I will back up a bit now and take a few baby steps.
To start off lets take a peek at a few items that haven’t made it into the etsy shop.
Onion / Potato Bin
This interesting piece was totally unknown to me until a customer commented on it at my recent market booth.
Atomic Magazine Rack
This little gem was found at the Salvation Army in Austin while on my anniversary trip this past September. Thanks Mr. G for letting me pop in.
Spindle Bed
A bed that has been hanging out in our garage for way too long. Would love to see someone repurpose or refurbish.
Please stay tuned to this channel for more treasures and stories behind my hunting trips.
To see what is going on at the shop check out http://www.etsy.com/shop/honeystopthecar or like the shop on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/HoneyStopTheCarVintage
Till we meet again, Diane
Old Friends
I must give props to my husband Mr. G for this blog. The contents here with in would not have been possible if not for his wonderful gift to me. We had a very dear friend of mine to our home for a visit. “Lolly” and I grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood of Dallas. We lost touch many years ago and thanks to technology and Facebook we reconnected a few years ago. Since then we have met up a couple times somewhat on the fly. A quick meeting here and there. But this time it was a solid two days of just friends.
Music, memories and laughter, the same as when we were kids. We would spend hours in her house pilfering her brother David’s albums. Frozen orange juice concentrate straight from the can was our Slurpee when we couldn’t collect enough pop bottles to turn in for money. Along with another friend we skipped school and got caught. Lolly was a friend who never judged me, she was a safe haven from an abusive mother and a lesson in how families really interacted. No matter how many times her lovely parents found me at their home I was never run off to my own house. I was able to witness how parents should act towards kids and witness what a loving couple truly was as they left in the evening to go dancing together.
From our imaginations running amok in the playhouse out back, to the trampoline a couple blogs away and the trees that lined our street we were inseparable for a few years until a job transfer tore her away from the old hood. I was inconsolable for a long time and still feel the pain of the parting today. I have thought of many friends over the years wondering where they had ended up in life but never as much as Lolly. Despite everything we have been through in our adult lives she is still the same girl. Humor was and is a mainstay in her life and she almost succeeded in causing the same sort of accidents that would send me home as a youngster to change my clothes.
I have had the good fortune to move back near the old neighborhood, she lives in another state. It was a magical weekend having her here and memories that will last till the next visit. Hopefully the next wont take decades to occur.
Lolly you are a true treasure. To our partner in truancy, may she rest in piece,
I know she was smiling down on us the last couple days.
Estate Sale Adventures
Since I have started hitting weekly estate sales I have had a mishap or two among all the fun. And this week I about had a throw down with a rude ole bat.
Mr. G and I had come upon this sale purely by accident while running errands one rare Friday morning Mr. G had off work. (Hence you may see the correlation to my blog and shop name) We scoped out the neighborhood and saw the line already to the curb. Mr. G not feeling all that patient this morning opted for us going to have a coffee first instead of waiting in line and had a nice convo with the cafe dude about tower speakers. Upon our return we entered the house then almost wish we hadn’t. The smell was so foul it was a little difficult to concentrate on what you were looking for. I had noticed all the signs of rules as we entered but yet no warning of the pet smell. (No coveted linens will be purchased at this sale)
Well I’m nothing short of a trooper so onward to the kitchen, usually my first stop. Mr. G heads for the garage then hunts for albums. From the kitchen there was an awesome wet bar with gold foil wallpaper with blue flowers, really should have snapped a couple of pics. I notice in the formal living a pair of end tables, these we don’t need but aren’t they unique looking. Moving along I finish the rest of the home and track down Mr. G to see what he has found. He isn’t impressed and is ready to go. I have found a few little things and I’m waiting in line while Mr. G looks out in the backyard. Again I see the end tables. Humph, I say to myself those really are cool looking, I look a little closer at the front, there are these retro geometric shapes covers in the front. I think they are covers for doors to a cabinet in the table but no handle to be found. How odd?? I finally squat down and stick my finger into a hole of the cover. OH!!!!! They aren’t cabinet doors they are stereo speaker covers!!!!!! Oh jeepers where is Mr. G???? I’m practically dancing in place when he shows back up and I tell him about the speakers. Twenty bucks a piece……as we inch forward in line we are discussing, is it worth it, can they be hooked up to our current stereo, we have perfectly good speakers now…..and on and on till we come to the moment of reckoning check out time. OK we get ’em….BAH it is cash only and we don’t have enough. Mr. G leaves to go get cash while I guard the speakers.
Here is the catch, one of the signs I mentioned before said no holds or saving stuff you want. You want it you buy it right then. I’m a nervous wreck someone will want the speakers before Mr. G gets back with the cash. Murphy’s Law, nobody else wants something till you do at an estate sale. I wait and I wait, studying everyone in line, don’t look nothing here to see….LOL. While I’m waiting I hear several people ask about a pile behind the cashier, her response every time “I don’t know there are no holds or saving”. A moment or two later I hear a voice say “hey that’s mine” and as I turn around she snatches an item out of a preteen boys hands as his mother looks on. Really???? No Way??? Did I just see that??? The mother is standing there mouth hanging open seemingly speechless. Well my mommy instincts kick in and I proceed to tell the old bag she had no right to do that and she needs to read the rules and abide by them or bring someone to help her like I do. “Oh you mean your unemployed husband that has to go get cash”. Now I’m the one speechless, I turn to look at the cashier about that time my husbands gets there and being a southern lady and respecting people older than myself I didn’t smack the “old bat”.
The “old bat” checks out and starts hauling her pile to the car. I mention the incident to the cashier and she says the lady is a valued repeat customer she couldn’t say anything. I’m Sorry???? Rules Are Rules.
Well at any rate we got the awesome speakers and away we went. At home I wasn’t about to let those things in my house till they were cleaned and free of pet smell.
Feast your eyes on the glorious addition to our mid century castle.
Honey Stop The Car! Estate Liquidation 