Craigslist And Estate Sales Are My Friends

Yes, indeed they are.

I needed to refresh the stock at my antiques booth,

so a couple of weekends ago, my daughter Anne and I hit up several house sales,

and picked up a washstand, ca. 1870, from a Craigslist posting.

(The washstand in our sunroom, awaiting
its beauty treatment.  The top drawer is out.)

We stuffed the minivan; Anne has excellent packing skills.

But we had to pass up an Eastlake bed.  That was painful.

A very BIG Eastlake bed, it was in excellent, gorgeous condition, 

with rails, and already converted to queen size.  I know!

Why didn't we take it?  

I negotiated the price from $275 to $100 

-- it was the last day of the sale, and I was buying other things -- 

but when I stood next to the bed, and realized that it was taller than I, 

and certainly wider than 48" . . . I knew I couldn't fit it into the minivan.

Dang.

But we got an adorable old cherry one-drawer stand, with uber-patina.

And an antique repair to its top.  

(Please excuse the sneakers, dog toy, and vacuum in the picture.

Real life is messy sometimes.  Or, always.)

Not a very professional fix-it job, and it may win the prize for 

most nails used in any furniture repair ever, but I just love it.

It cracks me up.  It would have given my father fits.

Also in our house sale haul, a wonderful old chestnut drop leaf table, 

with three original leaves.  A rare bird, indeed.

The picking gods were with us that day.  It has not just 3 leaves,

but a holder to keep them protected.  I never saw one of those before.

It's possible I have lead a sheltered life.

Haha ... those are Howard's feet on the left; we were in the parking lot behind the shop, 

delivering these things to the booth this past Sunday.  

I have shrunk my booth down to 1/2 its former size, 

so it was a tight fit to get the new things tucked in.  But we did.

The rustic little one-drawer stand sold today, one day after its arrival.

And someone put a "hold" on the drop leaf table.

Yup, house sales are my friends.

And ... I just noticed my giant handbag on the drop leaf table.  Well, at least I didn't leave it there.

The house sale also netted us a nice sturdy country Windsor chair,

and a sweet pine desk/vanity/hall table that needs a teensy bit of TLC

before it's ready for its closeup, Mr. DeMille.

Sunday was such a lovely day.

Maybe Howard and I should have had lunch al fresco in the parking lot!

Side note:  A couple of days after I got the washstand from a home in Chatham, NJ, I got an email from the owner; she had found the bail of one of the brasses in her garage.  Did I want it?  Yes!  I was ready to hunt for a replacement.  Instead ... this lovely lady mailed it to me.  I know people worry about Craigslist dealings, but so far I have only met the very best people in my Craigslist purchases, or sales.  Even the hermits.  :-)

And it isn't much of a collage/mosaic that I've done, but even so ... 

I'm hitching it to Mary's Mosaic Monday at Little Red House.

Confession:  It's been SO LONG since I've done a blog party linkup that I forgot how.

True.

A mind really is a terrible thing to waste, isn't it?  See you soon! 

-- Cass

Where've I Been? Right Here!

Happy Summer!

Well ... it's been a long time since I've updated That Old House. 

Since 'way back in February, in fact, when we still had

several feet of snow on the ground, and ice-encrusted windows.

(shudder)

It's a prettier picture now, isn't it?

(Even with all the weeds.)

Confession:  This picture is more than a month old.  The garden is much

advanced since then, but I am too lazy busy to take a new shot.

Mr. Dylan DiPoochy, dog-about-town, is happy

that trips to The Great Outdoors no longer mean a freezing bippy.

Mrs. Gilda-The-Red, pictured in that snowy shot above,

luxuriates on the Grandma swing in the garden.

Gilda is a Great Outdoors kind of gal.

Dylan?  Not so much.

He likes a nice cushy sofa better than

a patch of warm earth.

To each his or her own, eh?

And that's it for today.

Many thanks for the sweet messages I've gotten over the past

few months, for your wonderful kindness,

and I apologize for just disappearing with no explanation.

Because ... honestly? ... there really is no explanation.

I just ran out of steam.

But I think my supply of hot air is bubbling up again.

I'm back.  :-)

See you tomorrow, my friends!

I'm off to re-stock my antiques booth today.  Pictures to follow!

Love and blessings to all; I wish you a wonderful Sunday ... Cass

Hey! Who You Callin' A Drip?

Lots of snow here.
Maybe lots of snow where you are, too.

Snow on the grass, the driveway, the patio

and piled up against the sunroom.

Yup.  That's Dylan and Anne, below.

Yup.  That's a lot of snow.

(They are in front of a six foot fence.)

Howard, trying to keep up with clearing

snow from paths, so the dogs can get about their business!

Eventually, even when it is still below freezing,

the Sun begins to melt the vintage snow.

And replace that snow with . . . ice and water.

So far, our sunroom windows are managing to fend off

the efforts of the melting ice to storm the barricades,

and sneak into the house.

As for another part of the house,

the ice is being more clever.

Walls are not supposed to look like this:

This is the small wall to the left of my desk, in a little windowed

"bump out" that juts from our study out onto the front porch.

Lots of ice on the flat porch roof is damming up

the melting ice, and the water is snaking its way into the house.

Walls are weeping and paint is peeling.

The ceiling is beginning to look a little . . . umm . . . dampish.

The window frame was running with water a day ago.

What nerve.

When you own a house, especially a house as

old as That Old House, there's always something.

Hey. No point in fretting. It's all fix-able.

As my Mom used to say, 

"If it doesn't bleed, don't worry about it!"

Amen, Mom.

(We -- if by "we" I mean "Anne" -- went up to the 2nd floor window that overlooks the

ice dam, leaned out, and shoved a lot of the ice and snow away.

This has slowed down the drips.  Not counting the ones that dripped all over Anne.)

Stay warm and dry, my friends!  -- Cass

Valentine's Day -- Snow, An Orchid, Spaniels, and ... More Snow

February 14th: Saint Valentine's Day.

Thank you, dear Howard, for the orchid.  It's warming up in the sunroom.
The Fed Ex man braved our snowy landscape to deliver it on time.  :-)

I haven't seen my husband since Wednesday morning, 

when he left for work in New York City, ahead of the big snowstorm.  

It was a stay-in-the-city type of storm, and so he did.  

He'll be home tonight.  

How fitting . . . home for Valentine's Day.  :-)  Or, night.

Nothing says Love like cardboard cut-outs and

a chain of flocked hearts, from Dollar Tree.

I win the cheesy holiday decorating award!

I spent a total of $4 for my decor.

How romantic is that?  For most husbands . . . very.

**********************

So, we have some snow.

You probably do,too.

If you live in the Northeast USA.

Or parts of the South!

The morning was glorious, with ice-coated trees just glistening

in the sunshine.  Those sparkly hills in the distance, below,

are several miles away; I could not stop looking at them!

Glitter! 

And then, there are our dogs, Dylan and Gilda.

Life has become rather restricted for them since the snow!

(If you follow on email, and no video shows up in this space,
you can go to the blog itself for our dogs frolicking in fresh snow.)

If you, like we, have more than two feet of snow from

two weeks' worth of snowfall . . . good luck and stay warm!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Eat some chocolate.  -- Cass

Those Crazy Cut-Ups: Mother Nature and Father Christmas!

A Happy New Year to all!

I'm sure things have been hopping at your home, too,

as time slid into the New Year, and then the 12 days

of Christmas ushered in the season of Epiphany on January 6th.

Our fresh Sunroom tree, back on December 18th, freshly decorated.
You can still see ornament boxes stacked in the lower right corner!
This tree is a Canaan Fir, and took 4 Rubbermaid bins of ornaments,
1,800 colored lights, and one strand of white lights around the trunk.
Howard is a lighting wizard.

*********************************

How was your Christmas?

Ours was lovely,

with both of our daughters and our son-in-law under our roof.  

We had a big party on December 21st, but I took no pictures.

Too busy!

Christmas morning at That Old House: 

Josh and Alida made Monkey Bread for breakfast,

a tradition borrowed from his family.

So good, your brains could fall out!

Anne made her lighter-than-air waffles,

this year gluten-free!

Waffles, real maple syrup, and breakfast sausages.
We don't skimp on Christmas feasting!

 And then, it got cold. 

Really, really cold.

Brass Monkey alert cold.

Our fence, this week, with the Christmas lights still
festooning it, and the thermometer crying "Uncle!"

Our resident red-headed bombshell, Gilda,

is not bothered by the cold at all.

She wears a nice, thick fur coat.

All the time. 

 Dylan DiPoochy, whose coat is rather thin

in comparison, is less happy with the frigid outdoors.

We fenced in a play yard for the dogs; here's part of it,

as seen from the dining room windows:

 They haven't spent much time playing in it.

Gee, I wonder why?

Meanwhile, in the house, Christmas still holds sway

. . . in the front hall: 

. . . in the Parlor: 

. . . and in the Sunroom, where the Canaan Fir

still stands, still in good shape.

I really hate to take down a Christmas tree! 

Sunroom tree, on Tuesday morning, 1/7/14.

Gilda has started to yank ornaments off the tree

and put them on the floor.

I think perhaps she's pushing me into restoring

the house to a more normal state.  Gilda is a very opinionated lady.

She likes to sleep on pillows,

and often tips one over to make a bed for herself.

The other day she used her nose to push a pillow off a club chair

and into a basket of clean folded laundry.

Nice little nest, isn't it?

Happy Epiphany to all!

This season of the church year brings us to Lent, to Ash Wednesday.

How 'bout that?  Before we know it, we will be looking at Spring.

I promise.  -- Cass

******************************

Catching Up!

It's been more than a month since my last blog post.

I know!!!

Crazy, huh?   So what have you all been up to? 

We had a great Thanksgiving; 15 at table this year, which is probably about half what we usually have, but it made for a peaceful holiday, and a quicker cleanup!  As always, Howard wore his turkey shirt.  And for the first time ever, I forgot to get a picture of him in it.

Oh well.

At least I got this fellow, wandering the edge of a nearby road on the Sunday

before Thanksgiving.  Making his great escape, I guess.

We've had too much of this:

Anne, clearing ice off my van.

In the spirit of the season, Anne tried decking the dog with antlers.

Dylan decided to eat them instead.

But bigger brains prevailed.

Get that off, Mr. Smartypants.

After more than a year, the local birds discovered our window-hung

bird feeder.  They are not quick studies, our local birds.

Especially since the local squirrels discovered it at about the same time.

Our fresh tree, in the sunroom.

It's a winner this year -- and a species we have never heard of!

Canaan Fir.  It's wonderful.  If you can find one, grab it.

Do you like all the storage boxes and the white plastic around it?  Hahaha . . . we run a classy joint.

 This is me, singing at church.

OK.  That's a fib.

But what isn't a fib is that it has taken me all these weeks to get into 

the spirit of the season . . . and it's coming none too soon,

as our annual Christmas Grab Bag party is tomorrow.

Yikes.  I've got lots to do.  See you on the other side of Saturday!

-- Cass