Play Day Finds

So I was supposed to go out of town for the weekend today, but don't have to leave until tomorrow. Had the day off and the wife and I decided to hit a local Estate Sale 1st thing. We were 1st in line and got the pick of a few choice things we saw on the pre-sale photos. Here's some pics:

MCM Elgin clock that has already found a place in our family room......

Very cool pink stand lamp. Hmmmm...where to put this one...

Vintage Grundig Reel to Reel tape player. Some collector will want this one...

Classic aluminum cups for everyday use.....

Some awesome kitchen kitsch.........

Johnny Quest come in! Johnny Quest where are you?

and of course, everyone needs a toilet bank to flush their money down....

Tiki Torches & Sunflowers

Saturday found us dropping off our son for an early morning chess tournament which happened to be close to an Estate Sale we wanted to go to. After reading the ad for the sale, our 1st thought was that this one was going to be too clean and not packed enough for us. We couldn't have been more wrong.  One of my favorite finds is a set of Aluminum Tiki Torches. These are very large and look like they would hold enough oil to burn for months...

A little cleaning and some poles are in order.

Another interesting find is this map from 1952 that is 17" x 22" and features maps for canoeing through areas of Minnesota and Canada.

Found some MCM Christmas ornaments......

Picked up some 70's vintage stereo speakers made by Acoustic Research of Boston, MA. These are the model AR-6s and are considered classics to the audiofile. They need work, but will be up for sale on Ebay soon.

The favorite find of the day is this Sunflower needlepoint wall hanging.....it's already made itself at home....just needs some TLC and a hook.

Oh yeah....got a chainsaw and some other man toys.....I'm happy..

Completed Workbench

Previously I had posted about re-purposing a set of 50's vintage GE steel kitchen cabinets into a workbench in my garage. At that point, I had joined two lower cabinets together and attached a nice piece of birch plywood to the top. I now applied a couple coats of polyurethane to the birch plywood, and then took a piece of pegboard that was in one of the other cabinets, painted it and mounted it to the back. Here's a look.....keep in mind that 90% of the tools and kitsch on that wall is from Estate Sales. Maybe I should call this the dead man's workbench. Total cost came to about $40 if I factor in the cost of the cabinet ($12), the plywood ($15), and the pegboard tool holders ($13).

Still have three more cabinets to find  homes for. Somewhere a wall is screaming for storage.....

Re-purposed GE Kitchen Cabinet

A while back I installed some of my 50's vintage metal GE cabinets in our basement. Still have half a kitchen of cabinets remaining. I hadn't had a chance to figure out where to put them. I came up with an idea after the one who must be obeyed kicked me out of the basement after I used some really strong cleaning solvent on one of my guns. I figure that I had just the right amount of space and the right configuration to assemble a work bench of sorts in the garage. I took two of the cabinets, joined them together and put a piece of  2' x 4' x 3/4" finished birch plywood on the top. Here's what it looks like now....

Next step is a thorough cleaning of the cabinet, installing a peg board back, and then applying a coat or two of poly-eurethane on the top work surface.  Stay tuned.....

MCM Estate Sale Treasures

Over the years of Estate Sale shopping we have decorated our house with a variety of MCM and whimsical style decor. Here's a few of them:

The idol needs some restoration work, which will be a summer project once it warms up. 

This is a beautiful Blenko bottle that the One Who Must Be Obeyed fell in love with.

Gnome is one of my latest acquisitions. Fisherman was lonely so I thought the Gnome would provide some needed companionship. 

Lovely oil painting.

Cool vintage 60's painting. 

Bullet ice bucket & Ikabana vase.

Very cool 1960's Skyline.

Enjoy!

Upper GE Cabinet Installation

The GE metal cabinet with the butcher block top was getting lonely. It was seeking companionship from some of his cabin(et) mates. So this morning I stopped at everyone's favorite big box store, Home Depot, for a sheet of OSB. The room where these cabinets are going is our laundry/storage room that was unfinished when we built our house. I added framing and covered the walls with OSB at the time due to the OSB being relatively inexpensive and the ability to drill into it and hang cabinets without finding the studs. This wall had not been covered with the OSB as I had thought I might add a sink in this area and needed to leave it open for the plumbing.....never mind now. I drove the One Who Must Be Obeyed car and used it like a PU, see below......

I had the store cut it down to the width I needed. Good thing because I would have been in deep doo doo trying to fit it in the car....

Moving on....I got the OSB up after making cuts to fit around the dryer plug and the gas line. Made a pass at cleaning the cabinets and then put them up. Here's the final look....

Fifty years of grease and nicotine still show. I used Simple Green to clean them, but they need several more passes and a lot of elbow grease! Anyone have a suggestion for a better grease cutter?

New Home for Butcher Block

The GE cabinet with the butcher block top has found it's new home. Took advantage of my college son being home for the weekend and moved it into the basement where it will function as storage and as a work surface. Replaced an old particle board kitchen cabinet that an old neighbor had given us years ago. It was in sad shape and didn't have as much utility as this one. Got some mineral oil and applied a couple of coats.

Next phase of using the GE kitchen cabinets is to install a bank of the upper cabinets above the butcher block that will span above the butcher block and replace the cabinet above and to the right of it. Stay tuned for more....