Sunday, May 27, 2012

Some Recent Estate Sale Finds

I've been averaging a couple of estate sales per weekend, and I haven't come home empty handed yet.

Here are a few acquisitions --

Two boxes of Super 8 family home movies. It's sad that people don't keep stuff like this.


The house had a bunch of equestrian stuff, and from what I can tell from the reels that have labels, a bunch of the films were shot at riding events in the late 1960s -- early 1970s.  Oddly, at another estate sale the same day I picked up an 8mm projector and screen, and that was before I found the films!


I'll try to set up the projector and try out some of these films to see what we've got.


Yellow bathroom scale for pretty cheap - it's just the right color for our basement bathroom with its light yellow and black tile.   It needs a little cleaning, but I've seen worse.  I love the diamond stenciling.


Unfinished pieces of knotty pine.  I've been in a couple of houses that featured lumber and woodworking tools.  The house I was in today had a very organized shed out back, and I noticed some tongue and groove panels up high on a rack, and sure enough, it was this knotty pine.  I got a very reasonable price on it.  It's unfinished, so while it's not quite enough to cover a wall, even if I do a short four-foot run from the floor halfway up a wall, it will be great to have if I find some more knotty pine.  We have an unfinished area in the basement where I can visualize knotty pine walls.

Vintage dishwasher.

It's the kind on wheels which you move close to the sink, connect a hose, plug in to an outlet and run.  It was cheap, bought during the last half hour of a sale where the old house will be demolished.  Our current dishwasher is broken, and I love the graphics on the face of this thing.



 Is it practical?  We'll have to see.  I hope it will fit in the hole where our current broken dishwasher resides. Worst case, maybe I can scavenge it for parts to fix the built in one we have. Fortunately they're the same brand.  (I haven't replaced our dishwasher because every time I start researching new ones and I look through online reviews by current owners, I tend to learn that the circuit board has gone bad after only a year or so.  We haven't minded hand washing the dishes, but I would like the convenience of a dishwasher again.)

I shot a few photos of things I didn't buy, including this nice aqua oven which was in the house where I found the bread box.  It was priced around $100 -- hopefully someone saved it, maybe on half price Sunday.




Yesterday I saw this 1970s table and L-shaped bench for a breakfast nook.  For just $50 it looked like a good deal for someone.  Today, Sunday half-price day, it still didn't have a taker at $25.  Sad.





This convertible loveseat/sofa was also $50, and the upholstery looked good.  It was marked sold when I arrived this morning for half-price day.



I didn't try to fold it out, but the top part of the back folds backwards and then I think the rest of the sofa flattens out to make into a bed (?).

20 comments:

  1. I can't believe nobody bought the table and chairs for the breakfast nook. Those could be so cool.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was surprised too - I just don't have room for it

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, I love the aqua colour over! I wonder what will be on the movies?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll report back when we try out the projector

      Delete
  4. I too can't believe no one scammed the dinette. It looks like a great deal even at "full" price!

    ReplyDelete
  5. While I love retro, when our dishwasher died we purchased a new Bosch. It's made in the USA, has lasted well, and is super quiet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, if this crazy idea of mine doesn't work out I'll look at Bosch

      Delete
  6. Wow you came home with some awesome purchases!
    I bet you will have a blast watching those old films.

    ReplyDelete
  7. LOVE that scale and I cannot wait to see your project using the KP!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's the problem with picking up not quite enough of something like this unfinished knotty pine wood - now I need to find more!

      Delete
  8. So, dear Uncle, how do you find these estate sales?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Easy peasy Philip, there's an App for that! For my iPhone I use iGarageSale and Garage Sale Rover. Both will plot sales on a map, provide directions, and you can do key word searches by date. From what I can tell, both apps pull data from craigslist.

      Delete
  9. Been away and just catching up on blog comments.

    The projector and 8mm reels are simply awesome! You're VERY lucky to find them. I've been on the hunt for a projector as well and you've whetted my appetite. Can't wait to see a post on the projector when you get it running!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I keep looking at the stuff and telling myself I need to spend some time trying it out, but the weather has been so nice I hate to pass up the opportunity for getting caught up on some outdoor things. I will get this set up and tested, promise. :-)

      Delete
  10. So I went to another estate sale this weekend put on by the same guy who had the house last weekend with the L-shaped brown breakfast nook. He had brought some leftovers from that sale to the next one. I asked him about the nook, and he said that someone did buy it for the $50 price and it's going to be used in a weekend cabin somewhere. Whew! Glad it was saved.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hey Atom for help to get that dishwasher up to snuff again you need to go to automaticwasher.org and contact Combo52 (aka John Lefever) he can give you some tips on how to get the dishwasher running again and he may have parts if you need them. He has been in the appliance repair business since the 1960s and has a bunch of vintage appliances in his warehouse in Beltsville MD. I really recommend you contact him before you do anything with that circa 1970 top of the line dishwasher

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the tip Patrick, I'll follow up on that

      Delete
  12. I would have bought all of that stuff! The breakfast table with benches especially. I'd recover that yucky brown vinyl though. What good sales you have in your neck of the woods. Any sale I go to here in Cali that has anything mid-century, the prices are now sky high! They are on to the trend out here!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've seen a lot of prices climbing here too, but I think the 1970's era stuff like this breakfast table can still be had cheap. Hope it lasts a while before prices rise.

      Delete