Omg, I cannot believe it has been since the summer since I last wrote here. That is no way to start (maintain) a blog! Well, in my humble defense, a lot has happened since then... I quit one, basically, part-time job and started another full-time 8 to 5 job that unfortunately takes me out of the house every day now. What an adjustment that was! I actually have to find clothes that match again and deal with trying to do everything I did at 2pm now at 5pm when unfortunately everyone else is trying to do the same thing... and on top of that I got married. So needless to say it's been quite a busy half of a year! Don't misunderstand I am grateful for both. The new job = more (Collectorating) money, no travel, and no more allnighters trying to meet continuous deadlines and of course love is, well, love and worth every drop of time and effort, but both have really thrown me for a loop time-wise.... In the meantime, though, I have some how found the time to do a ton of Collectorating (chalk it up to priorities). To be honest, I have done way more than I should have done especially given I was leaving one job for the hopes of a better steady income and probably should not have been Collectorating at such a rate... (yeah...well...it's an addiction and I'm an addict...what more can I say?)
But thanks to this Collectorating I have one short story, ok two, to share....
Story 1:
CollectoratorOne and I went to an estate sale in this house in my neighborhood that I have driven past at least 400 times, and from the street I'd have never have known what we were about to walk into... upon entering it seemed like any other estate sale house of the mid-century era. This house, though, was packed with stuff even on the 3rd day. Of course, my first thought was if I don't get my Collectorating habit under control or start selling some of it off now this was going to be me very soon.... once we walked around a bit in the seemingly normal smallish house we realized there was much more to be seen... Not only had the previous owners converted their garage into a room with floor to ceiling shelves all along one of the walls, they had converted the laundry room to include floor to ceiling shelves as well on the main walls. What's more, they had built on what looked like a work room out of the back patio, and also on every wall save the work bench area there were floor to ceiling shelves... Enough shelves??? You'd think... but you'd be wrong... Built onto the back of the work room and down the full side of the large yard was another giant room filled with nothing but shelves. I repeat, nothing but shelves. There were shelves on every wall, floor to ceiling and shelves down the middle. not kidding. I was starting to get the feeling either we were in the most organized lady in the world's house or were in Austin's version of the Winchester House. That back room was filled with nothing but special occasion and holiday decorations (and I mean every holiday including the obvious Christmas from which I got this star topper for my tree
http://www.flickr.com/photos/collectoratortoo/4196146779/). The inside shelves were filled with pottery. Tons of it. In her defense, I pieced together that she at one point had a craft store (the inside bedrooms were filled with craft supplies) an obviously she had made flower arrangements possibly for occasions such as wedding etc, so I am sure all of those decorations and pottery at one point or the other had some practical use. or maybe I am just justifying her obsessions for her...bad habit...
Now the normal (read boring) person would think, "oh no! Is this the tragedy that could become of me? will I sooner than later be known as the crazy-pottery-laden-shelf lady???"...but not me.... no... the first thought I had was this lady had an AWESOME husband who built her all of these shelves to support her habits, and how can I convince mine that we need to replicate this shelving system soon???? my second thought was hmmm maybe it'd just be easier to move into this house instead. Unfortunately, I did not move into that house and I did not have my camera on me to take pictures (lame I know), but I don't think I will ever forget that house and I think you get the picture...
Story 2:
So this story takes us to the NICEST part of town, and the one of the oldest parts of town. I have always pined to live in that part of town ever since I moved here 20 years ago, and it irritates me to no end that many people who move here just want to live close to the center of town and not in those areas just because they are old and full of history and they want to preserve it. As soon as they move in they "renovate" and with that process they typically destroy the most glorious kitchens and bathrooms. Given now that I am commuting again, I see the appeal in living close to downtown, but at the same time I just want to paper the town with fliers that say "save the pink bathrooms...at least... (of course you must be familiar with
http://savethepinkbathrooms.com/ who would, I am certain, be campaigning right behind me... ) but I'd like to make a special plea here in my own forum to save the vintage kitchens (color not specified) as well. It's not that I don't like granite, heck our capitol building is built out of the most amazing pink granite you have ever seen... but not only would I break every glass/plate/bowl I own on a granite counter top, granite just looks, well, just WRONG in old house... there I said it...I might be thrown out of this city for saying it, but honestly someone has to start saying it, so I'll gladly volunteer. If it saves one bathroom, one kitchen then it was worth it.
ok onto the story... so this house was unbelievable and in not in a "crazy shelf" way but in an "omg, I want to move in here right now, what if I just don't leave what will they really do" way. It was 1 story house, but it had a BASEMENT. not a real basement.... we live in Texas which means you can barely plant a pansy in the ground without hitting limestone, so real basements are out of the question, but if your driveway slopes down enough, well you can sort of fashion a basement. CollectoratorOne will probably say no it was more of a workroom complete with an told timey washroom, storage area, and Speakeasy! But I am going to defer to the judges and say basement because it had a door from the main house leading down some kind of creepy narrow stairs into this room... and in every horror movie I have unfortunately ever seen the actors have always gone down those creepy stairs into the basement while the ominous music plays despite the fact that I am yelling "no don't go down there!!!!"
By the time we had arrived at the sale in the main part of the house, it was pretty much picked over, but we did get a chance to tour the inside of the house, which again I'll never forget. Not only was it amazingly gorgeous inside, the lay out and features of the house were like I've never seen in a 1930's house. Every room connected to the next in a square with a big, long, narrow room at the back end of the house and nice generous hall down the middle of the house. In between two of the bedrooms was this amazing, and I mean downright amazing, pink bathroom... I am linking to it here because CollectoratorOne was actually smart enough to bring her camera (I have so much to learn from her still)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/collectoratorone/4041599960/ (check out the related photos as well). Not only was it the largest bathroom I have seen for a house of that era, the tile was just beautiful.
Next, in between the bathroom and the master bedroom were large his and hers CEDAR lined closets which unfortunately no longer smelled of cedar, but you know at one point every time the owners opened up the doors they were like....ahhhh.... Then, if that wasn't enough there was a matching green bathroom off of the third bedroom.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/collectoratorone/4041014641/ Are you seeing now why I wanted to stay there and never leave???
I thought well it can't get any better than those closets and the two amazing bathrooms (why do I ever think that) until we walked into the very yellow kitchen. Anyone who knows me would know that kitchens, well, they should just all be yellow. We did not get any overall pictures of the room, but you can tell from the link below that the kitchen was fully committed to being yellow, and frankly I have had sink envy ever since we left...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/collectoratorone/4042771075/
I don't even want to know when that house goes on the market because I cannot begin to afford it given where it is located. The thing that keeps me up at night though about that house is worrying that someone soon will go in and wreak havoc upon those bathrooms and that kitchen. No they weren't in perfect condition, the tile was a little faded here and there, but those bathrooms and especially the kitchen just needed some love... not granite....
My favorite memory in using these was at my wine and cheese party. My friend from Norway brought about 10 different kinds of hard cheese from Norway and Europe and we filled my kitchen island with trays of cheese, meat and fruit (turns out you can bring cheese into a foreign country as long as it's hard cheese. Who knew?!) I have to say those were some of the yummiest cheeses I've ever tasted. The best, although weirdest cheese, was a bright orange Parmesan cheese. No one wanted to try it because it was as orange as sweet potatoes which is weird because we'll eat Cheddar cheese all day long and that's orange, but this cheese was electric orange. Everyone finally did try it after I wore them all down, and it was gone first!
