Old vs New

IB hadn’t even unpacked after our holiday before he was rummaging in the cupboard for his toolbelt and foraging in the garage for his power tools. There wasn’t any particular DIY emergency just a very big, clunky 1950’s radiator that needed to be evicted from our spare room.  Taking it out is not as easy as it might seem given its cast iron! Still it gave IB an opportunity to use some of his more manly DIY tools and after an hour or two of sweating, swearing and sawing, out it came!

 

 

 

 

So I have yet another item for ebay.  IB’s starting to get concerned about the size of the ebay pile now and I think I might be in trouble if I don’t start listing stuff soon

Anyway as part of my research on the value of cast iron radiators, I found this website – castironradiators.biz.  Some of these radiators are fab, not right for our house, but still fab!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vintage Fayre………

Hurrah, I’ve finally finished painting the bathroom walls!!! Although sadly there is still no other progress on the bathroom renovations to report, other than hunky plumber man has now submitted his quote for installing the new pump for the shower. He’s coming back on Friday to do the installation and for those of you who remember what happened last time he was here, suffice to say, I will not be doing ANY painting on Friday.

So last  weekend, with the bathroom painting out of the way, I had a choice, I could either start putting primer on the guest bedroom walls or I could take advantage of the free listings weekend on ebay and try to get rid of some of the ‘vintage’ light fittings that we took down shortly after we moved in here. Things like…………………..

 

Exhibit A

 

And this…………………….

Exhibit B

 

And this beauty!!!!

 

Exhibit C - the old reading light from above the guest bed

 

 

What made me smile about the listing process was that I described all of these lights as ‘vintage’ as if that somehow makes them more desirable and even more interesting than plain old ‘second-hand’ lights. I’m guessing that If I’d had to sell them ten years ago before ‘vintage’ became so popular and powerful a sales term, I would have listed them as second-hand because that’s exactly what they are.  As I clicked on the button to upload my listings, I wondered how it has come about that now when something is described as ‘second-hand’ it kind of sounds like something unwanted and neglected, whereas if its described as ‘vintage’ then it sounds like you’re getting a piece of history…… Anyway, lets hope someone wants a piece of this house’s lighting history!

I also spent some time at the weekend browsing a fantastic website called era of style, which specialises in selling antique  furniture. They have the coolest desk on there with a proper leather worn top like you see in the banks of old western movies. IB loved the desk, although I told him if we get the desk then we’d have to get the big old-fashioned ‘vintage’ leather swivel chair to match! At this point he made me close down the web site and hand over the laptop! I’m desperate to take a road trip down to see the actual shop, not least because they have café  but not just any old café  its described on their website as a ‘vintage’ tea lounge (now see what I mean, substitute the word second-hand for ‘vintage’ and it doesn’t work does it?). There’s a photo of it on the website and it looks like something from a 1940s movie, it’s  got an old-fashioned wooden counter, with proper glass cake stands and because it’s located in the Bexhill way , it’s even got some battered old leather chairs which look like they came out of old steam trains. I love it and can’t wait to go and have tea and cake.

Actually at the moment I’m got a thing about afternoon tea and cake (well I’ve always had a thing about cake, particularly chocolate cake!). Last week I went to Homesense which is the discount home furnishings shop owned by TK Max. I was on the hunt again for some you – know-whats for the living room windows, but ended up buying an old-fashioned glass cake stand instead.

 

Glass 'Non-vintage' Cake Stand

It’s not vintage, more a 21^st century take on the concept but I love it. Last year, I bought a proper old-fashioned china tiered cake stand and now I’ve got my eye on a proper china tea-service.  This is comical for two reasons, firstly I have spent years hating both crystal AND china and secondly, I don’t even drink tea! But I do love to bake and I love the idea of having family and friends round for afternoon tea and being able to present my homemade scones, sponge cakes and sandwiches on proper old-fashioned cake stands and pouring the tea into flowery china cups. Of course I’m jumping the gun again, because the kitchen and diner are currently in no fit state to entertain. Still there’s nothing wrong with browsing eBay for some ‘vintage’ china tea-cups, is there???

By the way,  for anyone who is still following my curtain saga (stop reading if like me you’ve had enough of the whole thing!), I did go to the discount fabric shop as recommended by my sister-in-law. But I went on Saturday and so ended up having to take my six-year-old son with me……………. not such a smart move. I had to cut my visit short because after a half hour he got bored and wanted to go home or to the playground or just to anywhere that didn’t involve acres of coloured fabric! Unfortunately, I broke one of the golden rules of motherhood and forgot to put any ‘incentives’ in my bag for him to stay (by which I mean jelly sweets, pomme bear crisps or white milk chocolate buttons!).  Anyway, I’m leaving IB in charge of the boys this weekend while I go back! Wish me luck!