Monday, April 29, 2013

Last Weekend In April and It Feels Like Spring...Finally!

The weather was beautiful all weekend...sunny and it reached 65 degrees both days! We went to lots of sales on Saturday, drove with the windows down (sometimes) and even stopped for Slurpees (a sure sign that warmer weather has arrived!) The first sale was a complete bust, simply because they advertised that the sale would start at 9 am and when we got there, at 9:15 am, they told us they would not be ready for another hour. Judging by what we saw out in the yard so far, we decided not to come back so...off we went to the second sale on our list.

This was the sign for the second sale. We saw lots of people walking out with things and that was a good sign. There was some old stuff but not a lot of what we wanted. We did get a couple of Christmas items and a couple of old cookbooks. Oh well! We had 8 sales on our list and we were hopeful so...off to the next sale!


When we arrived, there was no sign out front but it was the best sale of the day! In the garage, there was a great end table, circa 1950's, in great shape except that it was missing two legs. They were only asking $1 for it because they did not figure anyone would want it without the legs. Fortunately, we actually have a package of four extra legs so we bought it! They even had a matching lamp table that they reduced to $3 since it was a set. We are now the proud owners of both! We got a lot of other cool things here too!

Our new tables!

Monica checking out the barware in the basement!

This was the floor in one of the rooms upstairs! Pink and light blue tiles with sparkly designs in the tiles!!!

This was a warning sign on a large canister in the room with the pink and blue tiles. We were careful and we kept it "this side up"!


 The next one we went to was a quick stop. There were a few cool lawn chairs in the backyard but, by now, we had no more room for larger items in the car. There was nothing else to consider and we moved along to the next sale which had a nice friendly pink Tag Sale sign on the lawn. That's Monica, anxious to explore the inside of the house. We did get a few things here but not too much. 

This was the paper that lined the drawers of a dresser upstairs. Pretty cool. 

Rob behind the bar looking for barware!


Old tile floor in the basement by the bar. Lots of basement bars today but no basement pencil sharpeners at all! 

A cool old refrigerator!

The next stop had lots of records and books but not much more. We picked through and found two old Christmas records that we wanted. The family running the sale were sitting outside barbecuing hamburgers. If THOSE were for sale, we would have bought some. They smelled so good!

Another Estate Sale! 

The basement was packed! Rob saw the blow mold Santa and was immediately drawn to it. Unfortunately, it was broken and crumbling near the base. There was a lot of old stuff here but it was so overpriced. We managed to come home with a few things from here. 

The last stop was advertised as a mid-century modern house. Yes, the furniture was old. No, most of it was not our style. Everything there was marked 50% off since it was late in the day but all that was left was the furniture. There was one thing we really loved though...

Wow! Look at this bar! It was in such great shape but we do not have room for it right now! There was a great bar light that Rob wanted but it was only being sold as part of the bar. Look at the random colored tiles on the floor. 


In addition to the two end tables we brought home, here are our other finds:
Some holiday items including some old "angry" reindeer, some old Easter egg decorating items and a really nice Mica house that we found by accident at a roadside garage sale. Monica spotted in on the table as we were driving! 

Glassware, plastic chip and nut dishes, some cool old pickle jars and a great metal picnic basket!

Some records


Magazines, books and pamphlets


An old Schaefer beer tray. This was in the basement of one of the houses and seemed hopelessly stuck beneath an identical tray. Rob found an old potato masher in a utensil drawer and managed to separate them. The lady running the sale asked he found this tray because there were two downstairs that she could not pry apart! We did not take the other one since the top one had a lot of rust.


Vintage greeting cards. The last one had ducks...a reminder of our wonderful day ...and our adventures together amongst the ducks.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Birthday Weekend Estate Sales

We targeted six sales for our Saturday adventures. Three looked very promising and the other three were okay and either near the other sales or close to our house. 

This was our first stop and we thought that we would find loads of items here but the pickings were slim out there (and everywhere we went!!!!!)  This might have been the best of the bunch and even though there was not that much, it was a cool house!

This house DID have the pencil sharpener in the basement!!!! One plus!

House after house was just filled with mostly new items and not much to pick through!


Sign, sign, sign...but not that much to bring home!

 We did enter this sale and we survived!


Since we both took a day off from work on Monday we decided to hit another sale and the flea market on Sunday since the Saturday sales were not much to speak of and we have Monday to do our household tasks like shopping for produce, laundry, etc, which we do together :) 

 Monica checking out the puppets at the flea.

 Rob looking for a deal! It was really cold out...brrrrrrrr!

Taking a break at the flea market. There is a train trestle above us (goes to the city, no change at Jamaica. By the way, the city = Manhattan to Long Islanders). Not much going on at the flea market except overpriced items that we find elsewhere cheaper and water damaged records (though we found a few items) so on to the tag sale! 

Tag Sale today!!!!

Monica poses by the house. She is there by the door! Hi Monica! 

 Monica looking through the rubble.

 Trying on hats!

Rob looking at the books in our favorite room; the sun room in the back of the house.

LOOK!! There were windows all the way around, this must have been the party room! It would make a great tiki room!

Dig the ceiling!

Rob showing off the party room! Monica loved the credenza which was not in our budget (and no room for it either).

The credenza, it was $300!!!!

The kitchen had knotty pine cabinets and and this cool counter top and back splash. 

Pink and gray bathroom!

Cool floor! (dirty but cool!)


Some of the items we got this weekend!
 Books and  pamphlets. The Children's Digests are from 1954

 Old BIG size coloring books.

Children's 45's

More 45's

Games. 


Many records, books, record holder and swizzle sticks.

Christmas record and Christmas place mats.

Vintage ketchup and mustard squeeze bottles.

 A glass ornament and some sputniks.

International house of Pancakes ashtray, some pez and match books.

Vintage frames complete with new relatives (who we do not know!)