Jack Pot!!

What a weekend! If you follow our Facebook Page you know we went estate sale hopping yesterday, which is pretty typical for our weekend. The first trip out to Annapolis was a bust - we were lured in by photos of Brasilia dining room furniture in hopes of other mid-century finds... Nope. Bought this little guy for my mom:


Left a bid on the table and chairs and headed for DC...

Where we hit the jackpot!!
This was the perfect sale - four guys with a construction company bought the house full of stuff and are holding a sale to get rid of it all so they can start construction. Nothing was priced, no emotional attachment to things, and motivated sellers. Awesome!



A quick rundown of some of our finds!

Vintage Picasso Print

Two Industrial Art Deco lamps

Magazine Rack

Green Planter

HUGE Capiz Shell Chandelier

Vintage Cosco Kitchen Stool

Hanging Rattan Egg Chair

Care to venture a guess as to how much we spent? I might try and talk Micheal into going back today...

El Jueves Market in Seville, Spain

When in Spain in June we browsed the El Jueves market, the oldest market in Seville on Calle Feria. The eclecticism  is surreal, the El Jueves market sells an endless range of items ranging from elaborate religious iconography and antique glassware to broken toys and used mobile phone batteries. It's an informal market, there are no shops, no physical kiosks, where sellers cart everything in using crates and cardboard boxes and spread their items across folding tables or thin sheets of fabric spread over the pavement.

I was talking with the vendor about the pricing of the large Virgin Mary santos in the above picture when Kari walked up, I expressed interest in the statue she looked at me and with a smile and a laugh said "um, no." I am used to the "that will look great in your office" response. In hindsight I wish I had bought it, because it would look great in my office.

Vintage Seiko "UFO" Watch

I'm not a watch guy, I've only owned a few watches. In the past year I have been looking at buying a vintage watch. I fell in love with the Seiko "UFO" Chronograph, so a few months ago I pulled the trigger and bought a 1976 version. I had bid on this watch, and as the auction neared its close I fully expected to be outbid, to my surprise I wasn't outbid and I won the watch at a significantly lower price than what they normally sell, guess this is the benefit of bidding on an item ending the day after you should adjust your clocks for day-light savings. I'm really excited with the watch, not sure I have a style, but if I do this watch compliments it well.

The watch goes by many names --- Yachtman's, SpeedTimer and "5" Sport Chronograph being the official names --- but is most affectionately referred to by collectors as the Seiko UFO. The watch is an automatic chronograph, so no battery or winding, simply wearing the watch and your daily movement powers its movements. Seiko was the first watchmaker to make an automatic chronograph available, beating Zenith by months, and Valjoux by 5 years.

What's New at F2F

The past several weeks have been a firestorm of activity. I finished and defended my dissertation, Kari is finishing her internship and preparing to start her post-doc, we moved her into a new townhouse, and we spent five days in Seville, Spain. Now with the possibility of life slowing down a little we should be posting more frequently. We have a basement full of vintage furniture, a teak wood patio set, and several unfinished renovations, so we will have plenty to write about. 

Last weekend we endured the heat and ventured to Community Forklift, a nonprofit reuse center for home improvement and architectural salvage. We probably spent over an hour just wondering around, half of that time I spent digging through several deep stacks of trim, the other half was spent daydreaming about things we could build using some of the unique pieces lying around. I think Kari is worse than me, I think most of the time she spent digging through an endless array of boxes filled with tile and playing around in the lighting aisle.

Vintage General Electric metal kitchen cabinets

Apothecary glassware

Vintage iron grates and accessories

A small sample of building materials, there are rows of doors, wood planks and hardwood floors, bathroom fixtures , etc.

Edit: Lowes (Not Home Depot) Thinks They're Funny

...and I laughed and took pictures, so I guess they were successful!