Shellac, old houses (pic)

I love old houses but they have their quirks. I have an original kitchen pantry/cupboard/hoosier built-in that has its original finish, shellac. The first summer we were in this house I went to grab one of the coffee cups I had stored on the counter and it wasn't going anywhere. I gave it a good yank and it finally gave way...what the ****?!! I thought someone had glued the cups down. When talking to our neighbor, we laughed at his experience with their counter top...glued-down cups. With some investigation I found out the finish was shellac which was the common finish at the time our houses were built. It's about the prettiest finish there is but it has its drawbacks and stickiness during really hot, humid weather is one of them. Waxing with paste wax helps stop this tug-of-war. I didn't wax it this year yet and this week I've been wresting with the cups again. I don't want to mess with the nice finish on the rest of the cupboard but I think I'll be putting something else on the counter top or perhaps put down doilies first. I wonder if the use of doilies were more out of necessity rather than decoration in the "olden" days.

Garden update: (pics)

WEATHER: The weather was finally nice last night. What a relief. I spent about an hour playing with fireflies (no fireflies were harmed during this play) and enjoying the light breeze in the dusk hours.

GARDEN UPDATE: Since my last garden post I've added more landscape lighting and a fountain. The plants are filling in nicely. I still need to add the bluestone around the garden. The heat really took the wind out of my sails. I have to do something about that white on the garage side of the garden. It's blinding. My thoughts were to put wood lattice across the whole side. That would be expensive, though. Painting it darker is not an option as that happens to be vinyl siding and painting it darker absorbs heat and can make it warp (so I've heard). I wonder if 2 more sections of fencing along the garage would look silly. PS See server problems below picture.

SERVER PROBLEMS: I'm quite frustrated with VistaPages, the server for my home webpage http://www.eriesargonaut.com. Half the time there is a "connection refused". Half the time I can't upload my pictures. Most of my pictures on this blog link to my home website. I'm sorry for any inconvenience from them not loading half the time. I put in an issue ticket a few days ago and they still haven't repsonded. I did it again today, still nothing. Not good business.

"Behind the Mantle" 1924 Erie Building Permit

Not only is finding things in your wall fun, it's informative. We wondered if our mud porch was original to the house. According to this permit, the permit was issued for: enclosing porch. So now we know it was added 7 years after it was built.

What Would Happen?

I saw a car commercial where this supercharged car is at a toll booth and it reminded me of the first time I went through one of those things. It was on the Chicago turnpike with my husband. Somehow I never encountered one before ( I'm not a city girl) and it was confusing to me. Three lanes suddenly turned into about 8 lanes, some for EZ Pass drivers, some for trucks, some had green lights, some had red lights. Decisions, quick! Which one! Watch out for the other cars! and I wasn't even driving! To my horror, my husband didn't slow down until the very last minute, when we came to a screeching halt, he tossed the coins out the window, they hit the tray, slid down the slots and without hesitation he floored the car at the precise moment so that the arms blocking the way rose just in the nick of time. My head was whiplashed back during acceleration, being caught totally off guard. I looked over at him in bewilderment as he shot back up to speed with the skills of a Nascar driver. I wondered what was wrong with him, but then noticed that everyone was doing the same thing, jockeying for a return from 8 lanes back to 3 lanes. I think Chicago people live for the toll booth so they can beat their record time, like some challenge. I'm so glad I wasn't driving because first of all I may have gone into the EZ Pass or something and I wonder what would happen to you? If I picked the other lane I wouldn't have known about having the correct change to toss in the tray, then what? I don't think Chicago people would forgive a naive driver for holding up the show. I try to avoid any areas that you have to toss coins, I don't think I have the skills.

Someone Actually Got Paid For That

The surface road and parking areas up in the Summit's shopping area are just dumpy. I can't get over how much money is being fed into that area and they can't keep up on the roads and fix those badly planned parking lots? Wegmans seems to be able to do it. Their roads are perfect and their parking area freshly painted and landscaped. Summit is a turn-off to tourism. Someone actually got paid for planning those lots up there. Awful.

"Behind the Mantle" New Process Co. 1928

I think the New Process Company is Blair. The Blair ad from yesterday said New Process Company, also. There is scribble on this but that's part of the charm. The ladies that lived in our house all of their lives until a couple of years ago are in their 80s now. (We are just the second owners of the house.) That means these were scribbled on when they were just youngsters. This has a date of 1928 on it.

Grass Is Always Greener...not

I sat out on the deck, in my puddle of sweat
I was eating an orange by the way
I was dreaming of Californ-i-a, no humidity that a-way
Then out of the computer and streaming radios waves, My HomeTown Radio played.
106 degrees in my old California town, in Erie I think I'll stay.

Ok, I already know I'm no poet.

"Behind the Mantle" Blair Ad 1920's

We found this postcard/advertising from Blair behind our mantle. Most everything from behind our mantle dates in the 1920's. I believe Blair is still in business in Warren, PA, right? So few of the ads I have found are still in business.

From Yard Sale to Ebay$$, $2 turns into $325

Here is another of my eBay successes (I've had my share of failures, too).
I bought several ceramic cats at a yard sale a few years ago. They were covered with years of what looked like, kitchen grease and dirt. I took the whole box of them at $1 apiece. I ran them through the dishwasher and noticed these two seemed to match. I went to the book store and looked up vintage collectables and found these two listed as Hagen-Reneker of Monrovia, CA and that they were part of the Designers Workshop of Hagen Reneker. I got over $125 for the big one, "Fluff" and over $200 for her baby, "Puff". I corresponded with an expert on HR collectibles and he stated it was rare to see a Puff without a broken tail. I hated to part with these two.

"Behind the Mantle" Sacred Heart Ushers 1925

A bit of history discovered "Behind the Mantle". This brochure was from the "First Annual Banquet", Sacred Heart Ushers Bowling league, April 21st, 1925. Recognize any names?