JRC's Nightmare on Elm Street (lots of pictures)

[sooth]

Wow, you're not gonna keep these? These are wonderful pieces that would look great in your place!

The lamps are from the 1920's or so, and are not really worth much (I got one of mine for free, and I paid 15$ for the other one). The one with the milk glass shade is probably a "Mogul base" lamp, which uses a very large light bulb with 3 settings (100,200,300w) these can be found at almost all hardware stores for around 5$ or less. Wal-Mart even carries them.

The bed frames look old, and appear to be in great shape. I don't know the age, but I'd say they're pre-1950's? I have no idea how much those might fetch, but new comparable quality beds would be over 300-500$-ish.

The chairs need work, but are decently made older chairs. Not really worth much. If they were fancy pressed-backs or something really ornate/mahogany they'd be worth money, but reasonably, you'd get 10-20$ each as-is.

That one dresser though! OMG. It might not look like much, but it's definitely old, collectible, and could be worth quite a bit. It has the original finish and old mirror (very desirable to antiques buffs/purists like me), and the turned corner decorations are an early feature. It looks like it could be mahogany? Possibly with dovetailed drawers? The style almost looks like it could be as old as the 1840's but I suspect that its probably not quite that old. Probably more like 1860-70s. Price would depend on where you sell it, and if it's the "real deal" and not a cheaper, later repro. I'd never part with this one, since it's exactly the kind of piece I'd buy, but that's just my 2 cents.

The next one is a fairly typical, well made piece from around the 1900's. Looks like 1/4 sawn oak? Very simple, and it would appeal to a bunch of people since it's so basic and non-fussy. If you list it locally, I'd say you could maybe get up to 200$ for it? I'd keep it since it matches your woodwork.

The next one, with the fancy book-matched burled walnut veneer is a typical 1920's piece, made with various woods, and stained to look like walnut. I just got a similarly built piece (an old gramophone cabinet that my dad was getting rid of). My bedroom set is a similar style, but in solid walnut (rather than veneers). Generally not all that valuable, but a good, sturdy (and nice looking) piece of furniture.

Heaters: Dunno. I have no knowledge on these. They might be collectible, but I have no idea.

[JRC]

Thanks for your opinions, sooth!

All the dressers have dovetailed drawer construction.

I think the oak dresser might have been an original furnishing with the house, since it does match so well. I really like it. But, if it's worth a lot of money, I could use the money more If it is only worth +/-$200, I'll keep it, though.

The same holds true for the "typical 20's" dresser, too. If it's not worth much, I'd be glad to keep it.

The dresser you like so well is not to my taste--too feminine, IMO. (If I were in the market for another old house, I'd probably pass on a beautiful Queen Anne, in favor of a Craftsman for similar reasons) Although I am curious about its history, if it's that old.

[sooth]

Unfortunately, the pieces you have are the kind that might sell for a bunch if you had them in an antiques store, rather than trying to sell them as an individual. Prices for antiques (and appreciation) seems to have dropped a bit in the past few years. A piece like the one I like above, is not likely to fetch that much of a great price simply because it's not to everyone's taste, it has damage (I just noticed that some fretwork over the mirror is missing), and the finish is not in top condition. It might actually sell better if it were refinished, but to a true antiques lover, this is a horrible crime. The problem is trying to find that ONE person who really wants it as-is, and for a decent price.

I did look through my books just now, and I couldn't find anything very close. It has a lot of Empire influences, with a touch of Victorian details (the turned corner decorations are found on a bunch of Victorian pieces). The wood knobs tend to be on earlier pieces, since later ones tended to have metal or glass, or carved knobs. It still appears to be 1860-80's. Can't really tell you much more, unfortunately.

[melissakd]

The metal bedframes look 1930s-40s to me, though I honestly have no idea.

I see the lamps are at least old enough to have non-polarized plugs, however old that means.

I love copper and so I love that heater. They're all lovely things though.

I recommend searching these forums for discussions on how to clean and pamper the wood pieces.

Thanks for the pictures!

MKD

[JRC]

I took my camera along to the house yesterday. So there are some pictures below.

I'm getting a little discouraged with the lack of real progress, though. Summer is almost gone, and I still want to at least level the porch roof, and get a new roof on the garage before the weather turns bad. Unfortunately, because my home refinance didn't go through, (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=28242) my budget will be much tighter than I was expecting. (but, on the bright side, I still have the $2500 I was expecting to pay in closing costs)

I'm still cleaning out the attic, and other misc. small tasks. I won't be able to work on the house next weekend, but I hope to pull up the rest of the upstairs kitchen linoleum the following weekend. I hope to put together a work party for Sept. 17th, (a final push, to get the rest of the trash out) and don't want the floor to be a tripping hazard.

Some of these pictures show updates that have been done for awhile. I just didn't realize I never shared them.


I now have full access to the cracked plumbing stack. And, I didn't cause too much additional damage to the surrounding plaster.

The leaded glass window after being mostly "de-plasticized." I was a little worried that the stick-on plastic sheets were added for stability, but I think they just might have been added to make the window more air-tight. (or, even for privacy)


I was going to leave the carpet on the stairs to protect them from work traffic. But, after almost falling a couple times, I decided that it was a tripping hazard, instead. Each tread had about 15 carpet tacks holding it in place.


I would like to have this window--and the side lites on the front door--fixed soon, so that I can take off the plywood. But, I think I need a professional for this window; I don't want to handle a piece of glass that large.


I was doing a little more digging behind the tiles in the bathroom. I hope there are more places where the glue and old paint come off this easily. But, it confirms that the original wainscoting is oak.


The start of the kitchen floor linoleum removal.


I spent some time in the basement yesterday, too. (Even though the water was off, and the tank was dry for YEARS, the PO left the water heater on! It never occurred to me to check before!)

Any ideas about what to do with this old radio cabinet? It's a little rough, but I like it.


And finally, I knew this was here, but always forgot to take pictures of it because it's in a creepy little room filled with cobwebs.

[sooth]

Wow, that toilet looks awesome (what an odd comment to make, when you think about it, haha).

I also much prefer the staircase w/o the carpet. You're also lucky that they did not lay a ton of adhesive under the kitchen linoleum. The wood floor looks great!

I guess the only real cruddy repair will be to redo the oak tongue and groove in the bathroom (which will look amazing if that's what you're going to do).

[melissakd]

Idea for the radio cabinet: Stick a hamper inside. Drop laundry through the opening for the, what do they call it these days, face plate. On laundry day, remove hamper thru open back of radio cabinet.

In fact, if you don't want to use it for that, I would!

The old toilet: WOW.

MelissaKD

[JRC]

I knew the posters here would appreciate that toilet. Everyone else who has seen it has just said "Ew!"

melissakd, I like the idea of a clothes hamper, but I have a laundry chute in the bathroom.

BTW, I was doing some Google searching this afternoon, and found a few cute newspaper snippets about some previous owners (possibly original owners) of the house: Miss Mary and Caroline Barrett. (It's amazing what they published in the paper back then; one blurb was about their return from Chicago, another was about them hosting an event at the 1st Presbyterian church in 1939, and the last one was about them having an out of town guest in 1945.)

[Alexander]

JRC,

The toilet is wonderful.

The radio case reminds me of one I saw that they took out the center piece where the knobs were, made it flat and put in a piece of marble and made a pretty back splash with a bit of a shelf and used it as a small bar with decanters and a row of glasses on the back splash. I would not do it if the works were in it but it seems to be a bit forlorn and needs a bit of rehab.

As late as the 1960's our little village had a local society column that talked about people hosting out of town guests and tea parties. Sort of a what was happening in this little village. I am afraid they have gone the way of the society wedding articles where they went on and on about the brides dress. I still never figured out what Silk Pongee was but they all seemed to have it on someone the wedding party. I think I may have a lamp shade somewhere that an Auntie told me was "real silk pongee".

Now all the news from our village has been replaced with tweets from a annoying little box. Very sad indeed!

Alexander

[Don M]

Great toilet; very attractive ! The radio could be retrofitted with a modern I-pod setup or other stereo system. The society page was from a simpler life when people were more interested in what their neighbors were doing vs what was going on in the rest of the world.