Basement Blunders
Getting to the source of the soggy basement
Our March trip was unfortunately a short one. We cleaned up the basement a little more, scratching out another chapter in our soggy basement saga.
I finally found the other end of this cracked PVC pipe, about 6 feet straight down and then making a hard right under the foundation. No one we've asked can tell us what this is all about. It's like someone wanted a wet basement and decided to pipe water into the house. It could be a spring running under the house, and maybe this was an attempt to move the water elsewhere.
It ain't Poland Spring, that's for certain.
Sarcastic signage
I finally read this warning notice on the beyond broken furnace.
No treasure here, either....
It was a sad Geraldo Rivera moment opening this ash pit door in the chimney.
This professional smash in job was where the furnace was vented out. That hole leads up to the living room fireplace.
Yard work
We continued to work on the glamorous task of moving the eroded soil back up against the house.
It was a real thrill.
We disturbed a lot of these grubs when digging.
Please lady, let me take your trash.
This tree trunk wandered into our yard a few months ago.
"How much are you paying for trash removal? I can take all this debris for $200. and you dont have to lift a finger." He said, not considering that many a finger was lifted to get the pile of garbage into in its present state.
"Like I said, Stephanie, I would love to have your business" He kept repeating my name when he spoke, which I'm sure is some established sales technique taught in business school. He sounded so sincere about it all.
He had a crew of about 10 people, they were done in about 10 minutes. There was a trash can that Pete and I could hardly lift, and this guys wife picked it up and put it on her back like it was a container of feathers. I was severely impressed. It was nice not having to fill up a pre-paid dumpster.
"Do you want tough guy or nice guy?" He asked when posing for this photo.
"Gimmie tough guy." I told him.
Things left behind
"Stef, you can not post that. My sister reads this blog!" Pete said when I showed him the document below. The previous home owner was/is an attorney, and was representing someone (I don't know who) involved in this sexual harassment suit. I'm amazed anyone behaves like this in the workplace. I'm guessing the defendant was raised by wolves or under a rock.
I've blacked out all the nasty bits. Reading it again I'm not sure if that helps.
A sad day for scrapping
This is our most pathetic haul so far. This $21. was earned from a van full of steel pipe. I knew steel was low value but come on!!
New acquisitions
We found a player piano for free on Craigslist. Holy mother, it is heavy. The interwebs says they can weigh over 900 pounds. I wasn't feeling confident that we (they) would get it in the truck.
The biggest issue was threshold of the door the end of the ramp, it took an insane amount of force to tip it up and over into the truck.
"How do you think they got this thing into their house?" I asked
"They brought it to the property and built the house around it" our friend replied.
We bought their entire collection of scrolls (85) for $200.
Our neighbor, also a piano collector, came by to grace us with a mini performance. The break in the video was when I thought he was done. He got serious and changed his stance, which I'm guessing may be a homage to Jerry Lee Lewis.
We got lots of small things, too. These are things we have purchased over 2-3 months and finally brought to the house.
This awkwardfamilyphotos.com inspired picture jumped out at me from a pile of boring cabinet cards. It may be some kind of sister wives thing. Are they abduction victims? The tension in that air is thick. The man looks like he's gonna beat the crap out of the photographer when he's done taking the picture.
I found this photo in the same box as the one above. I am 100% convinced that this is Peter Lorre's mother.
This embossed and scalloped calling card was found in a junk shop that Pete and I spent hours in. Calling cards (or visiting cards) were brought to the home of a person you wanted to visit, usually delivered by a servant.
I found these racy cards online, not exactly calling cards in the traditional sense, it seemed they were more for sleazy men to give to a woman in person. My perception of this era as reserved and conservative is wiped clean when reading these.
We are planning to make this bakelite radio a part of our intercom system. $20.
We will probably just display a candle in this repro oil lamp base. $10.
Pete doesn't know it yet, but he will be rigging this clock to play Gregorian chants when the alarm goes off.
Our basement would not be complete without an old glass embalming fluid jar.
I will be shamelessly knocking off this idea from pinterest:
Using these mirrors
This is such a pretty display book, but the book is worth reading. Short articles on subjects like How Bees Make Honey, and How Photographs are Produced, it's Wikipedia in hard copy form.
This typewriter needs a major overhaul.
But we hope to make it into this, with the help of USB Typewriter on Etsy.
This 1960s Mattel children's toy makes candy from aluminum molds.
Pete was very excited to find these drive-in movie speakers. Three for $40.
I got this in a local thrift shop. I needed some sweaters to work in, when this strange garment crossed my path.
Its a sweater with no head hole. For a person with no head.
I turned it every which way, trying to make sense of it. I brought it to the cashiers, who were just as confused. Maybe it was knit by someones senile grandma, or maybe it was custom made for some local headless mutant.
"We will sell that to you for 99 cents" the cashier said, when I was undecided about buying it.
Even Google is watching our progress!
The google maps photo car seems to come by fairly regularly, this is the third time I've seen an updated picture. This was taken last December.
