Stoop Sale Hoorah!! - UPDATED

Well, the season has arrived, as evidenced by last week's New Yorker cover illustration.
I was all set to hit about a dozen stoop sales today, but it was misting so heavily at 10am that about 80% if the sales listed on Craigslist didn't even bother to come out and set up. Anyway, I was even a bit of a wimp and instead of biking around to see who came out, I hopped in the car and drove around the neighborhood - which was just fine since it would have been doubly disappointing to find nobody out had I cycled all over in the rain.
But on with my tale: toward the bottom of my list of sales to visit was one at an address I had gone to a month ago - on the same day I hit the jackpot with the Adlen painting - it was at the same address where I had picked up the lovely Laguiole corkscrew.
I'm all out of order here but here is what you need to know: that day a month ago when I hit that stoop sale (actually, it wasn't even on a stoop - it was indoors in the parlor of an amazing limestone mansion in Ft Greene), I had spied a bronze sculpture on the mantle. I asked if it was for sale and the host said she supposed she would sell it though she hadn't planned to do so. She came up with a price, but it seemed too high to me so I took a picture and her email address and passed on it. Then, over the last few weeks it stuck with me and I began to think I had missed a real find.
So when I got there today at around noon it turned out to be the same lady and I was sad to see the mantle was bare - only to notice moments later that the sculpture was now on the floor in a corner with a price tag on it - same price as before.
Long story short, I got the seller to knock 15% off her price and I bought it. Still too pricey for a stoop sale, but I sort of love it and it is so unlike any other art I own. I know I will never regret it (unless, God forbid, it falls over and hurts someone). It weighs a ton - at least 40 pounds.
The bronze sculpture itself is 24 inches tall and solid bronze.  The base is 4.5 x 4.5 x 4.5 inches and is solid marble. This thing is a whopper.
Here are a few more pix of the other side - not sure which is the front and which the back.
BTW - the inscription etched into the bottom of the marble base is "R. GIRONDA  69"
What do you think?

CL-inspired question: How much for very little is too much at any price?

The availability of very fine, ordinarily prohibitively priced bathroom fixtures on CL at impossibly low prices causes this enthusiastic bargain-hunter to ask: How much is too much?

This much?

What you see here are three, wide-spread, three-hole bathroom faucets with hardware, a two-hole gooseneck bathroom faucet, a hand-shower, three light sconces and 6 towel bars.  

That big faucet right in the middle front is almost certain to be the faucet in the master bath. 


All we need now is a kitchen faucet (and walls and floors and ceilings and pipes and wires and, well... everything).  
But seriously, look at these amazing, vintage nickel-plated towel bars!!!

I took all 6 at $25 a pop.  I know that isn't a giveaway price, but see what you get from Home Depot or Lowes for $25 -- IT'S KREEEEPPPPPP!!!  So this was a no-brainer, except that V is going to say, "noooooo!!! we don't need it all!!!" and she will be correct.  So let me explain...


At $35 each, these two brushed nickel sconces from Waterworks (originally $350ish) seemed like an easy solution to either the master bath or guest bath lighting situation.  They would use a clip-on shade (i.e., a shade that clips onto the outside of the bulb).

(and another one just like this one above, but in shiny chrome)

All of this raises a new question: can we get away with mixed metals in the master bath? All the tub hardware is light colored brass.  The shower hardware is all nickel-plated, but that won't show because it is inside the shower and we're probably not going to have a full glass-walled shower. The towel bars are nickel.  The toilet is mercifully free of metal details, although there is a tiny sprig of chromed brass on the flush lever.  It might be odd to put brushed nickel over a brass faucet, so maybe these sconces are better in the guest bath (or on ebay).  The copper bar sink is just folly - folly that will almost certainly find it's way to ebay (but that should pay for the shipping on everything else).


Whatever whatever.  It's all good.  All totaled, the amount I have spent on plumbing fixtures so far is still less than two high quality shower units would have cost (and we have three of those now).  Some of this will inevitably end up on ebay and, maybe just maybe, we can cover the cost of the stuff we keep.


DON'T WORRY, V.  I'M DONE NOW!!!  NO MORE!!!

CL possibility: Apron Front Sink

There is a Kohler enameled cast iron, apron-front kitchen sink on CL right now.  It is white, model # K6546, dimensions are 33'' wide by 22'' deep by 7.5'' deep - it's a heavy sucker at 134 lbs.  These cost over $1100 new and the seller is asking $150 for this one - brand spanking new, but with an "imperfection" in the enamel at the back corner - a little series of hairline cracks.  
We definitely want an apron front sink (see earlier post on apron-front sinks) but the nice ones cost upwards of $700.  Even the Ikea version costs $312 and it is ceramic, not cast iron.  So, I am inclined to live with the little cracks for the price - it looks lived in but it is not chipping or flaking.  If we were planning to have fancy stone counters cut to fit around it, I would probably think twice, but I think we'll be living with homemade thick wood counters initially.  Anyway, final decision is V's.  See the pictures below. 

Cold Day makes GREAT Stoop Sale-ing!

I have a compulsion - I shop at stoop sales (what we call yard sales or garage sales in our neighborhood).  I have a special backpack I wear just for stoop sale-ing and nothing else.  In an effort to maybe cut back on acquisitions of unneeded knick knacks, I am going to try to account for the things I buy at stoop sales.  Here we go...

It was pretty chilly out today but from what I saw on the CL "garage sales" listings for my part of town it seems Stoop Sale Season has begun.  So I boarded my bike and zipped around my hood and a few neighboring neighborhoods and hit as many stoop sales as I could find.

I picked up a number of smaller items:

• A Chateau Laguiole gran cru corkscrew with olivewood handle and teflon coated screw ($3)

• Neil Gaiman's "Mr. Punch" graphic novel in hardcover ($2)

• Books of Kertesz and Muybridge photography ($2)

• 3 Sheets of Elvis Presley 29c stamps - 40 per page ($10 - explain to me why someone sold me $34.80 worth of postage for $10?!)

• A selection of home design books ($1 each of less) - I still prefer flipping through books to surfing blogs.  Blogs just seem so infinite and uncurated whereas someone had to either convince someone a book was worth printing or pay to print it themself, either or which increases the likelihood that it isn't completely haphazard (like this blog for instance).

• The Complete New Yorker on 10 CD ROMs - brand new in shrinkwrap ($1).  I've been wanting this so I can go back and read a few famous profiles that I have read about.  Anyway, it is the entire run of the New Yorker from way back whenever - seems worth having. 

• This extremely exciting book about non-residential structures that have been "Converted into Houses" ($1).  This is one of those books I look forward to flipping through with V some evening.

• Sorel boots for V.  Like new ($5).

• A Belkin folding stand for an ipad.  V was excited about this because she pulls up recipes on the ipad and uses them while cooking but then the pad is just lying there and gets flour or butter or whatever on it.  So this is actually useful. ($5)

This is not at all useful.  This is an old brass gas light fixture.  I bought it mostly because the detail work on the gascock is great - specifically, I like that the gascock has a relief of a cock on it. ($2)

But here's the thing, today turned out, I think, to be one of the best stoop sale days ever.  I picked up this painting from a poorly attended stoop sale run by two middle school age girls.  

As you can see, it is a young lady doing unspeakable things to a turkey.  I kind of love it.

I asked where it came from and they said, in unison, "the basement".  The frame doesn't look very old to me, but the brown backing paper is dry and flaking so it has to be on the older side, plus the way it is framed as seen through holes in the backing paper is extremely well done with wooden spacers and corner pieces and little nails - and there is a narrow linen mat around the painting on the front.  How much, "five dollars." So I pulled out five dollars and made it mine.  

To anyone who worries that maybe these young ladies were deaccessioning their parents' art collection without permission, worry not.  As I was paying, their father came out and saw that I bought the painting and he sort of shrugged.  I asked where it came from and he said it came from his mother's house and maybe before that his grandmother's house - "probably a hundred years old" he says. I looked for a signature and found one, but it isn't a name I recognize. Then we joked about there maybe being a copy of the Declaration of Independence hidden behind the brown paper backing.  But he puts that to rest saying it is virtually certain that there are no copies of the Declaration of Independence floating around the [insert Russian-Jewish name here] family.  

And that was that - almost.  I was on my bike and didn't want to carry it around but also didn't want to cut short my stoop sale-ing to take it home.  So, courting disaster, I left the painting there (at the top of the stoop behind the girls so it was out of the way and not visible) to pick up later - they promised they would be around for a couple more hours and if they weren't then I could ring the bell and get it.  I worried briefly that they might change their minds or someone else might come along and recognize the signature, but it seemed unlikely).  

Anyway, long story short, I got it home and showed it to V and she likes it a lot.  

Then I googled the signature:

I compared the signature with the signatures of a bunch of paintings I found online by one M. Adlen, and they match.  It seems this person, Michel Adlen (1898-1980) is a real guy with a real reputation as a painter and his work sells frequently at auction.  It isn't Cezanne prices or anything, but 700 Euros for a painting is nothing to sneeze at.  Plus, we really really really like the painting.  

So there you go.  I picked up a real painting by a real person and we're going to hang it and refer to it as "the Adlen".  "Have you seen my sunglasses?" "Have you looked on the table under the Adlen?"  See! It just works!! 

CL acquisition - Glass Shower Door Hinges

Big morning.  
At 10am I picked up the toilet from the design-build firm uptown.  
Maybe I didn't mention, when I went up to see the toilet (still in boxes, new seat and all), the seller showed me a stack of boxes of Lightolier recessed light fixtures with trim pieces.  They were all brand new and sealed and he was pricing them to give them away.  Since V and I decided a couple weeks ago when we met with the electrician that we will go ahead and install some recessed lighting over the kitchen counter, I bought five of these light fixtures with trim for less than the price of one would cost new.  So I picked those up along with the toilet.  Hooray again for cheap materials on CL.  
Then, I drove out to Westchester to the home of the seller of that shower enclosure from a post or two ago.  It was a fancy home on a mcmansion strewn cul de sac.  Kind of an awful oversized spec-house area.  Just awful.
Turns out the seller had measured wrong and the glass is 3/8", not 1/2".  But that is fine since 3/8" is the standard.  Still, I had decided that the price was too high since all I wanted was the door and not the rest of the enclosure.  After walking through the house and looking at all the awful furniture that she wanted to sell me ("Everything red goes! We're changing the color scheme."), I finally convinced her that I only wanted the shower door and I offered a third of what she had originally asked since it isn't 1/2" and I didn't want the other pieces -- I wasn't just playing her.  I wouldn't have bought it at all if she hadn't come down to my price.  
I spent an hour in her driveway building a wooden frame and support structure to carry it standing on one edge in the back of my car.  
So, now here is the question: the door is set up to be hinged with pivoting hinges on the top and bottom, not a swinging hinge on the back edge.  The bottom hinge is still attached to the door (luckily since it is over $150 new to replace), but sadly the top hinge is missing.  Here's some pix.  Now I have to find the exact right hinge to fit into the space on the door already cut out for that express purpose.


This is the bottom edge of the bottom hinge.

This is the notch/cutout in the top corner of the door where the top hinge clamps on.  Hopefully the replacement hinge won't be too expensive.

cl score / elongated toilets?

[3/29/12 UPDATE: It is ours!]
Seems like the best source for new low-priced plumbing fixtures and lighting and the like is design/build firms that have bought the stuff for jobs and then ended up not using it. 

I found this Waterworks toilet on CL a few weeks ago.  I emailed the seller a few times to ask the price and never heard back.  Then, today, the guy emails me back and says CHEAP! COME GET IT!  It will cost less than the cheapest generic at Home Depot.  So I called him back and we make arrangements for me to pick up and pay and then he starts telling me about the basement they have full of plumbing, construction, lighting and related materials and basically he is just trying to make a few bucks before he gives it away or throws it away.  I told him about BIG NYC and I said I'd hook him up with the folks up there who will certainly come get anything new and useful that he has. 

Anyway, I guess I don't really know the diff between a normal toilet and an "elongated" toilet except that most reviews on the web say they take the same amount of space but the elongated toilet is "more comfortable".  Sounds okay to me. 

I like the look of it.  Kind of old school lines. Mostly, I like that the top lid is flat and has a little lip around it so that anything that gets set on it won't roll off onto the floor. How often do I set stuff on top of a toilet lid? Only when doing repairs in a tenant's bathroom - but on those occasions, there is nothing more irritating than my screwdrivers or whatever rolling off the toilet lid or toilet seat onto the floor. And!! it would be a lovely place for a houseplant.  Right?!

design idea: Glass Shower Enclosure and Chickens!!

I followed up with a CL seller today about a glass shower enclosure she listed on CL cheap - it appears to be 1/2" thick frameless glass door and walls with hinges and hardware CHEAP!  Assuming it is what she says it is, even if we only use the door, it is an incredible deal (basically, it seems like she needs someone to take it away).  

It appears to be four good pieces of half inch tempered glass.  And I don't even think we would need to replace any of the four pieces of glass to increase the shower size since we could just build out a little wall on either side - plus, the short side which, in this photo, sits on the tub edge, would just sit on a little wall at the end of the vanity/sink counter.  so this probably works pretty well.  But again, even if we use nothing but the door and just install it into a framed and tiled shower, it is a giveaway.

So, anyway, I spoke to the seller by phone and asked her to send me a few clearer pix of the shower enclosure and hardware, but somehow she got it in her head that I want to see pictures of everything else she is selling (which seems to be everything in her house).  Which brings me to the following...

What does it say about me that my first thought upon seeing these chickens was AWESOME!!! I didn't even hesitate to wonder why? or What would it be like to live with taxidermied poultry? or any of the other perfectly reasonable things that might go through a person's mind seeing four stuffed roosters.  Not me.  I just went from zero to AWESOME!!!

Maybe a little more reasonably, I like this chair she is getting rid of.  I always wanted a leather club with an ottoman.  Nowhere to store it though so I'm not going to dally with it.

design ideas - bathroom sconce lights

We keep saying we like "industrial", but so far we haven't agreed on an industrial decor item for the house.  Maybe the bathroom sconces over/beside the master bath sink/mirror would be a place to start.
So, what do you think of these as ideas:

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