Limited views of places I know well give my imagination a ticket to run wild with it. Oh yeah, and up yours Monday.
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Use the Hive Mind to solve a vintage mystery
You've bought something cool at an estate sale and you're not exactly sure what it is. Consult the hive mind. Here's how.
Context:
Morgan was super stoked to get a set of three awesome gun posters at an estate sale recently, although neither of us were exactly sure what they were. The guy at the sale said that they were from WWII. Both Morgan and I were suspicious of that claim, as both of us have played plenty of WWII video games and are quite the experts on various WWII firearms.
What to do?
I knew exactly where I could go to find out what they were. One of the sites that I frequent is Metafilter. One of the sub-sites of Metafilter is ask.metafilter.com. Its one of the most helpful sites on the net and can be used, when necessary to find out where to buy vintage porn while in Paris, what affects the variables in a language's regional accents, or What are these posters?
It costs $5 to join the site for a lifetime membership. Very well worth the membership.
Categories: Howto, Moment of Manly Zen.
Inspiration Folder: Industrial Decay
For a long time I thought Flickr was alright, I guess. It is full of photographic badassery, but for reals, to find all the good stuff it took some digging. Just about every design blog out there has a folder labeled "inspiration" or "ideas", and you'd have a handful on cute decor pics taken by some stay at home mom from Connecticut or San Francisco. The quality of those blog worthy pictures from moms everywhere, and the crap that came up even when I searched specific terms, was maddening.
So, I emailed original gangster from BackGarage K-Raz and asked her what her secret was. The answer is... search in groups. So instead of only having the endurance of your clicking finger at your disposal, you employ discerning photographers from around the world to sort through the blah and put all the hotties in one place. Pretty cool bro. Maybe this is common knowledge? I tell ya, it has turned my Flickr world upside down.
The very first group I started following after the revelation was Industrial Decay. The main reason I'm popping all over this group is I'm crazy excited for the new AMC series The Walking Dead, like Mad Men who? Seriously. It premieres on Halloween, wow, such a wonderful time to be alive. Here's the hot pics.
Categories: Uncategorized.
Mid-century Modern Sale of the Century
When we saw this sale on estatesales.net we knew we had to be there (check it out, its insane). We literally showed up at 8:30am for an 11:00am sale. We were 14th and 15th in line. The guy holding the "list" said that there was someone who showed up a 12:00am the previous night. What the hell was he thinking? The sale, advertised as, "all midcentury modern" was awesome. Danish furniture throughout the entire house, and all in perfect condition. The only thing that we found that was even reasonably priced was this "Lane Sweetheart" cedar chest. Everything else was priced, seemingly at retail prices. One dealer remarked, "$5,000! That's retail in New York City!"
Since we were in the first group to get in, I ran up the stairs (everyone else seemed to head for the living room), and found this piece in the master bedroom. The price seemed pretty darn affordable considering there was a 5,000 dollar dresser sitting next to it. I ripped the tag and made it mine.
Categories: Estate Sale Hunting, Moment of Manly Zen.
The end of a dream.
It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man. -Jack Handy
When we first bought our house 5 months ago I had some pretty crazy ideas. When I should have been priming and painting, I was searching for a mid-century fridge. When I should have been bringing our home up to city code, I was out in Burbank digging in a garage for a 1940s gas stove. When I should have been fixing gutters and patching the foundation, I was scouring estate sales for an antique butcher block.
I’m doing this post because, well, I have some regrets. I wasted way too much time with my head in the clouds, on Craigslist list, and in line at estate sales. There I said it. Are you happy?
Majority of my failure happened in the kitchen. I wanted it all gone. I dreamed a striped down freestanding kitchen, porcelain counter tops, cast iron pots and pans hanging from the ceiling, large butcher knives on the wall. I still yearn for all of this, but really, it’s not gonna happen.
For one, my wife hates this idea. I mean, come on, she’s the one who actually use the room, and I should have all the say on how it looks. Right? …NOT.
Second, I wasn’t a handy dude at all. What do you expect for a guy who spent his life in apartments in the city? I’m getting better. Look out second home we buy! First home, not so much.
Lastly, money. Duh!
So where is all this confession coming from? Well I sold the 1954 Fridge I bought with all its sexy chrome, and today, I’m putting my 1940s Roper stove for sale on Craigslist. All this giving up is taking its toll.
But I tell ya, earlier today when I stroked the stove’s pure white porcelain top while smoking a cigarette in the garage, it was all worth it man; but then, maybe not.
So my wife and I are doing the best we can with our kitchen for now. I get to keep the butcher block, hurrah!
Here’s our kitchen in its current state (minus the fridge); it’s pretty sad, dated (in the bad way), and much work to be done. Sniff 
Categories: Uncategorized.
Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays?
What do you do when you have a case of the Mondays? Mine. Cigarettes and metal.
Categories: Moment of Manly Zen.
Vintage Bell & Howell Autoload Super 8 Projector, Movie and Screen
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Categories: Sold, Sold Out Lighting & Decor.
A Very Manly Estate Sale
We're really ramping it up around here. This Saturday and Sunday, Manly Vintage (under the leadership of Morgan) will be running an estate sale. Yes. Running an estate sale. Let me say that again.
Manly Vintage will be running an estate sale.
Its going to be messy and disorganized, and we'll probably screw up a lot of things. But we're trying something new. Why? Because we wanted to see what it looked like on the other side of the curtain. Here's to the other side.
Categories: Estate Sale Hunting, Moment of Manly Zen.
Meet Russell
My wife and I, before kids, had fish.(and a couple jerk-ass cats) We sucked at keeping them alive, but we loved them. They all had names either from Old Testament kings or Xiu Xiu songs. My wife has been totally crushing on King Hezekiah every since she read the Chronicles of the Kings series by Lynn Austin, and this guy I just picked up is definitely worthy of a name. Hezekiah it is.
My old lady wasn't a fan of my name pick. Apparently, she enjoys naming animals classic male names that were popular a couple generations ago. What the heck do I know? She likes Russell. Whatever you want baby.
I'm a total sucker for classic manly decor from just about any era, what man doesn't want the head of something dead hanging over where he eats. Like seriously.
Oh, cool story from last night. I almost hit a real deer on Route 66 while on the way to look at this guy. Talk about the circle of life, so intense.
On a different note, I'm having a total love affair with the Beermosa right now. I never tried until a few weeks back when a good friend of mine was in town for a Saturday morning. We always drink and talk theology together, so what do you bring over at 8am. Dude. PBR and orange juice. Finally, the hipster culture is good for something.
The Beatles wish they wrote this song.
Categories: Moment of Manly Zen.
Vintage Bazaar Recapitulus
Take me to a place where money, beer, and vintage floweth. Sure thing Shakespeare, that place is the Vintage Bazaar.
The second installment of the Vintage Bazaar was a smashing success but especially smashing, charming, sexy, oh and manly; here and here. (see below diagram)
The J-Dog and I are pretty much pros at this now, but there are a couple things we're gonna do different next time.
1. Bigger is better. Lets just say, we're sick of selling items, we want to sell rooms. Rooms baby! So maybe this WILL become a cute couple interior design blog. harharhar.
2. Cooler. For. Beer. For the cost of one beer at the Congress I skipped over to a liquor store and got a six pack. It was a big hit with Katherine and Libby. Jayson and I may have been getting a little loud with some customers towards the end. maybe. maybe not.
3. I'm gonna build an industrial size hand truck for next time. Come on, we're professionals!
4. We need signage. Manly signage.
Gotta go to work. Jayson, feel free to add to the list, wherever you are.
Categories: Moment of Manly Zen, Uncategorized.