The President says "bunghole", "nuts", and belches. Pretty much all in one sentence.

Amazing and real.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."

Teddy Roosevelt was an almost unstoppable force in American politics and in American history. While I don't agree with everything he did (e.g. His actions after the Maine explosion), I admire his spirit as an explorer, thinker, change agent, and citizen. I read somewhere that there are three types of people in this world: Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who ask, "What just happened?". Roosevelt is pretty unmatched in American history for "Making things Happen." I can think of few Americans who "made things happen" more than Roosevelt. In his lifetime he accomplished the following things:

1. Work as state legislator, police commissioner, and governor in New York
2. Own and work a ranch in the Dakotas
3. Serve as Assistant Secretary of the Navy
4. Fight as a Rough Rider in the Spanish-American War
5. Serve as President for two terms, then run for an unprecedented third term
6. Become the first President to leave the country during his term in order to see the building of the Panama Canal
7. Write 35 books
8. Read tens of thousands of books-several a day in multiple languages
9. Explore the Amazonian rainforests
10. Discover, navigate, and be named after a completely uncharted Amazonian river over 625 miles long
11. Volunteer to lead a voluntary infantry unit into WWI at age 59.

Read more: Art of Manliness

One of my favorite quotes of his:

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

Then it hit me, Home Improvement flashbacks dropped all over my frontal lobe. I use to watch that show, like all the time. Granted, I didn’t love the show, maybe didn’t even really like to the show, but it was on after school and was right before the Simpsons.

I was drawing blanks with any of the shows details, so I hopped on the INTERNET!!! and read the entirety of the show’s Wikipedia page. Man, first-rate times, I guess. Besides the super cute mom, the rest of the cast borders on unbearably obnoxious. Ugh, and the later seasons with one son being goth, and the other a preachy liberal constantly talking about environmental nonsense; fast forward to the Simpsons please.

I looked up some quotes from the show and had a good laugh. From the quotes, I’d have to say my favorite character is head honcho Tim; and the way I’ve been acting around power tools lately, I think I’m becoming him.

Before buying a house, literally, all my tools fit inside our apartment's junk drawer. Pretty much a common hammer and screwdriver, cheap ones at that. And now, here I am at Home Depot, lusting over specific kinds of hammers. You mean there’s more than one kind of hammer? Yes my lad, there’s a plethora of diverse hammers; and check this out! You can choose a different weight for the same kind of hammer, you know, for comfort and smashing power.

Sure, Home Depot is a good choice for up-to-date power tools and items you lean towards wanting new; but lets not forget my first love, secondhand! More specifically, estate sales!

For anyone thinking/needing to build a tool collection, estate sales is the place to get the most bang for your buck.

We’re not talking cheap made in China or Taiwan garbage; your average estate sale generally reaches back to the late 50s early 60s, sometimes the 1940s 30s, enough to be considered common, and on the rare-ish side 1920s or before. Everything back then was tough as nails and made in the USA; built to last a lifetime baby. I highly recommend, purchasing your essential hand tools this way, you’ll get what you need dirt cheap, and be able to give new life to a piece of American history.

Not much time left before Christmas! Go hop on estatesales.net, find some killer sales, and start popping on some tools for the Tim Taylor in your life.

What time is it?

TOOL TIME!!!

I've read quote, "I love vintage because it has a story!" probably 10-15 times, mostly in etsy profiles, and I can smell the profile filling fluff miles away. While I agree that it can be true in some cases, the fact is people aren't setting up an etsy shop because they want to tell a story. They're setting up etsy shops because they want to buy it cheap and sell it steep. They're setting up an etsy shop because they like vintage AND they realized other people do too. Let's be honest. We're all adults.

But there is more to it than just the money. I love vintage. These are my reasons why. I like lists.

1. Made in America - There's just something about getting products that were actually designed and made in our country. The quality is better, the design is good, and you can buy it knowing your grandpa built it.

2. Quality - As I'm typing this, there's a fan on my floor that was built in 1938 in the city of Chicago. When I turn it on, it works. It needs a dusting and an oil refill every once in a while, but other than that, its pretty laissez fair. This fan was made to last. No cheap plastic. No quick and crappy parts.

3. The Thrill of the Hunt - I'm absolutely obsessed with finding something that someone else overlooked. Its hard for me to drive past a garage sale, a thrift store, without wondering what I might miss if I don't look. This is a huge part of it for me. I've found quite a few things that others didn't see as valuable.

4. A Cash Positive Hobby This is how I try to justify it to my wife. Right now I'm sitting on a pile of cash that I made just from picking garage sales, estate sales, and thrift stores. Green is good.

5. The People I absolutely love meeting fellow vintage/antique enthusiasts. I've met some really cool people. I love selling to people at shows, giving them the history of the piece, discussing what they know. Its awesome and fun all wrapped into one.

That's my list. Why do you love vintage?

I'm a total sucker for thinking of myself as a jack of all trades, fixer upper, 101 projects going on at once without breaking a sweat; where did I get that crazy idea.

Right now, my garage sits with only a quarter of a roof. I started it last week.

The hole I dug three months ago to patch my foundation crack has yet to be filled. I dug a 5' x 4' hole in about a hour and a half, not bad aye? Filling the hole? Um yeah...

Don't get my wife started on the work I need to do in the basement. Forget about it.

On top of my house, which, in all truthfulness, I haven't been too bad getting the ball rolling lately; I have literally, a couple years worth of furniture/vintage projects clogging my brain waves. I'm at a emotional/visual/monetary, do or die moment with a lot of this stuff .

SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE!!!

So I'm challenging myself. Roof and hole are asap, but they're kinda boring, the fun part of the challenge will be some of the vintage projects I've gathered around myself for the last couple years.  Did I say some? Maybe more like twenty...

With the upcoming Vintage Bazaar(woot woot) I've been doing  inventory, and I'm ashamed, flipping ashamed about how many chairs I bought with good intentions but never got around to them. There's also about six lamps and two fans, but I have a long history of failure with the chairs. I really love chairs. Especially wood chairs that have ripped upholstery, or  one broken arm, or just a frame of a chair. For years I bought them off Craigslist and at estate sales, vowing to fix em' up, but they would just stacked up in our apartment basement. Now with a house they have been all over the attic. Last night I bought them down into the basement to start work.

My secondary goal in all of this, is to offer all my current projects finished and beautiful to my customers at the next Vintage Bazaar, but my main goal is to make this a regular act in my vintage circus I'm putting on for all you lucky people, maybe even start designing and building my own furniture...

My plans for some of these pieces are maybe a little too grand. I'm determined to use real leather for the upholstery. Is this hard? My wife is a seamstress extraordinaire, who has promised to help with the fabric and leather ordeals. We shall see.

Below is my room of projects, hover over each picture for a description and some idea of what I plan to do.

I woke up this morning frazzled, as usual having fallen asleep in the guest bedroom with my son Ambrose, and slept in WAAY too late. Sundays are always rushed in the morning for the Franklins. We usually try to make the 9:00am mass, and Evelyn has CCD at 10:00am. Everyone sleeps all over the house on Saturday nights. Ruby was asleep in the basement, Evelyn in her bed, Sarah and Fern upstairs, and Ambrose and I were in the guest bedroom on the first floor. Finding the kids when we wakeup some Sunday mornings can be a challenge in and of itself.

"Has anyone seen Ruby?"

As I rushed to get ready and get Evelyn out the door to CCD....Oh, did I mention that we weren't going to make 9:00am Mass? We're bums. So as I rushed to get Evelyn out the door, I was actually NERVOUS about the Bertoia Bench that I was going to pick up in the basement of church. I bought it for insanely cheap last Sunday and needed to come back and pick it up when I had room.

"What if someone steals it out from under me?"

I was slightly consoled with the idea that the purple post-it note that said, "sold" on the bench was well secured. I dropped Evelyn off at CCD, made my way to the rummage sale, and started to freak out a little, because, of course, I couldn't find it. WHERE IS IT! My heart was pounding. But the pounding from freaking out increased when I saw this bad boy:

Could it be? Could it be? I don't know a lot about mid century design but I did know that it looked awfully close to a George Nelson designed, Herman Miller Bench.

WTF.

How could this be? You don't even want to know what the price was. Insanely low. And in the corner, my original Bertoia bench waiting for me. I promptly paid the lady, tried to contain my joy, and took both home to my doting wife.

What does this mean?

Or to put it better, what are the chances? It truly was a "Moment of Manly Zen".

When I got my first house, I got a store bought set of tools for Christmas. They sat on a shelf in the basement for about a year until I figured I needed to fix a door knob instead of having Sarah hire a handyman. But did I have all the tools I needed? The 1956-1957 Handyman Ideas magazine by Better Homes and Gardens gives the vintage man a concise rundown of essential tools for any vintage handyman.

A good workshop starts with a carefully planned selection of quality tools.

Buy the best you can, even if it means that your selection will build up slowly. You'll find that the cheap tools won't do the job you expect of them, and they will be damaged or worn out before a good tool is really "broken in".

The basic equipment shown below will handle most routine construction and repair jobs around the house. Undoubtedly, you have some of these tools."

One way to add more tools to your collection is to buy a new one as you approach a job where you'll need it. The tools below can be added that way.

However, once your tool board is well stocked, its a good idea to add a few pieces of equipment and materials that you may need in an emergency. This includes items like the plumbing supplies and electrical equipment shown below.

When you're that far into handyman activities, you'll want to set aside part of your basement or garage for a shop.

• Vintage Orange Metal Task Lamp, Etsy.
• multi-drawer factory benchtop cabinet, Urban Remains
• Rustic Shop Work Station, Agent Gallery
• Hand Painted Tin Sign, Urban Remains
• Shoe Factory Rack, State Street Salvage
• Switchboard Operator Swivel Stool, Urban Remains
• iMac, Apple

I've always been competitive. I was a jock up until high school, when my competitive nature in a team setting hit a brick wall in an indoor soccer league sophomore year. When I started drawing and painting vigorously Junior year, I regularly destroyed my past work cause it didn't add up with whatever artist I was obsessing with at the moment.

Then my stint in college, forget about it. I took over the painting studio, spending literally open till close, putting thick layers of paint on just about everything in the 20' radius of my canvas. What finally tamed this monster? The love of a good women. I got married, dropped all my classes, pack my supplies in storage, got a job, had three kids. Do I have regrets? Hm, no. But man, every time I see my easel just sitting there, I want to put my fist through a wall. I have a feeling holing up in the attic with my oil paints may just happen in the near future after all.

In the mean time, I hope you all enjoy my pictures.