The garbage date comes through again

Hi Everyone......

My husband & I haven't been on a garbage date in a while, so I started bugging him early yesterday to see if I could weasel one out of him. (in a nutshell, this is when I have my hubby drive me around alleys in his truck, so I can check out everyone's cast offs with my flashlight stuck out the window). Anyway, it was looking like a night with not many finds. Then low & behold - I spied this great dresser! Check it out (I failed to get a picture of it before it went into my storage room on it's side - so I squeezed in there this morning for some pictures):

Here's another shot (I took this sideways also):
Check out the original pulls! Sadly, it is missing one - so I'll have to come up with another option for a couple of the drawers...
Great casters on the legs! These appear a little crusty, so if I can't get them rolling smoothly, I'll replace them with another set of vintage casters.
On a more personal note - we are in the process of giving our bedroom a facelift. We've ripped out an old closet which seemed a little "half baked". We've also ripped down an old drop ceiling, & replaced it with pressed-tin look paper tiles. I'm in the process of painting the entire room (ceiling, trim, walls, etc). This hole in the wall is where I've removed my ventilation grate. It was coated with paint, so of course I see this as a challenge. I should also mention, this is the last major piece of hardware in my house that I have yet to strip paint from (except door hinges - I'm not THAT die hard).

Here's the grate on my living room rug, disassembled & ready for a little cooking. Don't worry, I vacuumed up all the paint chips!
Here it is, face down, in a disposable pan. Larger items are tricky, since they don't fit in my slow cooker. Sooo... I braise them in a pan like this in my oven, at 200 degrees for 7-8 hours. Yuck! But this does the same thing as slow cooking, helps soften the paint for scraping.
The finished product - after at least an hour with me & my putty knife. I have to say, this was a doozy - but I think worth the effort. Whatever metal this one's made from did not want to let go of the paint. I'm glad it's over. :)
thanks for stopping by - take care! Amy :)

Price paid for 4 lovely old doors = 1 scraped up bumper....

Hi Everyone - I know this is some sort of bloggin miracle, seeing that I'm actually posting again within the same week as my last post. Maybe I'm getting better at this!

So the other day, my hubby was gone the whole day playing volleyball - leaving me at home by myself. I think he was feeling a little bad for me when he returned, because he offered to take me on a "garbage date" (see my previous posts). I have been longing for one of these outings since the weather was a little more cooperative. This longing has also been fueled by the cancelation of the Kane County Flea Market in January & February, due to construction on the fair grounds (yes - it's NEVER supposed to be closed, but I guess there's a first for everything).

Anyway, we set off together in his truck, not expecting to find much - since home improvement projects seem to correlate with fair weather. We started up a steep hill - we did fine until about 30-40 feet up the hill... at which point we started sliding backwards, courtesy of the nice layer of wet, glazy ice coating the hill, and the truck being back wheel drive. After sitting on the hill sort of wedged against a cinder block retaining wall for about 10 minutes, my husband finally just started spinning the wheels - which jarred us loose & let us slide back down the hill a bit. Of course, he's scraping his bumper against the wall as we go. Ugh. We ended up sliding/backing down the hill & just skipping that alley.

Soo.... I'm feeling bad at this point, because we probably weren't going to find anything good.. and now my husband's truck has a battle scar (see the photo). We decided to venture down one last alley - which I've dubbed "the alley of wonder" because I've never gone down it & come home empty handed. Lo an behold - we found 4 lovely stained recessed paneled doors, with original hardware (unpainted!). How exciting for me - enough to cancel the "sliding down the hill episode" from my mind. (probably not my husband's mind though).

I guess in the future we probably won't be going down alleys with hills during "ice season" - but this experience contradicts the theory that there's nothing to be found in the winter...... perhaps more cold weather garbage dates are on the horizon??

:) take care - Amy

Garbage dates.....

Some of you may wonder... where does all the "stuff" come from that becomes Second Chance Art & Accessories? This is a question with many answers, but one of them may very well be the garbage date.

I made up this term to describe Sunday & Monday nights (pre-garbage day evenings in my neighborhood), when I convince my husband to drive me around in his truck looking for goodies on people's curbs. Usually these end when my husband says "I'm tired" with an annoyed look on his face.

Yes, I have no shame. I must admit, we've come across some pretty good finds. Since I live in an older neighborhood, it seems there is always someone renovating, and therefore, throwing away perfectly good windows, doors, & other architectural salvage.

Here's some pictures from our garbage date last night. Specifically, a few pieces that "made the cut": a top from an old door with beautiful divided glass panes (this will surely make a lovely coffee table top, or wall art piece), and a 70's era chair that I intend to steal the caning from (I have another period footstool that needs new caning!).


Here's a few other items that unfortunately, did not make the cut. I thought they were a little funny, so I took some pictures.


Apparently, they don't believe in Santa anymore at this house.


I'm all for great, second-hand furniture. Especially if I can reupholster or slipcover it into something fantastic. However, I think this one is beyond my capabilities!