Mirror, Mirror In The Driveway

I've mentioned the mirror project a couple of times recently and, in my last entry, I posted a couple of pictures of the mirror as it appeared when I got it. It definitely had potential, which is why it caught my eye to begin with, but it needed some work. The main problem I saw was that it suffered from multiple coats of latex exterior house paint. The paint stripper would really have to step up to the plate on this one.

I found the mirror at a yard sale. When I stopped at this particular yard sale, I didn't expect to find much. It looked like a typical baby clothes and Tupperware kind of yard sale. Nothing against Tupperware, of course. My yard saleing partner and brother-in-law, Joey, is a Tupperware nut. He buys pretty much any vintage Tupperware he can find. The more obscure the piece, the better. He's got salt and pepper shakers, ham keepers, cake carriers and these.

Remember those? I'm always on the lookout for Tupperware stuff for him. Once, I even found him some animal refrigerator magnets in the original box. I'm a pretty good brother-in-law.

But, back to the original subject. The yard sale didn't look like it was going to have much to offer, but, I was there so I really had nothing to lose by checking it out.

I looked around for a minute and then I saw the mirror. It was sitting in the driveway, leaned against some other stuff. When I got close enough to inspect it, I liked the way it looked and I was pretty sure that it was fairly old. They weren't asking a lot of money for it, so I paid the lady and loaded it in the car.

When I unloaded my haul for the day, I put the mirror in the room formerly known as "The Office" (now Jack's room-See the new shelves post for an explanation of what rooms became what). It stayed there for many months until we unearthed it during the 3-way room switch about two weeks ago. Seeing it again, I decided that it had collected enough dust. It was time to do something with it.

So, this is what I had to work with. It was pretty, but it was smothered in black paint.  The detail in the carving at the top was greatly diminished by the paint.  Take a look.

 

Along the bottom portion of the frame, there was some white paint that was creeping through the black and onto the glass.

There's also a mark on the back that's either I50 or 150. Not sure which and my research has turned up no answers.

So, the first thing I did was to take the frame apart. After I removed the back, the front part of the frame came apart in three pieces. I then applied paint stripper to the three front pieces. I elected not to do any restoration on the back piece because it was basically a cheap piece of lightweight wood. In addition to that, the back wouldn't be seen so I wasn't terribly concerned with it.

Anyway, I picked the coldest day of the year to commence stripping in the garage...I know what you're thinking. If THAT happened, and I'm not saying it did or didn't, there are no pictures, so just put it out of your mind.

But, yes...it was COLD. I believe the high that day was 33. Now, I don't like cold weather. When I say, "I don't like cold weather," I don't mean it in the same way as, "I don't like collard greens." Collard greens don't really taste good to me but they don't make my body tense up and hurt all over. But, I was determined to make some progress, regardless of the miserable conditions.

 

I put on the latex gloves and started brushing on the paint stripper. I used a semi-paste stripper that actually sticks to the piece. I had tried liquid stripper on other  projects, but it just didn't get hot enough to melt the paint. The liquid stripper may work on some things, but I've never had much luck with it. The black paint bubbled up and came right off, revealing a layer of off-white paint. Another round of stripper. The off-white paint was a little more resistant, but after a couple of applications of stripper and some serious scraping, it came off.

White paint underneath.

Maybe I should have opted for sandblasting.

But, since that wasn't really an option, I stuck with the stripper. I must confess that every time I use the word stripper, I have to fight the urge to make some kind of off-color joke. Admittedly, sometimes I don't put up much of a fight. That makes me a typical man who never matured past the 7th grade. My wife will confirm this. The great thing about my immaturity is that I have a son, so I get to pass it on to him. I'm sure that nature would probably halt his maturity around 12 years of age, but I suppose my ego wants to think that I have some input in the matter. Either way, the Spillman name will live on to laugh at potty humor for another generation!

There I go, digressing again...

 After brushing on stripper :) approximately 47 separate times, hand sanding and using various tools that would make the sadistic dentist in Little Shop of Horrors proud, I finally got most of the paint off the frame. The details in the carving were way more visible and impressive. Coming along nicely!

 

I had to fill a few spots that had some minor damage with Minwax Stainable Wood Filler and then it was time to stain it. I decided to go with Minwax #225 Red Mahogany. I like the way it looks, but I had trouble getting it to dry. It claimed dry times of 2-6 hours. Maybe the hyphen was inserted by mistake. But, even 26 hours didn't do the trick. I finally decided to walk on the wild side and spray the polyurethane, Minwax Fast Drying Clear Gloss. 

Here are the tools of the trade along with an empty Publix strawberry yogurt carton. Tanya likes her yogurt and, when she gets to the bottom of a carton, she gives it to Bacchus and he cleans it out quite thoroughly. He left this one under my table, so I used it to catch the dust that I raked off the table. He's a great dog and he's scary smart, but I just can't get him to clean up after himself. But, the same is true of the kids. Now that I think about it, he doesn't generate as much laundry, he doesn't ask for money, he doesn't steal my parking place...I could go on for a while. Of course, my kids don't pee in the yard. Ok, maybe Jack does on occasion, but as least the girls understand the benefits of indoor plumbing. Maybe there's hope for them after all.

Oh yeah, the mirror. Here's how it turned out.

And, the carving.

I think this is light years better than the black version. The picture doesn't quite have the resolution that you need to fully appreciate it, but you get the idea. Scroll back up to the black one and then look at this one. No comparison.

As I was reassembling it, I noticed something that I missed when I was taking it apart. On the back of the mirror was a stamp with the manufacturer and the date.

March 10, 1900. That means this thing is 112 years old. I can't read the middle part, but it looks like "Himes Thener Class 0" or something like that. If anyone has info on it, please let me know. The bottom part, obviously, says that it was made in France.

I'd love to know how this thing made its way from France to Decatur, AL over the course of 112 years. I'd love to know who has looked into the mirror and what it's seen over those 112 years. Women brushing their hair before bed. Teenage girls primping before a date. Young men tying their ties on Sunday morning. This mirror has stories to tell.

For many years to come.

I love what I do.

When God Closes a Door, He Opens a Window

The mirror refinishing project is coming along nicely and I hope to have a finished product by my next posting.  Here's what it looked like before I started.

As you can see, it's a nice mirror with a decorative frame.  You can tell in the larger picture that the mirror is beveled around the outside.  The problem with this thing is that it has about 17 coats of paint on it.  The paint was caked on so thick that some of the detail in the carving was lost.  Needless to say, the paint had to go.


So, I'm in the process of getting the mirror to a presentable state and I'll share more pictures of the before, during and after of the entire endeavor.  Although I had thoughts of doing more, I'm only refinishing the frame.  I'm not entirely comfortable with resilvering the glass, so I'll wait until I can practice on a junk mirror for that little science project.  In fact, I didn't even know what resilvering was until I started doing research for this mirror.  For those who don't know, it involves using chemicals to remove the backing of the mirrored glass and then replacing it.  Sounds like more than I wanted to tackle for this project, so I'll let it wait until another time.


Even without the resilvering, I think it's going to look really nice.  It should be finished soon.  Maybe even as soon as tomorrow.  When it's ready, you'll see it here first.


So, since I don't have a restored mirror to show you AND since I had a request or two to tell this story...


Occasionally, I find myself discussing various arts and crafts project or antiques with people.  The conversation usually begins with the other person saying A:  "I didn't know you were into..."  or B:  "Since you're into..."  I was having one of these conversations recently with Sonya, the wife of Bro. Ben, who is the pastor at our church.  She and I were talking about various uses for old solid wood doors and she mentioned that she wanted to build a table using a door.  I had an old door in my garage that I had considered using for a table, so we had plenty to talk about.  That was about 3 months ago.

Around that same time, a house next door to the church was slated for destruction.  The church owns the house and has been renting it out for the last few years.  It's now vacant and, being a pretty old house, is getting pretty run-down.  Rather than sink a lot of money into the house, it was decided that we would tear it down and use the lot for parking.  When I learned that the house was going to be leveled, I started inquiring about getting inside to see if there might be something worth saving.  The house was probably built in the 1940's, so it was possible that I could score some nice decorative architectural pieces.  I'd hate for that stuff to go down with the ship when I can repurpose it and give it a second chance.


Last week, Sonya mentioned that she may have a line on a door.  Apparently, she also had her eye on the house, hoping that there might be a door that would work for her table idea.  So, I told her that if she got the chance to go in the house and scavenge, to be sure to include me.  Since she has "connections", she was able to get the ok for us to check out the house the next day.


We met at the house the next day and I was informed of one slight problem with the plan.  It seems that the only key to the house was in the music minister's truck.  In Mississippi.  Plan B was obvious.  B&E.  (That's breaking and entering for all of you without criminal experience.  I learned it on TV...)  Since Brother Ben was present and sanctioned the crime, I had no problem carrying out the plan.  I assumed he had it cleared with the higher-ups, so all was well.  If the cops showed up during the commission of the 10-31, I could tell them, "Hey, guys...It's cool.  God said we could go in."  Surely, they wouldn't argue with that authorization.

Now, let me be clear about this.  I don't think Brother Ben has a stack of Get Out of Jail Free cards.  I don't think he is authorized to give the divine approval stamp for an assortment of crimes.  Please don't call him and say "Hey, Brother Ben...I hear you got the hook up with The Big Man, so ask him if it's ok for me to knock over a liquor store."  I'm pretty sure you won't get the answer you're looking for.

But, I digress...

I've learned that when the obvious choice isn't really a choice, you should look for the less than obvious choice.  The old cat skinning thing.  I've never skinned a cat, but I have been tempted to shoot a couple of them.  In fact, I had such an intense dislike for Ashli's cats...

Sorry, I was digressing again.

The doors were locked and the key was several hundred miles away.  My first thought was to just kick the door in, but Brother Ben didn't want to leave the house unsecured.  After thinking about it, that made sense.  If we left the door hanging open, somebody would have a meth lab set up in there within a day or two.  Also, in the back of my mind, I had this fear that I would end up falling and breaking my leg in my attempt to kick the door off the hinges.  So, I was relieved that this option was taken off the table.

Next, we checked out the windows.  One was broken and was covered with cardboard and duct tape.  I could have removed the cardboard, but the likelihood of being eviscerated by the broken glass remnants was just too great.  Keep looking.  We finally found a window at the back of the house that wasn't locked, but appeared to have been painted shut sometime during the Eisenhower administration.  But, Ike would tell me to get my tools out and make it happen, so I got to work on the window.  After a few minutes of hammering, prying and pushing, I got it to break loose.

I had to stand on a stool to get up to the window and, when I got through it, I ended up in the kitchen sink.  But, I was glad to have somewhere to land.  I hopped down, opened the door and let Sonya and Ben in.


Ben dropped a few hints that he didn't want to start a Fred Sanford situation at their house.  He didn't come right out and say "I don't want our house to look like John's", but I could read between the lines.  But, I don't think Sonya had intentions of completely looting the house.  She just wanted a couple of doors, so we took the tour to see what we might be able to rescue.


There were several solid wood doors to choose from and we started removing them from their hinges and stacking them against the wall.  It soon became clear that these doors were not your ordinary solid doors.  After lifting a couple of them, I became convinced that they were made with some sort of Titanium/Kryptonite alloy that is 1000 times as dense as the cranium of a teenage girl.

We found two small doors that were about 2/3 the size of the larger doors and they were heavy, too.  I suspect that the Earth's gravity was somewhat different in the 40's, so these doors didn't seem nearly as heavy at the time they were originally installed.  By my calculations, the Earth's gravitational pull in 1940 was approximately the equivalent of the moon's gravitational pull today.  I have no scientific proof of this theory other than the weight of the doors.  But, I challenge you to lift these doors and then argue with me.

During the removal of the bathroom door, I almost fell into the toilet.  Sonya said that if I had actually fallen in and drowned, she would have snuck back to the church and disavowed any knowledge of my presence in the house.  If the roles had been reversed, I really can't say that I would have acted any differently.

So, after we got all the doors down, we decided to grab some of the more decorative pieces of the door facings.  Decorative is a relative term and none of these pieces of trim was especially elaborate, but they will look nice when I transform them into coat racks or some other useful piece of decor.  After the trim work was removed, I decided to see if I could free the mantle from the fireplace.

Again, not very elaborate, but a nice piece.  Opening up that old fireplace made me think of a house Tanya and I lived in during the summer of 1991.  It was an old house and it belonged to Floyd, a co-worker of her dad.  His mother had lived there until she died and the house had been empty for a while.  He needed to rent it, we needed a place to live for a while and things progressed from there.

The house had a fireplace in it, but the fireplace was covered with a piece of plywood.  Tanya's sister, Angela, who was about 14 at the time came to the house one day and asked about the fireplace.  I told her that Floyd had stuffed his mother inside and boarded it up.  Because I did so with a straight face and because, at 14, she didn't know how to tell that someone was yanking her chain, she believed me.  From that point forward, she didn't like coming to our house and she especially didn't like being in the living room near the fireplace.  She really thought Floyd's mother was going to reach out, grab her and pull her into the great fireplace of doom.  I don't know that I ever bothered to tell her otherwise.

 

But, anyway, I got the mantle out and it actually fit perfectly in the back of the Expedition. I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but I'm sure some opportunity will arise.  I may just strip it and refinish it.  I think the same guy who painted the mirror also painted this mantle.  I suspect he was a major shareholder in Sherwin-Williams.

Here's a shot of the top of one of the door facings I got.  I'm looking forward to making something out of them.  More on that another day.









Word of the burglary of the house, with the blessing of Brother Ben, soon traveled around church.  I'm sure there were scandalous stories that would make great headlines for the Weekly World News.  

PREACHER'S WIFE CAUGHT IN ABANDONED HOUSE RENDEZ-VOUS WITH CHURCH DEACON!!!

STEAMY PICTURES INSIDE THE LOVE NEST!!!

Sorry to disappoint anyone, but we were just stealing stuff.

Tune in to later episodes to see the fruits of our criminal labor.

I know this one was a bit lengthy, but thanks for reading! Please follow my blog and share it with your friends, follow me on Twitter and Pinterest in the Connect With Me section and feel free to leave comments below.


Thanks again!!!


John

Trespassers, doorbells and clowns. Oh, my!

I'm in the midst of refinishing the frame of an old mirror I found recently.  I started on it yesterday but I'm taking a break from it tonight because I feel the need to write something.  The problem is, I really don't have a particular storyline I feel like following.  I've tossed a few ideas around, but nothing seemed like it would carry an entire blog entry on its own.  So, because I'm all out of coherent themes, I'm serving up a selection of interesting things I've found and some of the things I've done with them.

Last summer, Joey (my brother-in-law and junking partner) and I were making our weekly Saturday morning yard sale rounds when we happened upon one at the home of Benny and Verna.  Now, we know Benny and Verna from church, but we didn't realize that this was their yard sale until we saw them working the cash table.  When we discovered that we had an "in", we figured we would score some deals, so we started perusing the wares.  After a couple of minutes of looking at Igloo coolers, duck plates and other standard yard sale fare, we found a stack of some of the most amazing woodworking "pictures".  We asked Benny if he made them and he confirmed that he did.  He said that he made them with a scroll saw.  I wasn't familiar with scroll saw art, but apparently there are other people who do this, too.  Now, he doesn't do these free-handed.  That would REALLY be impressive, but even though they are done from a pattern, they are amazingly and beautifully detailed.  Here are some of the pieces I got from Benny.

These things are carved from wood with black felt for the background and they are just stunning!  I got several pieces including fish, dogs and even a clock.  I had no idea that Benny was so talented, so I'm glad I ran across his yard sale and I got the opportunity to take home some of his work.

Here's a sign i bought at an estate sale.  I thought it was funny and I had to have it.  I'm still trying to convince Tanya to let me post it in the front yard.

Another day, we headed across town to a moving sale that started at 8am.  Of course, in the world of hardcore yard sale-ing, 8am means if you show up at 7:30 you'll have already missed the good stuff.  So, we got there early and were overwhelmed at the awesome items.  The house was old which is always a good sign.  I later learned that it was built in 1910.  I love yard sales in this particular neighborhood because the houses are older and a lot of the families have been in these old houses for a bunch of years.  Some of them tend to pile up a lot of stuff over the years and I love being there when they decide to let it go.  But, back to the story.

We scoured the house and started forming a pile of loot by the cash table.  Over the course of the next hour and a half (an incredibly long time to stay at one sale), we found some great things.  I was thrilled to be able to buy some of the things and give new life to them, but, as a bonus, I got to meet Pam.  The house belonged to Pam and had been in her family since well before she was born.  She was moving and getting rid of many of her treasures.  She's a sweetheart of a lady and we seemed to hit it off nicely.  She made us some great deals, but one of my favorite things I got from Pam was the original thumb-twist doorbell from her house.  I removed it from the door facing myself.  As I did so, I thought about all the people since 1910 who twisted that doorbell.  I thought about the door-to-door salesmen, suitcase full of products in hand, ringing it with high hopes.  I thought about the hired help who sprang into action when the doorbell sounded.  I thought about the generations of children and adults, the joy and the sadness, the war and the peace that the doorbell saw.  I was honored to be able to take it with me.

I was by myself, making the rounds, when I found a somewhat unusual item.  When I saw it, I knew I had to have it.  I immediately had plans for it, so leaving it behind wasn't an option.  I mean, how often do you run across one of these?

My oldest daughter, Ashli, has a fear of clowns.  Coulrophobia, as it's known to psychiatrists and sadistic fathers.  So why wouldn't I bring this little gem home with me?  My mind immediately began to race with ideas for "Ronnie", as he has come to be known.  At approximately 5' tall, he can be quite startling if you aren't expecting to round the corner and suddenly see a clown.  

Ronnie has made surprise appearances outside Ashli's bedroom door, in the kitchen and, once, he was even hiding in her closet.  She screamed particularly loudly that time.  :)

A couple of weeks ago, I propped him up just inside the door to the bonus room upstairs.  We don't go in there very often, so I knew it might be a while before he was found.  He stood in the dark, waiting patiently, until Katie opened the door and came face to face with the pure evil of greasepaint, red hair and striped arms.  She screamed like a baby.  Then, she made a few suggestions for what I could do with Ronnie.  They all sounded like they would cause me severe pain or, at the very least, extreme discomfort.  I decided not to follow any of her suggestions.  Instead, I'll hang on to Ronnie and find another opportunity for him spawn nightmares.

My kids love me.

Next time, I hope to have pictures of the finished mirror and maybe another project I have in mind.  In the meantime, share the blog with your friends and enjoy!

John

Sure, Eli Manning Won the Super Bowl, But Look What We Did!

Disclaimer:  In this episode, I don't acquire anything old and I don't make a chandelier out of a 1974 model water hose and a rusty beer can. Maybe next time.

Next order of business. So that I don't have to awkwardly introduce certain people during the course of my entries, here's a cast of characters who I may mention from time to time:

Tanya-My wife

Ashli, Katie & Jack-Our kids. Ages 20, 16 & 5, respectively.

Bacchus-Our dog, probably at least 50% Collie.

Today's special guest stars:

My Dad-Played by my dad

Tanya's Dad-Played by Tanya's dad (You were expecting Brad Pitt?) 

About 3 weeks ago, Tanya and I were sitting around talking about a potential fruit basket turnover of 3 rooms at our house.  We decided to move my "treasures" out of the room we called "The Office" into a room upstairs that had been designated as "Jack's Room" since we moved here almost 5 years ago.  We would also move Jack's toys out of "The Play Room" into "The Office".  Finally, Tanya's sewing machine, fabric and associated items along with our vast collection of arts and crafts supplies would move into "The Play Room".


You got all that, right?


Anyway, it's not as confusing as I made it sound.  The first order of business was to move my collection of Coke bottles, Starlog magazines, a styrofoam head and other things I just couldn't live without to the room upstairs.  The upstairs room was relatively empty, so that phase of the operation went fairly smoothly.  One bonus result of this part of the job was that I found stuff that I forgot that I had.  That's almost as much fun as finding it the first time.


So, with that completed, we moved on to the task of moving the sewing and craft stuff across the hall to the former play room.  That was also pretty uneventful.  About a week had passed since we first hatched this plan and we were now ready to move Jack's toys and stuff into his new room.

But, we started thinking that grey-ish beige isn't really an exciting color for a little boy's room.  Friday, 5pm-Maybe we should paint. Friday, 5:30pm-picking out paint at Lowe's.  Friday, 6pm-taping trim and laying out the drop cloth.  Friday, 9pm-Done.  And, if I may say so, it looked great.  I was very impressed with the Valspar paint and I would highly recommend it.  It covered in one coat, so we had almost 1/2 a gallon left when we finished.  Beautiful blue color and the white trim really popped against the blue.  Take a look for yourself.

It's sort of hard to get a real appreciation for how nice it looked from this picture.  (But, that's not what this posting is really about, as you'll soon learn.)


But, as I said, the blue looked awesome.  Then, we decided we might want to do a little something else in the room.  Maybe some shelves, maybe a cabinet of some sort.  Not my strong point.  Time to call in the cavalry.






My dad lives in a place called Odenville, which is a couple of hours away from here, so I don't get to see him as often as I would like.  When I asked him if he might be able to help me build some shelves in Jack's new room, he jumped at the chance.  He was excited to get to spend the weekend with us and also to be able to build something.  As long as I can remember, he's built bookshelves, tables, 302 engines with 4-barrel carbs...that kind of stuff.  So, I was equally thrilled to have his expertise on this project.


He drove up this past Friday afternoon and, after figuring up a material list, we went to Lowe's that night to get lumber and a few other items we would need.  We came back and, for the rest of the evening, we drank some coffee, fine tuned our plans and just hung out.


Saturday morning started with more coffee (I love coffee, but Dad REALLY loves coffee!  Family tradition, I suppose), Tanya's dad coming over and some standing around in the garage.  When the coffee kicked in, we measured, cut lumber, sanded, painted, pre-drilled holes and made changes on the fly.  We came up with ideas as we worked, we screwed some things up and fixed them and, overall, we had a good productive day.  We topped it off with a birthday get-together for Tanya's dad that night.  A splendid time was had by all.


The next day, it was just my dad and me, but the majority of the work was done.  It was all cut, painted and pre-drilled, so assembly would be quick and easy.  This is normally where the story would take a tragic turn and we would discover that we had inadvertently used metric measurements on all our cuts or that the lumber was infested with Brazilian pine beetles, but disaster didn't visit us that day.  We put everything together, put everything in place and secured it to the wall.  It looked good.  I mean, it looked really good!  Check it out:

Before

Before

And now, the after...

 

I'm totally in love with the way they turned out!  I just wanted to stand there and look at the shelves for hours.  But, it wasn't because I knew what I was doing.  I owe the credit to my dad.  He brought years of experience and used it to help us turn out a great product.  Tanya and I couldn't be more happy with the outcome.  Dad even said they turned out better than he expected.

So, we built some great shelves.  Some shelves that will be so useful in organizing books, DVDs, remote control cars and assorted dinosaurs.  I'm thrilled to be able to get this stuff off the floor and onto these beautiful shelves.

But, I'm most thankful for the almost 3 days I got to spend with my dad.  We worked together, we talked and we got the chance to appreciate each other.  He bragged on me a little and I bragged on him.  He got to spend time with his grandkids and they enjoyed being able to see him.  He told stories about his dog and he got to play with Bacchus.  And, we drank some coffee.

I wish I got to see him more often.  I wish he lived closer.  I wish I weren't so busy so I could go see him sometimes.  I know that one day, I won't have to worry about making time for him, so I'm thankful for the time I have with him now.

He headed back home this morning and he called this afternoon to let me know that he made it home ok.  I was glad to hear that, but I was more glad to hear that now he wants us to build a bigger bed for Jack.  I'm looking forward to it already.

If you're able, give your dad a hug and tell him you love him.

I Found Karma In An Abandoned Building

One day, about a year and a half ago, I was riding through an alley behind some older, run-down looking buildings here in Decatur.  I was just looking to see what I might run across because, sometimes, people throw away good stuff.  I know, hard to believe, but it's true.  Anyway, as I drove slowly through the alley, scanning both sides, I saw a trailer behind a building.  It wasn't a full-sized 18-wheeler trailer.  It was smaller, but the same type of trailer.  But, it wasn't the trailer that caught my eye.  It was the big oval shaped sign on the side of the trailer.  The trailer looked like it had been there for a year or three, so I decided to stop and see if it might be for sale.

I drove around the block to the front of the building, but it didn't take long to realize that this place hadn't been occupied for some time.  I tried to look through the windows, but there were curtains and blinds blocking my view.  So, I went a couple of doors down to a business that actually had humans in it.  I asked if they knew who owned the building, but they didn't have any helpful information.  So, I went back outside and surveyed the scene.

The place was in obvious disrepair.  The roof had lots of missing shingles, there was garbage on the front porch and around the sides of the building and the siding had definitely seen better days.  It occurred to me that if the place was just completely abandoned, I could probably go around to the back and take the sign off the trailer unbeknownst to the owner, wherever he might be, or to anyone else for that matter.  But, I decided that wasn't the thing to do.  Sure, I liked the sign and I really wanted it, but not bad enough to steal it.  Chances are, it would never be missed.  But, wrong is wrong and I elected to do the right thing.  I drove away empty handed.

For the next year, every time I drove down that street, I craned my neck to see the trailer behind the building and, sure enough, the sign still hung there as lonely as the first time I saw it.  I would concoct elaborate schemes involving sneaking in under the cover of darkness, stealthily leaning my extension ladder against the trailer and unscrewing the sign from the trailer.  This is where my ninja training would finally pay off!  Driving away, sign safely tucked into the back seat, I would smile a satisfied smile, knowing that by the time the crime was discovered, I would be long gone.  At least to the other side of town.

But, alas, I have a conscience.  That being the case, my ninja training has yet to be useful.  I just drove past the trailer and the sign, leaving them to continue to rust.

Until August 17, 2011.

On August 17, I happened to be driving down the street in front of the junked building with the trailer behind it.  But, on that day, there were a couple of trucks parked in front, an extension cord run around to the side and a guy on a ladder.  Even better, the front door was open.  I had to stop and check it out.  I parked my car and, as I got out, I saw another man walking between the buildings toward the front.  I walked up and asked him if he knew who owned the building and he said he was the owner.  Things were looking up!

So, I had the right guy.  I told him I was interested in the sign on the trailer and asked if he might be interested in selling it.  He said that he might sell it, but it would probably be about a month before he did.  That sort of puzzled me but I asked what he might want for it.  He said he wasn't sure, but it wouldn't be cheap.  That's not what I wanted to hear.  Then he asked what I would be willing to pay.  Well, at that point, I had to do my best to point out the imperfections, the dents, the rust...all the things that give it character, but detract from the value, depending on which side of the transaction you're standing.

When I mentioned that it had some rust, he looked at me and said, "That thing's aluminum.  It won't rust."  At that point, I detected a communication breakdown.  I said, "Are we still talking about the sign?"  He looked at me and sort of laughed.  "Sign?  I thought you wanted to buy my trailer."  Mystery solved.

After we got on the same page, he admitted that he was a little surprised that anyone would want some old sign like that.  I again asked how much he wanted for the sign and he said, "Well, if you really want it and you're willing to climb up there and take it down, you can just have it."  That wasn't what I was expecting, but I thanked him profusely.  After talking with him for a few minutes, I learned that he was planning to tear down the building the next day.  He mentioned that the building was mostly full of garbage and it was all going to be left in the building when it was torn down.  Of course, I had to ask if I could look through the building and pull out things I might want.  By this time, I'm sure he thought I had completely lost my mind, but he said to go for it.

And, I did.  I looked through every room of that building and determined that, for the most part, he was absolutely correct in his assessment that the building was full of garbage.  But, I happened to dig to the bottom of a garbage can and I found this old corn sheller.

It still has the original wood handle and everything turns freely.  Definitely better than most of the things you would find in the bottom of a garbage can.  I also found an old milk bottle, a wooden chicken (somewhat cooler than it sounds) and a few other interesting items.


So, I came back after work with a ladder and some tools.  After some "persuasion", the rivets that held the sign in place finally decided to give up the fight and the sign was mine!  Here it is leaned against my bumper just after I liberated it from the trailer.

Was this story a bit lengthy?  Maybe.  But, was it entertaining?  I hope so.  And, believe it or not, there's a moral to this story.  Do the right thing and you'll be rewarded for it.  I have no doubt that I could have taken the sign any time I wanted, even without busting out the ninja skills.  But, it was the wrong thing to do.  I waited, went about it the right way and was rewarded with not only a free sign, but also a corn sheller and a wooden chicken.  As if that weren't enough, about 2 weeks later, I sold the sign and put some money in my pocket.  And, I felt good about it.

Thanks for reading.  Please take time to check out the links on the right.  I've added a couple of new For Sale items and I've added some pretty awesome Twitter and Pinterest buttons in the Connect With Me section.  Even if you don't do Twitter or Pinterest, at least go and admire the buttons.

And, as always, please share my blog with your friends.

John