I spent Monday pulling the juicy bits out of a delicious craftsman house. Sometimes its hard to justify taking the sawzall to perfectly built hundred year old architectural elements, but its me or the dumpster.

I tried for longer than I should have to get these two cabinets out whole. I practically dismantled the fireplace they flanked, after it tried to fall on me. I cut large swaths through the surrounding walls and behind them after I got the mantle out. No such luck though, the real problem with true craftsmanship is that it was too integral  to the room. I finally had to cut the faces off these guys and call it a day. And that took way longer than it should have too. Well hopefully they will get put somewhere that will last more than just another hundred years, I hope the people tearing it out in 2107 realize its 200 years old.

This Early 1900s raised panel wall cabinet was laying around work this afternoon. I believe my heart skipped a beat when I saw it from across the room. After a few coy glances and a giggling introduction I started to paw it searching for the tell tale signs of era, pedigree, patina, structural integrity. I went home without it tonight but I dont think ill be able to pass it again tomorrow. I feel that we were meant to be together.

This little Egyptian artifact was stuck to the top of a kitchen cabinet I pulled out today. He was quite dessicated.

I found this little guy in the school district dumpster that’s a regular haunt of mine. The orange paint seems to want to come off extremely easily but it has other issues that need attention as well. Its a little weak in the knees and the whole think wobbles pretty fiercely. Only one of the lower support spans is missing though and overall theres no structural damage. This looks like a good candidate for a complete tear down.

With some careful pressure, a mallet, a 5 in 1 and plenty of wiggling I managed to pull it all apart. I made sure to label all the joints so that I can assemble it the exact same way it came apart.

Once everything easy is apart I asses whether to take the back apart as well, because Im lazy and cautious I dont want to take it apart if I dont have t. However because its pretty wobbly and the paint will come off easier if its apart I go ahead and take the mallet to it.

I finally had enough bad weather to get a little work done on the orange. I finished sanding the back, careful not to remove my markings.

I actually gave up on hand sanding and on my ancient sheet sanders that I got at garage sales for $5. I dropped $60 on a new Porter Cable 3 amp random orbital sander. Lets just say “I LOVE THE FUTURE” it took me 20 minutes to do the same amount of sanding I had accomplished in an hour. Once I had double checked that all my pieces were in the right place I applied some Samurai glue in all the dowel peg holes. I like the new expanding poly glues because they have a little elasticity, they fill voids as they cure and they stick to everything except silicone. Of course theyre expensive theyre more likely to dry up in a half used bottle, and the bottles themselves are a pain in the ass to squeeze glue out of.

I still tend to use good old wood glue if im working on something antique though because if it needs to be repaired again in the next milenium it will come apart.

Once fitted together everything was pretty tight so I tenderly used the mallet to set it all the way together. I then clamp using my ratchet strap. I only see a tiny bit of glue seep so far, I was pretty conservative with it knowing that it will spew everywhere if over applied. Its super easy to sand off when dry though so Im not worried.

Now that im done sanding I check the stability of the rest of the dowels and decide to make a new lower support span.

I dont have any scrap oak but I do have a bunch of old maple flooring. I find a piece big enough and whittle out a new spar. I have to be careful to match the odd angle where it seats into the back leg.

Once its right I sand em both down and I’m ready to assemble the whole thing.

OK now Iv’e glued everything and screwed in the blocks and seat pan. Next ill stain it a nice dark nut brown.

Wow! check out this post WWII all inclusive minikitchen. Its all enameled steel with a large central sink, three burner electric range and oven. But the big surprise is the big silver button below the sink that pops open an under-counter fridge. all that in a unibody construction styled in what I call “progress”.

I’ve been meaning to post this to the blog for some time. I found the washer at an estate sale for free and hauled it home sometime last winter. When I plugged it in everything worked, however I couldn’t convince myself to replace the modern washer dryer combo with this so its been in my yard for months. About a month ago Boe filled it with water and got a fountain pump with a simple bamboo spout. Neither of us were especially pleased with it until I pulled off the bamboo and ran the hose up into the wringer assembly. Now it has a nice trickle from across the entire assembly. I had picked up a small cup of Fairy Moss at our favorite garden store behemoth Flower World, which we jokingly referred to a paying $2.99 for pond scum, and Boe put a small cutting of sedge and some water clover from our big pond in it as well.

I found this really cool Bizzarro thing in the store today. It turns out its a case for a grandfather clock which was hand carved by someone named Smile out of fir. The upper crest is sort of flames and all the cross members have egg sized Diamonds on them. There are also panels of hand cut dowels on several flat surfaces.

Since this town is only 130ish years old finding truly old antiques is a bit, um, futile. Although Ive had some luck finding furniture made of hardwoods, especially small items, like chairs. However as the major parts of this state as well as far into Canada and Oregon were built on logging fir trees there are some amazing fir things that pop up in my travels. This fir built in mailbox cubby was in one of the local schools that are being renovated in Seattle. It has great woodgrain and very simple craftsman cabinet doors on the lower third.

This is the fireplace with the coat of arms assembled on a display for sale.

Here is a close up of the carved coat of arms found on a White (possibly Alaskan) Marble fire place from a house built in 1890 In Seattles Capitol hill neighborhood. It features a pair of gryffons rampant around a central shield.