Estate Sale House-Gawking (and Some Buying)

Half the fun of estate sales is the estate.  How often do you get to do sanctioned snooping around gorgeous old homes?   Today's sale was in Cape Neddick, Maine, well within what locals call Maine's "Volvo Belt".   The VB spans the southern coast,  the place of grand ocean vistas,  beautiful homes, and people with plenty of disposable income.  There are great spots on the northern coast {or in some perverse bit of old New England geography-humor, "down east"},  but not quite so many grand homes or wads of cash.

I like estate sales run by professionals.  In our area, the sale runs Friday through Sunday.  The way they work it is that on Friday prices are firm, Saturday's negotiable and Sunday, most reasonable offers accepted.  There are reasons to go every day - Friday obviously offers first dibs on stuff, Saturday is for dickering if there's something you really want but not at the listed price, and Sunday is for "what the heck, let's see what's left".

I snapped a few pictures while no one was looking.  You can check it out in it's pre-sale glory on this real-estate video tour here.   No word on the sale price, but quotes were between 1.2 and 1.9 million.

  That's a small fireplace in the kitchen wall.

One of the back decks.

Window seat, second floor balcony.

The neighborhood wasn't too shabby either:

Much of the furniture was already sold or not for sale, but there were lots of small treasures.   Here are mine:

I try not to wash too many dishes by hand, so never planned to use this dish drainer for its original purpose.  I first thought I'd use it as a planter in the garden, but then decided to use it on the counter  for fruit.  Not sure if I'll keep the silverware piece on it, but for now works for lemons and limes.

Maybe you noticed this antique scale in the video.    It was my priciest purchase at $30.00, but I saw it on eBay for lots more.   

I'd love to use it outside as a plant hanger, but not sure it would do well in the rain.  It looks so cute!

A couple of festive tea towels.

I've been wanting one of these glass containers - perfect for an elderflower spritzer I plan to make for summer company.

And a huge enamel roaster.

 Gorgeous house, great finds and a new neighborhood to explore - win, win, and win.