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.

Estate Sale Treasures

I love estate sales - real, honest -to-goodness estate sales, not the kind where folks put out junk that should just go to the dump and think a sign proclaiming it an "estate" sale classes it up.  No, I mean the genuine estate sale in which the contents of the entire house,  and even the house is for sale.  Being naturally nosey curious, I love wandering through other people's houses.  You can tell so much about people by things they have keep.  I love seeing people's passions reflected in their surroundings - art, book, hobbies, photos - it all tells a story.  I have gone to estate sales at houses that had no personality - nothing to give a clue about who lived there and what they loved.

Estate sales are also sad.   I always wonder about the people who lived in the home, why their treasures are for sale and what happened to them.  There was a beautiful picture of the owners at this week's estate sale - the first time I've even seen personal pictures at a sale.   Not sure if this picture made me feel worse or better about going through their things, but I was glad to see how happy they looked.  Now I can fantasize that they were selling all their stuff to simplify their lives and are sitting on a tropical beach, enjoying drinks with umbrellas and each other.

Estate sales make us think about our own mortality and the people who might end up pawing through my stuff.  Do you suppose anyone would think it odd that I have enough small plates to feed lunch to a small town?  Or that I have hundreds of stamps?  Or that the Captain and I have hundreds of books?

The estate sale home was filled with things that brought joy to the people who lived there  - pottery, dishes, books, art, travel memorabilia and fiber arts supplies.   That and two chairs on the river bank - think they sat there and enjoyed drinks and each other, too.

This was a great sale - clearly the woman who lived here and I share a love of pottery, dishes, and art.   The kitchen was filled with gorgeous stuff - including some really pricey pieces, like hand-painted desert plates from France for $800!  But, check out these great pottery finds that were within my budget:

Berry bowl

I''ve been looking for some pottery goblets - love these!

I love finding art supplies!  The woman who lived here was a weaver and had all kinds of yarn.  I'm not a knitter or weaver, so I forced myself to walk by all those gorgeous skeins.  But then I found this box full of yarn samples - yippee!  I love punched edges and punched edges WITH fibers - swoon-worthy.

Apparently Ms. Weaver sent away for all kinds of samples, so in addition to great fibers, there is wonderful fiber-related ephemera.

I found this handmade script monogram in another box.  It doesn't matter that these aren't my initials; the design is beautiful.

I made this fun card for a friend.  See,  I knew those fibers would work with paper !

(stamps from River City Rubberworks)

Yard Sale Treasures

 

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Yippee! It's yard sale season !   The Captain is a good sport, getting up early, making to-go coffee, and being driver and hauler of treasures.  In my experience yard sales  follow the rule of extremes - either lots of great stuff at reasonable prices or yucky, tacky stuff wildly overpriced.  My rule is to "shop up" - find great neighborhoods and usually they are selling  great stuff to make room for even better stuff.   We make a morning of it and usually end up at the farmer's market where The Captain gets rewarded for his patience with some breakfast treat.

 

We hit a couple of great sales this weekend.  As soon as we drove up to the first house and I saw some great architectural elements in the gardens, I started hyperventilating.   It was a sale of possibilities - broken bits of old furniture, pieces of architectural elements, gears, wheels and rust - lots of lovely old rust.

 

Here are my treasures and their new incarnations:

 The swirly cast iron pieces are now part of the deck décor:

 

 

This sweet chair back, complete with lots of detail and old chippy green paint looks at home in one of the gardens.

 

 

 

 



Not really sure where this chair will live, but it's in great shape, was only $10, and has potential - a new seat cushion, maybe even a new color and it will be a star.

 

 



 

I love Bennington Pottery.  We used to live dangerously  close to their factory store.  Of course I could not resist this gorgeous greeny-blue set - and only $1.00.  I'm enjoying my morning cup of joe in the hand-painted china mug from Germany.  It was  pricey - $3.00 !

 

 

And pretty sure you can't have too many ocean-inspired dishes:

 

 

But, the piece de resistance - a terra cotta cloche pot. I've been scouring online for one, inspired by some I saw in gardens we visited in Scotland:

 

 

Turns out they aren't that easy to find, and most are considered "vintage", which we all know is code for  "we can charge even more for these".   I'm at the yard sale where I got the garden goodies and while digging through old terra cotta pots,  look what I found:

 

 

Did you hear me squealing?   Holy moly, what a little beauty and clearly the find of the day - maybe even the year.  Oh, and it was $5.00 - I'm a lucky ducky for sure.

 

 

I have it settled into a spot that I can see from my rocking chair, so I can gaze on it every morning, drink my coffee, and marvel at my good fortune!  It's so sweet I almost don't notice  that the garden could use some weeding.