Estate Sale Adventure

Whew, don't worry, you haven't missed anything because I haven't been doing anything exciting with two little ones around. Unless anyone wants to hear about the projectile vomit I was dealing with for a week? Yeah, didn't think so!! Though I believe I have a backlog of a few projects I should post.

My parents were down for  a few days. Friday we were driving to lunch when we happened to spot a garage sale sign and I was driving (not my dad) so I had the power to turn and follow the sign.  I rarely go out to garage sales at the moment because when you have to get two small children in and out of car seats, convince the preschooler we don't need to buy every plushy we see and carry the other one it just sounds exhausting. My dad volunteered to stay in the car with the baby while my mom and I "quickly" checked it out but 45 minutes later....
It turned out to be the estate sale of the year and the lady had lived there since 1956. She was a very organized and clean hoarder also add on the fact very little had been done to the house since 1920 so it was hard to pull ourselves away! My mom and I even went back Saturday morning just to make sure we didn't miss anything, see what else had surfaced and just to browse and dig through boxes without the pressure of knowing my dad is sitting in the car. I only spent $13 but this was days #3 and 4 of the sale. I don't want to know what we missed out on or how many people were crammed into that house on day #1. On the plus side, everything was half price and then some while we were there.

oops, I forgot about my Coke crate I was in the middle of washing.

She had things organized in 1000's of various containers. It's hard to remember the days before the existence of  coordinating plastic bins when one would *gasp* recycle and work with what they had on hand to organize their stuff!?  Though I am guilty because I am gradually replacing my cardboard boxes and feel a great satisfaction while looking over my clear plastic bins neatly stacked in the basement.

She had all of her candles organized in Pringles cans. I opened one labeled girls and boys to find a stack of Gurley candles. Most were warped/scratched and I almost put them back until I realized I liked the pre-barcode Pringles can. The nursery safe plastic Vaseline container is dated 1967 and has cute critters all over.

Band Aid tins and jelly jars seemed to be her favorite organizational devices.

I had a few pieces of this set in with my play food growing up but this tray is huge, they had it in with the regular kitchen stuff because it looks like it should hold real food. The original box sold me and I always like odd things to blend in with my Pyrex.

I think this can be filed under pointless kitchen gadgets of the 1970's.

This odd 3-Dimensional? latch hook kit. It is an Erica Wilson design but I'm not sure I trust her judgement in this case. For .25 I might try putting it together, in 20 years when I have some free time.

Before I knew everything was half price I had this box for $3 because I thought the train was cute. Don't ask me were I will hang it. I don't have a clue - return in 30 years for my 80's Strawberry Shortcake/My Little Pony themed guest bedroom! 

and my...er, um, my daughter's? Sesame Street Little People are now living it up in style because I found a console television for them.

Hopefully next year I will be able to get out and about to some sales. Though it helps in the clutter department not bringing a random box of stuff home every week!

I hate starting my posts with the stereotypical "I am still alive" but I guess it is true, I am still alive! My current project: window shades for child #1 and that has been happening for 6+ months now? Ha! I figured I better check to see if my blog still existed and check in.

I spotted this in my constant snooping of area house listings.

Check out the listing here: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1106-S-20th-St-Lincoln-NE-68502/6574879_zpid/?fullpage=true

It is a beautiful house and it is huge but I didn't realize just how huge until I came to an attic photo:

What!?

I read the listing and it states there are 1750 sq ft unfinished space in the attic!? That is more square footage than my house! (maybe a little less if you want to count in my gross basement space) I can only dream about what I could organize and store in this amount of space! Fifteen Christmas trees of various colors and sizes? 283 boxes of troll dolls which are currently at the back of my closet? Plus it looks like the attic has its own attic if I needed MORE space.

Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well and I do manage to get out to a garage sale or two on the weekends so I am able to leave you with this:

Toy Proofing an Antique Vent

Does anyone else have this problem? Surely someone else has this problem.

A pretty, decorative vent. On the floor of their small child's bedroom. A small child whose favorite toys include tiny Legos, miniature doll houses and we're also starting to get into Barbies. Basically, anything which will fit down the vent. I have access to the bottom of this vent but it is behind the buffet in the dining room so who wants to move that every time Barbie loses a shoe? I needed some sort of preventative feature which didn't involve completely covering the vent or *gasp* replacing the vent.

The vent pops off pretty easy. It has louvers which open and close that screw onto the back. I guess I didn't get a photo of them but you can hopefully picture them.

I was thinking window screening might work, and probably will but I was worried about it getting clogged with fuzz and fur. I had some square chicken wire (1/2" I think) I used in the garden last summer already which is sturdier than window screening, maybe a little easier to keep clear? I did double it up so what you are seeing is two layers. I just cut it, and then the louvers screw back over the top and keep it in place. Why didn't I get a photo of it with the louvers?

 Here it is set back into the floor. It looks better than I thought it would and has saved a Littlest Pet Shop tea cup so in my mind it has paid for itself already.