Salvage Archives - Page 7 of 12

Wednesday Was Salvage Day

July 9, 2009 RH 4 Comments

Two of our garden apartment shutters are kaput. I thought it would be easier to pick up a salvaged set rather than repair these, but I have searched high and low and I’ve come up with zilch.

First I went to Eddie’s and Vaccaro’s. Small selections. I figured I could find them upstate at Zaborski’s. I took a trip up there yesterday. There was an entire room full of shutters, but alas, none matched. Then I tried Hoffman’s across the river and they were closed. What a waste!

Oh, wait…it wasn’t a total waste. I did pick up the chunky balusters we’ll be using on our Beacon porch. Eight bucks apiece x 23 = $184 total. I have to strip them, but no modern day trees were harmed and I saved a good $20 apiece. Good thing, since I’ll need that money to pay the carpenter to fix the broken shutters.

A Visit to Vaccaro’s Salvage

June 15, 2009 RH 4 Comments

We needed to match a couple of Victorian ball tip door hinges so we finally got to visit the new Vaccaro’s location on the Park Slope/Carrol Gardens border.

Vaccaro Brothers Scrap Metal had been selling wholesale and retail out of a garage on 15th Street for about 50 years. The family had been in the scrap metal business for around 50 years prior to that. Now you can find Roy Vaccaro’s “New York Old Iron” right under the F train el near the Lowe’s parking lot.

The specialty here is iron. Gates, stoop ballusters and posts. If you’re looking to re-do the front of your brownstone stoop as we will be soon, this is the place. Be sure to have photos and measurements if you’re ready to get going on your project. Lots of pieces look similar but won’t necessarily work together.

Vaccaro’s has a decent selection of doors and sinks. There isn’t much furniture or wood as this is an outdoor place and only so much is sheltered from harsh weather.

Here’s an example of the pricing….We did find our hinges. Well, not really. We picked up 4 more ornate ones instead for $10 apiece. They’ll need stripping, but no biggie. Olde Good Things charges $125 for 3 of the same hinges, stripped. Less expensive places are around $25 apiece. So, not a bad deal.

Casa Cara’s article on Vaccaro’s

Urban Miners Salvage, CT

June 4, 2009 RH 7 Comments

Flower Chair: $95

I haven’t been yet (Have any of you?) so I can’t go into too much detail, but I just found out about a salvage place in Hamden, CT called Urban Miners.

The prices seem fair and it looks like they have tons of stuff. ROAD TRIP!!! Who’s driving?

Wide plank pine: $ 3.95 sq ft

Disassembled church pews: $40

Film Biz Recycling

May 11, 2009 RH 8 Comments

Finally got over to Film Biz Recycling in Long Island City. It was sooooo worth the trip!

Ok, here’s the rundown. Eva Radke founded the business a couple of years ago when she got pissed off about all the film props being thrown into dumpsters. The non profit company takes donations from production sets and resells or rents the items. The 2nd floor warehouse is chock full of tschotskes, small furniture and crazy cool stuff such as reproduction 1970’s toilet paper and fake street signs.

I came back with half a van full of goodies that included a child’s table and chair set, coffee table, wicker hamper and tons of smalls.

If you need to furnish your house, decorate it or get linens and kitchen supplies, this is the place to go!

Dude, It’s A Moldy Old Board!

May 11, 2009 RH 2 Comments

You either got the salvage bug or you don’t. When I was doing the flea market on Saturday, some guy came around with a piece of wide plank tongue and groove molding. A sample of a room full of the stuff that he’s giving away for free! It’s 3/4″ thick pine, detail on the front and I figure it can be used as a floor if you installed it face down.

Let me reiterate. Antique wide plank. Free. It made my day! My flea neighbor Amy was all like “Dude, why are you getting excited over a piece of moldy old board with nails in it?”

Some people just don’t get it.

Including my husband. We’re passing on the board which I wanted for our deck, because he says pine won’t hold up outdoors. I wish we had a room that needed flooring, but we’re running out of major interior restoration work at the moment. So if anyone wants this, the guy has it in front of his house in Ditmas now. I don’t want to post his phone # and address, so let me know.

Oh, and he also has a clawfoot tub. Hel-lo!

Intro to Antiques

March 11, 2009 RH 2 Comments

I was e-chatting with Kristi of Here Be Old Things over the weekend and she sent me a link to her Mother’s Day post on how became interested in antiques.

It made me think about my own history with old junk.

My parents always liked modern design. Well, can you call it design if it’s just contemporary crap? Fuzzy couches and mirrored mantels? It looked like I was growing up in a pimp’s crib! Anyway, my mother hates antiques. No use for them. She did, however, work as a bookkeeper for an antiques dealer. A dealer who happened to be her best friend also. I spent more time over at her antique filled home next door than in my own. That was probably the start of it.

During my teens and early twenties in the 80’s I was the Vintage Clothing Queen (Ok, I still am). If I wasn’t shopping at Reminiscence, Canal Jeans, Zoot or Unique, I’d be scavenging stoop sales and flea markets. Now a favorite pastime.

Our first home project wasn’t a proper restoration. The house was 1905, but all of the detail was long gone, so it was just a new renovation. The second home wasn’t old at all. It wasn’t until our third and fourth homes that we started looking into salvage and period furnishings. We’ve been going a little overboard keeping it real. More work, but more fun and less money….as long as we DIY.

And that, my friends, is how I really got involved with all of this old crap. I can’t believe how much we used to spend on antiques before researching this properly. Hello, $3500 dining room table? $2000 armoire? I swear I can find these things for less than $500 now, easy!

So that’s my story. What’s yours?

Bed Stuy Reno Progress

March 9, 2009 RH 8 Comments

It’s been slow going on our Bed Stuy living room. Hubby has been repointing bricks and adding new joists for an eternity now. He’s supposed to be working on it about three nights per week after work, but I call him about 7pm and he’s always just leaving work, so not much is really getting done.

There have been some baby steps made since I last posted about it before the New Year. Most of the pointing is done and he’s got some new joists in. There’s still plenty of work to do around the windows. All of the wood was pretty rotted from past water damage. Once he s-l-o-w-l-y finishes this and gets it closed in, we’ll have the floor guy replace the tongue and groove and finish the floor. Everything else is a piece of cake. Really, just painting from there.

I headed over to Eddie’s on Saturday to look for front doors to our apartment. The previous owner had exterior French doors which we covered with plastic bags since tenants moved in 3 years ago. It matches our window curtains. We’ll use those glass doors in the hallway to let some light in, but we prefer privacy when sitting around the living room in our jammies. When we have a living room, that is.

The double mahogany doors cost $100 including the original hardware. It looks like I’ll only need to strip one coat of paint and I don’t even think it’s primed. Might be just shellac. The doors will sit in the hallway for another 3 months at least, but it made me feel like I accomplished something by getting them.

Hey, we’re on a roll, huh? Is there anyone who works slower than us??

What Is It?

February 9, 2009 RH 5 Comments

My friend is purchasing her first home and we were looking around the basement the other day. We came across this huge object and the three of us didn’t have a clue as to what it was. I showed the photo to the hubby and he got it immediately. Can you?

If she doesn’t want it, I call first dibs. Hello new lawn sculpture!

More Salvage Magic

December 19, 2008 RH

The disease has spread to the hallway.

Once again, I’ve spent my week finding salvaged pieces around the house looking to make something useful out of them. This coming Sunday is my last market of the season (Gifted) and then my life and this blog goes back on track for a few weeks until I show up at the Dumbo market.

Here’s what I came up with this week.

Some guy from Manhattan Fruitier came up to me at the flea market and gave me this box. I painted it and put some felt on the inside bottom and now it’s a golden beauty.

Yeah, been there, done that. I’m getting bored with these door knob hooks already, but buyers aren’t and I’m a ho for the dollar. I got my hands on some nice glass knobs and detailed back plates, so I’m groovin’ to these. How do you like my molding on top? No miter. Just by eye. It sucks, I know.

I experimented with some 6×6 parquet tile flooring. I love the way these frames look, but I need to figure out what to do with the back because the mesh alone is not strong enough. Ideas? The images below are parquet flooring also.

A Trip to the Newburgh ReStore

December 18, 2008 RH 3 Comments

I want

I’ve been meaning to go to the Newburgh ReStore since they opened in September and I finally got there yesterday.

My first impression was that it was warm and inviting. This may be the first salvage place I’ve been to that was actually heated. The upstairs is where the furniture is. Some mid century stuff, some antiques and the newer crap. All very fair prices. The lighting was mostly newer but I did see an antique crystal chandelier.

Downstairs (less heated) has the building materials. Windows, doors, shutters, molding….the works. I needed some antique molding and I found it without much trouble.

ReStores take donations of items that would otherwise end up in landfills. I was told that this particular store has salvaged about 16 tons of goodies since it opened only a few months ago. They are constantly getting new inventory in. I think I found a new home.

NYC Transit Memorabilia

October 22, 2008 RH 7 Comments

Hubby won’t let me get these groovy subway doors for our house. How cool would they look for a bathroom? And they’re only $175 for the pair!

Whether you’re a subway buff like Travis the Trannyboi or you just want to decorate your home with some cool sh*t, check out the MTA’s surplus material section. These items aren’t dirt cheap, but it beats Ikea. Or wherever you kids buy your decor these days.

Subway seat: $500

Polls: $25 each

Roll signs: $350

Gargoyles and Griffins

October 15, 2008 RH 2 Comments

I’ve always wanted a haunted looking home. It’s coming along nicely due to years of neglect (that’s a whole other post), but what I really want is scary gargoyles and griffins to keep watch over my creepy looking house. And what better time to start shopping (or dreaming) than Halloween?

An authentic salvaged piece is the way to go. Two problems. They are heavy and they ain’t cheap! But if you can afford it and you’re able to secure it so it won’t fall on a passerby’s head, here are some tips on where to purchase them.

Check any and every local salvage yard. It will save you the cost of shipping. Go Antiques has some nice listings, as well as Ebay. A google search brought up Sarasota Salvage. They seem to have a few pieces at decent prices. Again….the shipping could end up doubling the cost.

If you want to cheat, who will know? Especially if the statue is sitting high atop your home. Gargoyles.org or Garden Statue Shop are just two of the many places to purchase new stone architectural detail. Just make sure to get them in time to scare away those annoying trick or treaters.

All Hail Eddie: Brooklyn’s Salvage King!

September 12, 2008 RH 13 Comments

**Archive. Originally posted October 2, 2007.

His prices are insane!

Stripping Paint

Eddie Hibbert is famous in Brooklyn. At least amongst those of us struggling to restore our 100 year old homes. Located on Greene and Grande in Clinton Hill, Eddie doesn’t have a website. He doesn’t answer his phone. He opens at noon and is closed on Sundays and Mondays. And yet…he can’t handle all the business he gets.

An ex firefighter and member of the Vulcan Society, Eddie found his way into the salvage business some 30 years ago while living in Harlem. A guy who was salvaging brownstone details told him that the artisans who built these fine homes wouldn’t be around forever and the value was bound to go up. Eddie listened. He studied up on antiques and volunteered to help “mentors”. He started out by selling to the antique shops on Atlantic Avenue. His 2 original stores were on Myrtle Avenue.

Apart from the usual Brownstoner crowd, Eddie’s customers range from Williamsburg artists to folks looking for unique headboards such as doors or mantles. He gives work to guys who need it, but has to be careful about whom he takes with him into people’s homes. A long time customer who was there the day I was interviewing Eddie chimed in “He’s too kind hearted for his own good!” Eddie just says “I’m a simple guy.”

What you’ll find: Everything. Dig for it or ask. Doors, Mantles, Fireplace Inserts, Shutters, Newell Posts, Fretwork, Stained Glass…..if it came out of a brownstone, it’s here.

Hudson Armory

August 25, 2008 RH 3 Comments

My van was full of furniture for a week. I finally got up to Hudson Armory Art and Antiques to unload it on Saturday. The armory is owned and run by the Keegan family: Mom (Jean), Dad (Ed Sr) and Son (Ed Jr). They have an impressive selection of vendors with really decent pricing. A shame I didn’t have time to take pictures as the hubby was whining about needing something to eat after helping me unload.

Two Hudson dealers recommended I not go with the armory. They said it’s too far off the beaten path and I should stick to Warren Street. The other criticism was that the Keegans don’t try to sell the items because they’re not working on commission. Well, I gave them a chance anyway.

First of all, the monthly charge is $250 compared to the starting price of $600 plus commission at The Supermarket. Carousel came highly recommended, but has a waiting list. One dealer suggested The Coxsackie Antiques Center over the armory, saying it gets traffic from Hudson. I don’t get why something over the river, miles away would get more traffic than a shop around the corner. What am I missing?

What sold me on the armory is the space, number one. When we left, my husband said “I want to buy an armory.” Honey, say no more! I’m there! I also like the way my merch gels with everyone else’s. The items being sold aren’t stuffy expensive antiques. There’s an assortment of affordable eclectic offerings. A vintage phone booth for $450 was crying out to me to take it home for the brownstone hallway. “Add some coat hooks inside and make a little coat/brolly/mail closet.” It said. There was some decent vintage artwork for under $100. I saw architectural salvage as well as antique furnishings.

Hopefully next time I go, I’ll have the chance to shop and take pictures. And meet up with Hallie the Holy Hudson honey.

Antique Tile Sources

July 15, 2008 RH 4 Comments

Antique tiles are NOT inexpensive! But they are oh-so-gorgeous. Best bet to save money is try to find the tiles at a salvage place such as Island Girls (ok, pricey also). Those high brow tile boutiques will set you back a few bills, but keep in mind, you can always accent boring Home Depot tiles with a few pieces of the good stuff.

Here are some local and online sources for your antique tile needs. If they don’t fit your budget, at least get some ideas.

Bungalow Bill

Solar Antique Tiles

Luxetile

Karen Michelle Antique Tiles

L’Antiquario

reclaimedhome.com

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