GOING BACK IN TIME

TODAY Canadians are celebrating Victoria Day with a long weekend and fireworks tonight, and my neighbors in the United States are celebrating Memorial Day and for them it is also a long weekend which will also have fireworks, so HAPPY LONG WEEKEND to everyone on this side of the Atlantic!

I realize it has been a few weeks since I last posted, but honestly, I have been busy helping a friend who has bought the house of a collector turned hoarder!  What a mess!!!  THIS summer journey is going to be like going back in time...

By way of an explanation, do you recall that program on television which takes you into the houses of Hoarders????  WELL I have been helping with an estate property which is one of those houses...almost 70 years worth of collecting is in this house.

THANKFULLY while the food stuffs are very aged - there was no rotting food only the wee mice to contend with.  There are only tiny pathways to this nightmarish maze. Everywhere you look you will see rocks of all sizes, dimensions, colors and textures lining the floors, windows sills, mantels, railings, hallways, even in the bathrooms.....there is no where to sit down because each chair or chesterfield is full of things, there is no surface space because each and every thing that can be called a surface is literally piled high to overflowing with things.  The windows are sealed by old storm windows which need to be taken off and which I hope will happen tomorrow, once we clear a pathway to the windows or at the very least one window so that we can get fresh air into the house and not breath in the stale air of 50+ years.

This elderly person was not only a rock enthusiast, but a collector of anything and everything he decided could be classified as antiques, paintings, books, glassware, china, porcelain, clothing, shoes, handbags, silverware, you name it I bet you I can find it in that house or on this property.  No matter where you look, no matter which building you are in (there are five buildings on this property) or on which part of the property you want to place your feet, you must literally look to where it is your placing them as the entire property is filled to its capacity, each building houses boxes, crates, piles of STUFF!!!!

Apparently this person and his spouses were collectors and his latest spouse was a hoarder. There isn't a wall that isn't plastered with paintings, posters, etchings, plaques and glass plates of all sizes and dimensions. 

BESIDE the hoarding of the 8 years, there was the collecting over the past 50 years and combined it is quite the nightmare!  The chaos of the hoarding coupled with the collections is very overwhelming.

There are boxes and boxes of Vintage everything, calendars, post cards, old pictures and jars of marbles, boxes of silver cutlery, childrens' stuffed toys, dolls and books, old and what he believed to be rare books, old 78 rpm records as well as vinyl records, cameras, moving picture apparatus as well as fittings for old time cinema movie projectors, old iron black kettles, old stone jugs and jars, old old tools used for carpentry and construction, maps, magazines, comic books, boxes of ladies hats, mens' hats, jewelry both good with precious stones and racks of costume jewelry too!  I could go on and on, but really just repeating it all is giving me a headache.

For the items of any value whatsoever we decided to open a new shop on Etsy for anything Vintage and boy is there every a lot of Vintage!  Not many items listed yet because it takes time to research, photograph and list each article, but, if your interested come and browse the shop!

I will be spending days, weeks possibly months researching, cataloging and photographing each and every piece all of it fun, but, time consuming and exhausting.

I am worn out from just sharing all of this with you... I found some old snap shots taken in the early 70's and there were quilts in those picture but I haven't found them yet but am keeping an eye open for sure.  If I find them I will share with you.  

Looks like the rest of this year is going to be exhausting...but I am going to keep smiling just the same so people will wonder what I have been up to!

I'll check in again in a day or two and share more of my exploratory house travels so if I have not bored or tuckered you out, come back and check up on me if for no other reason but to make sure I haven't become a missing person.

 Instead of counting your days, make your days count.  ~Author Unknown