Yup, this is a sign that we've spent the last two weeks trying to clean out our basement, ready to begin construction on our reno project in early March.
You would not believe the things we found down there...
I'll digress for a moment to say it is not easy living among numerous extended family members for whom household organization appears to be a veritable science and passionate hobby. These are people who know the shapes, sizes, and names of the modules available from IKEA's closet organizing system. They have special nooks in their homes that fit their sparse possessions perfectly. And, I bet when they need their Christmas lights, they always know where they are.
Let's just say our home is a little more, well, "lived in". Not that we wouldn't enjoy less clutter. And we certainly could do without all our kids' Lego models on display throughout the living room. But somehow, that idyllic state of peaceful tidiness always seems just out of our reach.
The basement, on the other hand, is a whole different story. Since it's not been "lived in" at all, it has been a giant storage space for the last 12 years. We've taken advantage of all that space to avoid making hard decisions about throwing stuff away.
However, the laws of physics dictate that we will not be able to cram all that stuff into the new storage space, which will be less than half the size we have today.
So, it's been a bit of a project sorting through it all. And, like I said, you would not believe the things we found down there... To list but a few prime examples:
- 1975 Webster's Dictionary - Does not contain the words internet, email, blog, or cellular phone.
- 1978 Income Tax Return (Lyle's) - Featuring a total income of $3,261 and a tax credit of $683 for a whole year's university tuition and fees.
- 1992 High School Diploma (mine) - Along with a bunch of other memorabilia of course -- the school key chain, a school pin, and several school mugs. No yearbooks though. What happened to those, I wonder?
- 1994 User Guide for 14400 bps fax/modem - I remember buying that thing - I splurged on the "fast" model. No sign of the modem itself.
I also found some nice surprises among the heap. For example, the bottom piece for our toaster! (You know, that thing that holds the crumbs? It's been missing for years...)
On a more sentimental note, I also came across the long lost negatives for our wedding pictures!! (Along with several boxes of old family photos I thought I would never see again...)
And now, for the grand finale... I will reveal the two most spectacular items found in our basement cleanup.
1. A funky antique Bohemian Crystal Czech lamp (photos below), which my husband inherited from his maternal grandmother. Not my usual taste, but still kind of cool. If you believe what you read on ebay, it may actually have a value of several hundred dollars. If you have any information about this type of thing, please let us know. We don't plan to sell it though. Maybe we'll use it in one of our new basement rooms.
2. A set of vintage Polk Audio Monitor 7 Speakers (circa 1972), which apparently are still worth listening to today... Here's a sample review from an audiophile website:
"Wow! talk about a KILLER set of vintage speakers!! screaming, crisp highs! liquid midrange, and earth shaking bass!! ... These vintage treasures are a must have for ANY vintage audio buff or music lover!!"
I could not make this stuff up.
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| Bohemian Crystal Czech Lamp, found in basement cleanup. Bonus, in the top photo you can see some of the famous oak trim. |
In the past, Heather showed no interest in the lamp (used ones sell for $400 on ebay) and told me the Polk Audio speakers had to go--they didn't fit in the TV room. As a dutiful husband, I obeyed though I knew they were great speakers. When I investigated selling them recently, I RE-realized what gems I had and said I would like to use them again in the new multi-media room in the basement. Fortunately, Heather agreed.
ReplyDeleteSorry Heather, I know that you found the base to your toaster. I still think the toaster has to go. I try to toast bread with it and, with the same setting but depending on the day and mood of the toaster, the bread can come out burnt to a crisp and setting off the smoke detector or just slightly warmed. Sometimes I get a nice slice of toast but even then only one side seems to get toasted--the other side is slightly warmed. How a toaster can manage that I probably will never know. Heather, I know it was your first kitchen appliance but the only reason we use it was that the toaster I brought into the marriage died a few months ago and was unrepairable. Now that was a toaster that knew how to toast and do it reliably.
As to your discovering the base to the toaster, I did think there never was a bottom to the toaster as I had never seen one in 13 years of marriage. I thought it was a bit odd but realized how convenient a toaster is without a bottom. You never have to clean it out as they just fall out. Instead, I just wipe the counter under the toaster after every use.
I have an update to the issue of water under the basement floor discussed in a comment to one of Heather's prior blog. A city crew finally showed up. I mentioned that they sure took awhile to get here. They told me they got the call at 1:22 pm and showed up at 1:41 pm (19 minutes). However, I mentioned that this was after prodding the city with a few calls to 311.
This blog site only allows 4,096 characters to a comment so...
TO BE CONTINUED!
OK. Part 3, But that is it for now. I hope you are still with me...
ReplyDeleteCleaning the basement out is a good reason to sell stuff we no longer need. I'm posting things for sale on kijija but as I have had prior experiences with kijiji, I am better prepared this time. Some people have funny ideas about buying things. For example...
When I sold my Pathfinder a few years ago, someone came over and looked it over. He said the price was appropriate (as I had priced it comparably to other used Pathfinders on the market) but then offered me $1,200 less. He said that his wife was pregnant and the Pathfinder would need running boards so she could step into it. He added that the running boards would not increase the value of the Pathfinder should he choose to sell it. So, basically, he would buy the Pathfinder from me if I was to buy the running boards. I said to forget it and still sold the vehicle a few days later for my asking price. With this logic, he could have decided to repaint the vehicle if he didn't like the colour and then have me pay him to cover the cost of painting if it was more than the vehicle was worth.
In another example, I was selling the highchair my sister and brother-in-law gave us after the birth of our first son. It had a couple of scratches and a couple of small cracks in the vinyl cushion. I was asking about $30 for a chair that new would cost about $150 plus GST. (This was a cadillac highchair.) Someone came and looked at it and said I needed to cut the price to $10 or less because they would need to buy a new cushion for it that would cost at least $20. Then it would be like new. I didn't say it but I thought it: if they WANT a brand new highchair, they should go to Babies 'R Us and put down $150 plus $7.50 in tax. Naturally, I refused to sell it for $10. The reason it was priced at $30, $120 less than new, was that it was used!!! People sometimes seem to expect to cut the price of a used item to cover their costs of betterment even though it is a bargain in the first place.
This time around, I haven't had any of this nonsense, at least so far.
Finally, when my in-laws moved from Calgary to Canmore, they left us with several things in our basement that they had no use for but didn't want to keep such as curtain railings and rods, a couple of 240 volt electric baseboard heaters that have to be hardwired to the mains, and so forth. These things have been dutifully stored in our basement for almost 10 years but now they have to go. We don't have anyone handy to store this stuff for us, so either these things will be given away or sold if possible and, otherwise, thrown out. Sorry Celia. The other option is that they go back into your basement.
Oh, and one last thing. If you are wondering about what will happen with the Bohemian Crystal Czech Lamp, it will likely illuminate the basement bedroom. We will get a new lamp shade for it. After 50 years or more (give or take), the old lamp shade has had better days.
Ken and I often lie in bed watching Antiques Roadshow and wonder about all the lucky folks who have an old vase or painting that ends up being worth $30 000 or more. I think you should take the vase there and see what they tell you to insure it for! Sounds like your reno project is a fun adventure so far! Keep blogging to keep us all up to date! :)
ReplyDeleteAbove comment was Kirsten by the way......I have no blogger profile or whatever!! I am far too lame for that!
ReplyDeleteOK. I have more comments.
ReplyDeleteHeather says we are hoarders or pack rats. I think many people are. I've always been of the theory that one should move at least every two years or, failing that, one should never ever move. It gets to painful to "de-hoard" otherwise. I submit our basement as evidence for this opinion.
And Kirsten it is amazing what you find out about things lurking in your basement. I rediscovered the value of the speakers, and I discovered there is actually a market out there for old electronics, especially the stereo receivers that precede the days integrated circuits. Someone actually wants some of that stuff. I've seen people offering $700 to buy my speakers. (In today's dollars they sold for $2,000 new.)
I have an old microwave oven. I paid $700 for it in 1979 and it was on sale (regular $900). But it has some features that are now hard to impossible to find. For one, it is huge inside and I mean huge. That is handy for a very large casserole dish. Second, it has a temperature probe that you insert into food and you can cook foods to a certain temperature. And it is fully programmable as well just like today's models. It is hard to find ovens like that anymore. We occasionally still use it so as well. We are also having some renovations done in our kitchen so we may be without a kitchen for a number of days. So, this is one item that won't be going on kijiji, at least for now.)
Wow Lyle's "comments" are three times longer than my actual blog post. I did laugh my head off over his toaster discussion though. True, we could probably spring for a new toaster and save quite a few frustrations regarding the caliber of our breakfast. However, we would lose such a great conversation piece!
ReplyDeleteHi Kirsten, thanks for joining the comment board. Glad you're entertained by our witty repartee. ;) Hopefully next time you visit there will be something to see in the basement other than our junk.