Rememberances

Nona's post on my home brought a funny memory I wanted to share.

I have two cool things in my home. Now, I write this telling you that I have a modest home--if any of this comes off as arrogance in anyway, it is unintentional. As Mark and I were eating dinner this evening, we talked about the gratitude that we have for everything that we have. Our modest needs are easily fulfilled. But I will tell you, that if we ran with a different crowd, I would feel that we were wanting for something. I'm glad that my social aspirations are modest. Okay...now onto the cool things....


Cool thing #1. I have this baroque mantel made of solid walnut. I found it at an antique dealer and it was covered with antique white, leaded paint. In a word...gaudy. I paid $350 for it in 1985--lots of money for me.

I brought it home--like a cat bringing its master a treat. Rather than gratitude, I suffered scorn..two-fold scorn. One of my former Peat Marwick colleague's husband, Doug, (a banker but former summer plumber's helper helping Mark with the rough-in) AND my husband laughed at me when I brought it home. My husband mocked, "You paid HOW much for THAT?" I can still hear Doug and Mark's cackling. Now you have to understand that nothing is more unpleasant for me than "paying too much" for something. I'm not sure where that gene came from, but it's the honest truth, and it embarrasses me profoundly and has caused many a sleepless night.

Anyway....the next day, my husband is bitchin'(excuse the profanity) to Buck, the cabinet man. You have to know Buck. He is a master craftsman, but a very quiet, deliberate man. In addition to making lovely cabinetry, he restores antique automobiles...pristinely.

Buck listens to Mark's lament of having a wife bringing home such crap at high prices. After the tirade, Buck quietly says to Mark..."Do you want to double your money now?" That statement stops Mark (and gives me a priceless "I told you so moment" that wives must always have in their quiver!)dead. Buck then benevolently offers to take the mantle in his service van to this place risque-ly called "The City Stripper" to have it vat stripped. It cost $100 to have this done. Yes, that is alot of money While there, they receive many offers to buy the mantle for about 6x what I paid for it. Vindication. We built our downstairs fireplace to accomodate this mantel. I also have a fireplace in our bedroom. A very plain, beautiful solid cherry mantel adorns that. We've never used it, but at the time, we felt like a fireplace in a master bedroom would be a good resale value.

When I received the mantle back it required much TLC. Stripping any type of wood raises the grain. Much sanding was needed. It has rope moulding, dental molding, hand carved flowers and carved posts. I did it all and put several tung oil applications in between each sanding. It's beautiful. Likely larcenous as well, as the owner of the place that I bought if from spent some time in jail for stealing things out of older homes. The City Stripper guessed its age as mid 1800's. With its age and all that tung oil, it will likely have spontaneous combustion and burn my home down.

Second neat thing. I have this bronze light fixture from the University of Richmond. Some bright soul sold these "surplus" fixtures for $25 each. They are about 4 feet from stem to stern with white semi-opaque glass. We (Tim/Mark) framed our stairway to handle it. It's monstrously beautiful. After they realized what they had done, they offered some terrific tax credit--I think it was a $3K tax credit. The fixtures cost them $7800 to replace. I think I got a good deal, don't you? The beauty of being poor as we were at the time is that the tax credit did not really mean too much! I now have an SIL who works at University of Richmond. Strange karma indeed.