July 2011 It has been a little while since our last update because we’ve been so busy with lots of new projects. At the beginning of June we returned from one of our buying trips and have added thousands of new items in the store. We picked up a number of old shoe stitching racks, which were used in shoe making factories. The recently delivered 53 foot shipping container was the most tightly packed one we’ve ever had. Sixteen foot long cast iron bridge signs, furniture, letters from Wrigley Field, beautiful doors, and silverware molds from the Lunt silversmith company are now part of our collection. We also purchased some amazing amusement park flowers that can be seen in our newly redesigned “What’s for Sale”…

June 2010 Things get a little crazy here in May. Half the staff goes on a buying trip to bring back new and exciting items for the store. Then the last week of May the container (a 53 foot long) comes home and we unpack and clean and sort and take photos and price and then display. Many of the items from that journey are now being placed on our showroom floor. We have A LOT of industrial pieces and table bases. We also brought back a medical cabinet, a dental cabinet and a circa 1910 traveling dental chair. Mike found four large carousal panels on canvas depicting different nursery rhyme stories (Hanzel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel). These carousal panels are beautifully…

December 2009 Though the second week of December was cold for us West Coasters it was nothing compared to the -10 degree weather some of us experienced going to the Midwest this week. Even so, we managed to acquire a large container of great items that will be on the showroom floor after the New Year. A couple of the unique items that are coming back are four large, spun aluminum light fixtures. These 1949 light fixtures originally hung from the ceilings of the Ford factory. Even more incredible is we also acquired two Ford factory spun aluminum wall sconces that match these fixtures. We are also bringing back antique cast iron garden gates and fence posts, mantles and some amazing cast iron fireplace summer…

October 2009 Our inventory just keeps expanding. This month we spent a couple of weeks on the East Coast and filled a 50 foot truck full of new inventory. Stop by and check out our new mantles, lighting, Arts and Crafts desks, industrial foundry molds, claw foot tubs, fancy ornate front doors, and 3000 linear feet of unpainted Victorian door and window casing.

July 2009 This month we spent much of our time saving many of the original Hillsboro High School built in 1929. This was such a wonderful building that we really hated to see go. Fortunately, we were able to save many wonderful items from the landfill; such as the wire gym locker units, beautiful deep porcelain sinks, Art Deco drinking fountains, Douglas fir bookshelves, classroom doors, the wood theatre seats from the school auditorium and the amazing steel light fixtures that were in there too. We also have pull-down school maps and these cast concrete flowers from the exterior of the building.

March 2009 We just finished picking up original elements from an historic home in Corvallis, Ore.  The house was the former residence for one of the deans of Oregon State University.  We were able to save a stunning Arts and Crafts built in cabinet, as well as doors, windows, trim, and hardware.

We just acquired many new items from the old Virginia Cafe, Zell Brothers store and Mercantile in downtown Portland.  We were able to save many historic items from these building such as the original neon Virginia Cafe sign, the cast iron door surround that was for the old mercantile, an old Zell Brothers clock, and many other items.