Stuff.

 Tim and I went over and worked on the Wayne St. house today. Now is not a good time to be buying any new supplies for the new build, between property taxes and insurance and whatnot.  So we changed it up and worked on finishing up some projects at the renovation. We had the materials for that already bought.

Now, we call this house 'the hoarder's house'. We got a lot of the things out of there, but there is still a ton of stuff left. One of the things that I did today was to go through old record albums. They have so much old stuff dating back to the forties. A lot of Broadway musical soundtracks.  Mantovani, Mancini, Glenn Miller, Count Basie and other orchestras that scored old classic movies.  It didn't stop. Chubby Checker. A lot of albums that seemed to be collected under a theme "Girls in Music" which was a album of 50s songs that were titled with girl's names. Just so much stuff. Remember Barry Sadler? The Ballad of the Green Berets? My grandparents had that album and played it a lot. It was quite different from their regular diet of polka music. If you want to read a sad story, read about Barry Sadler. Died at 49, after being shot in the head in Guatemala. A few years earlier, he'd shot a friend between the eyes in a dispute over a woman. He also wrote like 23 popular novels. Who knew? 

Anyways, I keep thinking that these albums would probably be worth something to someone, but I'd have to find that someone. I gave away no less that 200 albums already, and am still finding more, these in an upstairs bedroom that contains three irons. One ironing board. Two rotary phones, 4 hair dryers, the old kind that came with their little cases which held the motor and there was a hose and a bubble cap sort of thing that you would put on your head. We already hauled out 4 sewing machines and two of the newer irons. I mean, this house has a lot of shit. 

I have boxes of mid-century mod decor that was bought and never unboxed. Brand new clocks and dated hanging lights, and clocks and wall sconces. Brand new appliances, still in their boxes. I mean, a trash compactor. Who even hears about them these days? But we have a brand new one, in an unopened box. 

We've got the matching punch bowl too and the short glasses which I discovered are called low ball glasses and used for cocktails. 

Yee haw. 

It's the never ending job, really. We gave the furniture away to someone who flips furniture, and while the house is emptier, it is not yet empty. We found a family member, and were able to ship out two truckloads of family photos and movies, along with the projector to play them on, and a screen. (We've still got another if anyone needs one.) Sometimes I think that house might never be empty. 

But we have found treasure there as well. A suitcase full of photos and tintypes, as well as pictures from Paris after the destruction of WWI, and a souvenir black velvet banner sent home to some soldier's mother. Even a Victorian death photo. But their are no names on the pictures, so we haven't got a clue who these people are. 

We found a set of pearls in a china closet. Old trolley tokens on the fireplace. We haven't had a trolley in town for a hundred years. Silver certificates folded up and stuck under a lamp. Calendars saved that date back to the civil war. They are so pretty. I'd like to save the pictures on some of them. Old magazines from the '30s. 

I like history, but...really. What do you do with all this stuff? After a day in this house, you will whole heartedly buy into the whole Swedish Death Cleaning thing. I guarantee it. 

I did get some things out of the house. I gathered up all the old fashioned wooden hangers and brought them home. Once cleaned up they will be nice for Tim's heavy hunting coats. There is a cast iron clothes rack, a pretty thing. I'm going to paint that black and put it in the garden at the new house to hold a couple hanging pots. 

But. That was today. And tomorrow, we will head over and get back to it. 

I just want to retire. Really. I just want to be done with all this work. I am starting to think it will not happen.