Cleveland Craigslist alert - ribcage shower!

I found this marble enclosed ribcage shower on the Cleveand craigslist. They're looking for offers. You know it's exactly what you want for your house!

One of my favorite blogs

One of my favorite blogs is that of Classic Jaguar, an Austin, Texas based shop that specializes in the restoration and mechanical repair of historic Jaguar automobiles. It provides a detailed photographic look into the craftsmanship that goes into restoring these fine vehicles.

In some ways, it is very much like a house blog, where each car reflects the tastes and sensibilities of the individual owner. Some retain every possible piece of original sheet metal, taking extreme measures to repair the bodywork and interior details, while others utilize more replacement parts. Still others are custom projects, involving many modern upgrades.

Regardless, it's interesting to watch the work and craft that goes into these projects.

My wife is the best!

We're thrilled to bits with our new stove, a Grand model 850 from sometime between 1945 and 1952. You've read enough about this, surely. In my search for more information about Grand stoves and the Cleveland Co-Operative Stove Co., I came across the stove below on Craigslist, locally, for $100.



This stove is similar in many respects to ours: the burner assemblies and grates are the same, as are the knobs; perhaps even the clock is the same, though I cannot be sure of this. Of greater interest are the doors, which appear to be identical, with the exception of the oven door, which has a window. A window for our oven would be nice. I'd have to get around to finding a replacement lightbulb for the oven for it to be useful, but that is a small issue.

Back to the title of this entry. Now, if I were a single man, or had a less strong-willed wife, I would have waited a while longer and attempted to purchase this stove for parts. I would have swapped out the oven door with the existing one on our stove. As it is, A. is a wonderful wife and gave me the Look of Doom™ when I suggested that we purchase it.

If not for her, I would quickly fill this house (or any other house, regardless of size) with mostly useless junk. I appreciate her ongoing struggle in this matter.

eBay alert!

I like to browse the section of eBay devoted to antique garden and architectural bits, primarily to see if I can get a good deal on anything nearby that would be too expensive to ship. Today I came across one such listing: 300 linear feet of wrought iron and oak stair railing. It's in northeast Ohio, and starts at a mere $99 with no reserve.

If there was any way that I could justify purchasing this, trust me, I would. I hate to put this suggestion out there, but one could sell the wrought iron for scrap, retaining the beautiful oak, and break even. I could see it working quite well as a fence, too. Heck, the seller is even willing to help load and package.

In related news, another local party is selling 20 stacking grey Herman Miller fiberglass shell chairs for a mere $25 each. These chairs retail on eBay, these days, for around $100-125.

eBay alert!

I was looking for some parts for my own bathroom on eBay when I came across this incredible turn of the century bronze shower set. With three hours left, bidding is at a mere $40. I don't have to tell you how hard it is to find something like this or how expensive it would be if sold through a dealer in such things. It's just a bit too old for my house.

My New Computer!

Yesterday, I went to Pittsburgh, to pick up my new computer, a Power Macintosh G4/450 DP that I found, with a 17 inch Apple Studio Display, on Craigslist for a mere $135. I managed to get 2 gigs of ram pulled from another working G4 on eBay for $30. The hard drive that will go in it, to supplement the current one, is a 1TB Western Digital. I'd considered Seagate's 1.5TB drive, but there were too many negative reviews, and the price per byte was pretty close.

It's a lot of computer for $300 - although it only met that budget because I haven't purchased a DVD burner for it yet. I'll be buying that as soon as I sell off some of the parts from my dead PowerBook G3 and A's dead PowerBook G4.