Fun Quickie Restoration: Nutcracker

Ever since I saw photos of Alex & Wendy's impressive and beautiful collection of nutcrackers, I've decided that I want to start a similar collection of my own.

Alex & Wendy's Collection:
Check out their amazing house blog over at Old Town Home


I've actually really loved nutcrackers ever since I was a kid, and I remember asking my Mom for one for Christmas many years ago. I still have him, and he can be seen below.

In the past few years, I've looked around for more of them, but I have found them either hard to find, or of very poor quality. I tend to hate sparkles, so sometimes this limits the choices further, but I have found several nice ones at a local grocery store last year, as well as this year.

These three are new, and I bought them last week.



Today's post, however, deals with the newest addition, which I picked up just this morning at a thrift store. I pondered a few minutes about whether or not I should spend the 2$ asking price, as he was missing a piece, and had some flaking paint on the base.

I set him back down, and kept browsing the store, but on my way out, I decided he was too cute and interesting to pass up.

Some interesting features include the hair moustache, the ears, and the fox.



Seriously, how cute is that fox!





I was initially worried that I might not be able to figure out what was missing from his hand, but luckily the internet is a thing, and I was able to find a photo of an identical model. It helped that he is specifically a "fox hunter", because if he didn't have much of a theme, it would have been like finding a needle in a haystack. The sticker on the base reads: © House of Lloyd 1995 - Made in China.

Web photo:



Turns out he's missing his riding crop. I actually found a few other photos. The end is some type of cheap black fabric, but I chose to use thin cardboard instead.

The riding crop was easily made from a small piece of dowel, a piece of cardboard, and paint. To fix the chipped paint, I sanded the entire chipped surfaces (both ends), and painted them in a near perfect match. The slight difference in colour won't show on a surface like this, since it will just look like a difference in lighting. It's much easier to repaint the entire side than to try to paint the patch.



While I was at it, I also did a few other small touch-ups around the hands, to the brim of the hat, and to one boot.

Ta-Dah! I think he looks awesome! The riding crop is a hair longer than the originals on other versions, but I think it looks better (as far as the proportions), and I only estimated the length.







And here's the whole collection so far. My original (first one), which I mentioned earlier is the small teal one at the front with a crown.



***

As far as the house goes, there aren't many projects on the go, currently. I will be reupholstering the dining room chair seats before my Christmas party (on the 21st), and there will be an update coming soon about the Rosemirlea apartment building, which is currently being demolished. I'll also probably be posting about holiday decorating, etc. so stay tuned!

Early November Updates (Part 4)

I mentioned that I started to install the bathroom vanity, so I thought I would share photos of that. It may hep you if you're thinking of installing a similar piece.

The vanity will need to slide into place over plumbing pipes and also carefully fit between a door casing and a baseboard. This involves a lot of careful measuring and cutting, and a definite "measure twice, cut once" attitude.

Normally, when we fit something into place around existing mouldings, we will trace the outline against the existing trim (on the wall) and carefully cut that to shape so that we can slide our cabinet or moulding against it. If both pieces are flat, you can usually install your pieces more easily, but the above applies mostly when you have two non-matching "fancy" profiles that need to blend together in a corner.

In my case, I have 2 flat pieces, and I decided to just cut my toe-kich moulding off the cabinet. Normally this would be a separate piece nailed on separately, but I didn't have the accurate tools to do a good corner joint, and I put mine directly on the cabinet.

Section removed to allow for the 3/4" thick baseboard:



This shows how it will look (with a piece of 3/4" scrap wood acting as the baseboard):



On the other corner, I had to notch a 3/8" portion with a rounded upper corner to allow for the plinth block of the door casing. I could just remove the door casing and block, and cut those to fit around the vanity instead (which would be easier), but this allows me to (God forbid) change the vanity more easily later, if I ever decide I don't like it anymore, or if it got horribly damaged (or something).

Yeah it was a huge mess.

Hard maple (aka Rock Maple) is **NOT** easy to cut and sand with crappy tools. This is when I found out that my belt sander is not very good. I tried to route-off as much as possible and do the rest (up to the line) with the sander.



Again, careful measuring is important, otherwise I'll have a lot of gap-filling to do with silicone.



That's as far as I got. I need to move the hot water pipe over, and extend/redo the PVC before I can do the next step, which will be to drill the holes in the bottom of the cabinet (which is often the part where things can go really wrong).

Lastly is the exciting news that I've been saving for last!

I mentioned a few posts ago that I went to Ottawa over the weekend (I got back yesterday). I was there to help a friend fix a few things around her place, and to do some shopping.

Here's a photo of my haul. You'll see why I'm so happy/excited!



A MATCHING GRILLE AND ANTIQUE LIGHT FIXTURE! And both were amazing deals!

Here's a break down of what I got:

- Antique cast-iron grille (a match to my existing one, and this one has the working thumb latch) 50$! This was a steal. The place where I bought it is an antique lighting and salvage store. The lady said that it's a common pattern (thus the cheap price). She actually had another 6 or 7 identical ones.
- Antique light fixture (there's a story behind this, see below)
- Mix of new and antique butterfly hinges.
- 2 lock sets that are near perfect matches for some of my other "good" ones. 10$ each
- 4 antique door knob stems (very hard to find, and only 1$ each)
- Set of 15 small cast brass handles. 5$
- Photo album 3$
- New (bound) sketch book 15$
- Set of 6 antique reproduction knobs. 30$
- Stained glass supplies ~180$, including:
- 6 sheets of coloured glass (wrapped in newspaper)
- Solder
- Lead antiquing solution
- Fid (the red plastic tool for lead work)
- Lead came (this is the long cardboard box which has 14pcs of lead for the office built-in doors). This was 120$ of the overall 180$ mentioned above.
- Marina and the Diamonds CD

All the old hardware (lock sets, spindles, hinges, and the set of 15 handles) all came from a trip to the East end Habitat for Humanity ReStore (in Ottawa). It was an absolutely amazing place. I saw so many things I'd want to buy, but with no easy way to get them home. They had a good variety of antique wood doors, many old exterior doors (some Victorian ones, even), they had old windows, too. One was a single sheet of antique glass nearly 4'x4'! They also had a huge selection of tiles, old lighting (not old enough for my house), and hardware. If I would have had more time, I would have gone to the West end ReStore as well.

Alright, the story behind the light fixture is quite fun and amusing. Right near the antique lighting/salvage place, is a large antique store. I was in there looking around at all the beautiful old furniture, and as I was leaving, a lady came in. She was talking to the shop owner and asking him if he would be interested in buying 3 old light fixtures from her.

One was this gorgeous brass 1920s fixture, and the other two were old wall sconces. The shop owner (who mainly deals in furniture) had no interest in them, and he thought they were in bad shape, so she left. I commented (to the owner) about a lovely old Empire sofa by the door that was sold, and then left to quickly catch up to the woman.

I asked her how much she wanted for the oval fixture, and she dug it out of her book bag. She said 20$. My jaw nearly dropped and I said "Sure!". We had a short conversation where I explained that I had an old house with this style of fixture, and she was very happy to be selling it to someone who would use it. She asked if I'd also want to buy the sconces, but I said no (since I have no where to use them and they're not a matching style to the other fixtures I have), but I recommended she go to another antique lighting place that would likely buy them.

Here is another photo with 2 (new/crappy) shades: