When I was a poor college student, my folks had an antiques and collectibles store. Seems like I fell in love on a daily basis with a piece of furniture or some other special find. My dad always made a deal with me for the extra special pieces I wanted. My mom was working lots of hours in real estate while the market was booming and they needed help around the house (I didn’t live there anymore). All I had to do was show up once a week and clean the house, do the laundry and bake a batch of my chocolate chip cookies (the part my younger brother liked the most) for the prescribed amount of time for any particular piece. This is my most favorite piece. It is a cherry chest. It’s been through a lot, including the 1994 Northridge earthquake where I lived at the time and had to be refinished after due to lots of damage though it was one of the only things left standing after it was all over. It was moved twice after that before being moved cross country, probably back to the side of the country it originated from.
This past summer I was out visiting garage sale after garage sale. Each city or town back here has all of their rummage sales on the same weekend for the most part, so put on your walking shoes before you go! At one of the last ones I went to, I found this vanity that is an almost identical match for my chest (rounded curved edges and all) and it was only $35. Out on the west coast you couldn’t touch for under $300-$400. I was in heaven, as I had paid $500 for the chest back in the late ’80’s. They had the ugliest fabric on the bench and even uglier knobs on the drawers. So, for an additional $10 I fixed those and here we are. It’s hard to tell from the angle of the pictures, but they are really quite similar in color. You have to ignore the dust and clutter too ~ we have a bit of cabin fever going on here. I’m going to a massive start on Spring Cleaning this next week.
Hey, I lived in Southern California from 1989-1992! So i was gone by the Northridge earthquake but there for the Pasadena one (we lived in Pasadena but I worked in Santa Clarita) and there for the riots.