I have been restoring vintage lights since I was a teenager in the mid-1970s. An Interstate highway was being rammed through the city where I lived, and I ran (steps ahead of the bulldozers, and with my shag haircut flying) from one incredible building to another, and from one incredible house to another, and salvaged everything I could.
My poor, bewildered parents. Their garage was soon chock-a-block with what I thought were treasures beyond compare. But which they thought was just useless flotsam. I did though once overhear my mom say: “Well, at least he’s not out doing drugs.”
However, when all their boring lights were systematically replaced with the most stunning lights they had ever seen – and all for free, rewired, and restored – they soon had second thoughts about the flotsam. (I paid for new parts by mowing lawns!)
Fast forward many decades.
One day I realized I had a pile of old lights rusting away in my basement. I hauled a few out, restored them (bringing back many old memories), and listed them on eBay.
At the time I had no idea, not a clue, that I had just radically changed my life.
Within months my life was unrecognizable, and I was working full time restoring vintage lighting and selling the fixtures across America.
My new e-commerce website is now online. Whoee! Please feel free to shop and purchase here:
My blog post are below.
Before. After.
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingHOW????????
This is a political post. If interested, please scroll down. I’ve yet to process one central question: HOW did Harris get about 14 millions fewer votes than 2020 Biden? HOW…
Continue ReadingMy Own Project 2025
After the 2016 election I fell into a dangerously dark depression. The worst ever. Somehow though, magically, this lifted around mid-December but all I could think of was: How the fuck am I gonna get through 2017????????? A year later I realized that 2017 had proved the best of my life. It proved deeply satisfying…
Continue ReadingWell…Holy Fuck
This is a political post. If interested, please scroll down In a previous post, I wrote: I 97% believe Trump (and Putin) will try and steal the election. I…
Continue ReadingStay Calm!
This is a political post. If interested, please scroll down… There are polls. There are forecasts. These are two vastly different things. The former can often be wrong. Like with the much-vaunted poll-predicted RED WAVE of 2022. Which…
Continue ReadingA Must Read
This is a political post. If interested, please scroll down… In my previous post, I wrote about a stunning new Selzer poll of Iowa, which has Harris/Walz taking the lead. This article details why….
Continue ReadingThe Table Is Set…AGAIN
In February, I posted about have some friends over to dine at the Cross House. You might enjoy rereading the post. It is a lovely read, and offers background. We all met again at Dr. Doug’s house in May. And again last Tuesday at the Cross House. Louis and Phyllis…
Continue ReadingA Nuclear Bomb
This is a political post. If interested, please scroll down… Late today, a political nuclear bomb went off. A new poll in Iowa, from the gold standard of Pollsters, Selzer, has Harris leading Trump. Yep, Iowa. A state Trump carried…
Continue ReadingBefore. After.
My online vintage lighting store. For ages and ages, I had listed a 1920s strap-style chandelier. It had not yet been restored and looked pretty grim. I realized that the poor dear would likely never sell as such, so I gently relocated the chandelier to the Magical Transformation Chamber. Wanna see the after? …
Continue ReadingBefore. After.
My online vintage lighting store. It has been rewired and with new sockets. But they sockets were candelabra-sized. Meaning: too skinny. The true horror though that it had been spray-painted in a dull gold “hammer’ finish. Two arms were wobbly, too. And the ceiling canopy was wrong. In short, it had been “restored”….
Continue ReadingBefore. After.
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingThis made me laugh
This is a political post. If interested, please scroll down. What’s particularly effective is that Trump has actually said all this bullshit. It boggles my mind that anybody would consider him…
Continue ReadingBefore. After.
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingMaking Things Shiny Again
I think when people restore a house, a priority job should be to make sure the entry looks as good as possible. I think it is a feng shui kinda thing. However, as time has aged me it also aged the doors. The western sun beats the doors and the finish began to fail…
Continue ReadingThe Culprit. Again.
The rot to the columns (even more to the left) could NOT be from water traveling from the right side. This further confirms my belief that THAT issue is from a second leak… The water damage to the right is, as far as I can tell, old damage….
Continue ReadingWHAT THE FUCK?
This is a political post. If interested, please scroll down. A few days ago my friend PK called me. “I’m at the edge of a cliff. Talk me down!” “What’s doing on?” “New polls show Trump gaining…
Continue ReadingBefore. After.
My online vintage lighting store. With my new mission in play…get these fucking orphans listed for sale!…I hauled out the desperate fixture and got to work on it. First, I took it fully apart. This revealed that it was by Puritan. Oh! Then I soaked it in soapy water and scrubbed it…
Continue Reading