Trash Picking

     The trash picking was pretty good a couple of weeks ago.  I found two projects.

I found this on the curb.  It was a yellowy/blonde color with gold drawer pulls.  The wooden piece across the back had popped up and the middle drawer wouldn't close.  Also, the two front legs were loose.

I scraped and sanded.  I used a drill to enlarge the nail holes for the piece that looks like a back splash.  I applied glue and tapped the "back splash" into place.  The wood was a bit warped and remained lifted on one end, so I turned the dresser over, using its weight to press the "back splash" into place.  While the dresser was upended, I glued the wobbly front legs, and tapped in a small nail to hold things tight.

With all the loose parts strong and solid, I flipped the dresser right-side-up and primed and painted.  The inside had sloppy splotches of paint from previous paint jobs.  I used painter's tape to wrap the paint job inside and keep a neatly painted edge.  I used left over white and black paint to mix shades of gray.

These are the gold drawer pulls.  I sanded as much paint off as I could.  I would have soaked the pulls in paint stripper if  I intended to keep the original brass finish, but I decided to repaint these. 

I hung the pulls from fishing line, allowing the handles to hang straight down.  Then I primed and painted from underneath.  That way they could dry, and the handle wouldn't touch any other part of the pull, ruining my paint job.  You guessed it.  I had just enough paint in the bottom of two old cans of spray paint to do this job.

The middle drawer wouldn't close because the bottom of the drawer extended below the drawer front.  This caused the drawer to sit high, so that it wasn't centered in the opening.  I wish I had a hand plane.  Instead I used a file and #80 grit sand paper to remove the excess wood.

With the excess wood filed and sanded away the drawer sat lower, and it closed.

The finished product - white hardware, very pale gray drawers, and a darker gray frame.  Pretty.  

   

     The second trash pick was an old wooden ladder.  I would liked to have painted this find turquoise, but I didn't have any turquoise paint.  Nor did I have blue or yellow paint for mixing.  I try never to spend money sprucing up my trash pickin's, so I painted my ladder with some white paint left over from house painting.  This will work as a plant stand, but turquoise would have been oh-so-much better.

It's painted white, then distressed.  I painted the hardware with some left over bronze paint.

   

     So, there you have it - free stuff prettied up for nothing with left over stuff.  Now that's recycling.

The Mount, Mount Holly, New Jersey

     Mike informed me the other day that "The Mount" was neither mountain nor hill.
     "It's just a bump," he said.  "The town should be called Bump Holly."  Bump Holly came out sounding like Bum-polly.
     This area's colonial settlers were so tickled by the sight of topographical prominences that they called any high point a mountain.  We have Mount Laurel just down the road, and Arney's Mount lies to the east.  All mounts considered, I think Mount Holly's peak has the best story.
     The Mount was originally called Cripps' Mountain after John Cripps.  Mr. Cripps came to America in 1677 aboard the ship Kent.  Cripps climbed The Mount and was so taken with the holly trees and the view that he bought the property.  He named the area Mount Holly and built the town's first home.  The National Geodectic Survey placed two markers on The Mount.  The source I read stated that the markers were placed around 1840.  These markers are used for mapping and charting.  I looked for the markers, and I found two, but they appear to be dated 1976 and 1988.  Easter sunrise services used to be held on The Mount.  The altar and benches are still there, but the words "Holy, Holy, Holy" carved into the altar have been painted over.  I seem to remember those words being emphasized with white paint when I was in high school. The Mount has always been a playground for children.  In the 1920's the army built an observation tower on the top, but it had to be torn down because the children wouldn't stop climbing it.
     There are no human graves on the rise, but there might be two resting places which hold supernatural beings.  According to one tale, a witch was thrown into a well on The Mount.  She screamed and beat the walls of the well until she died.  Some people claim to hear her screams still.  There is another legend that the Jersey Devil is buried under the Easter Sunday altar.
     At 185 feet above sea level at its summit, The Mount is not the top of the world, but it is a world away from the town below.  So take a hike to the top of Mount Holly, but if you run into the old witch or Mrs. Leeds' evil spawn, don't mention that I sent you.

Deep Shade.

The Altar and Benches.

You have to get close to see the words.

One Geodetic Marker.

The Second Geodetic Marker.

       

The Mercer Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Part 3

     We ended our day in Doylestown with a tour of Henry Mercer's castle/home.  His house, like his museum and his pottery works, is constructed of rebar reinforced, poured concrete.  When the house was finished, Mercer built a bonfire on the roof to prove to that the building was fireproof. The house is a crazy collection of levels with thirty two narrow staircases.  There are 44 rooms and ten bathrooms.  Mercer's tiles are embedded in the walls. ceilings, and floors.  Some of the furniture is built-in, made of concrete, of course.  We weren't allowed to photograph the interior, but there is a link at the end of this post to another blog.  That lucky blogger was able to take pictures inside.

A beautiful, tree lined lane leads to the house.

Henry Mercer was a life long bachelor, so why did he need such a big house?  Our guide told us that Mr. Mercer entertained a lot.  They didn't just drop by for cocktails.  They stayed for days.

Another View.

This is the carriage house.

Bird houses are built into the carriage house roof.

The house has several terraces.  We were allowed to take pictures from this terrace.

This is the spring house as viewed from the terrace.  The estate was named Fonthill because of the spring on the property.

The ceiling on the terrace porch enclosure is the only bit of tile work that I could photograph.  Imagine this to the nth degree inside the house.

     The Moravian Tile and Pottery Works sits behind the house.  Artisans still work there making tile from Mercer's molds.

The Factory.

A Huge Assortment of Tiles.
If a whole back splash of this stuff is not your style, you can always purchase a tile to use as a trivet.

     Here's a link to Big Old Houses blog.  There are pictures of the interior of the house.

http://bigoldhouses.blogspot.com/2014/02/something-completely-different.html