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There has been no activity here on The Addiction for a few reasons...

Restoring our 1964 Shasta is taking up the majority of my free time. It takes a good amount of time to do this type of thing. I have also been keeping the blog on the project for 1964 Shasta Louise.

I have also been doing my admin duties at the VSTF. Both sites have been keeping my pretty busy along with the restoration. One guy can only do so much.

Sooo... The Addiction has suffered like I feared it would. I will more then likely come back to posting here again at some point. I just don't know when that would be. In the mean time there are plenty of other blogs listed to the right to keep you company. Be sure to enjoy those and let me know if you find anymore great vintage blogs out there. We will be back at some point or if there is any earth shaking news to report.

Until then you can check out our progress with the trailer on the blog. Thanks for your understanding.

Recent Finds...

There really hasn't been too much thrifting recently because we are trying to save some dough for the trailer and other things. I did manage to find a few thing here and there...

I have been looking for another cabinet like this blonde one that I have my Tiki collection in. The picture in the link shows the beginning of my collection and now the Tikis are busting the seams of the cabinet. I wanted another one to flank the room and hold some of my Tikis and books. I found this one that is the exact same model but in a dark finish. It does have different knobs than the blonde cabinet and the glass is missing. I think I am going to paint it to match the blonde cabinet. The finish on this dark one isn't quite as nice as it looks in the picture. It won't look exactly like the blonde cabinet once painted but oh well. I may also get some glass cut to fit.

I picked up this Milton Bradley US map puzzle from 1961. I have been looking for one of these for a while. This will be used in a project for the Shasta trailer. I got the cabinet and the puzzle for 25 bucks at a estate sale.

I found these tapered legs at a thrift store for $1. Not a bad deal. I don't have any plans for them right now but you never know.

This isn't actually a recent find. I found this plant stand at a swap meet for a dollar. It needs a repaint that I just haven't got around to doing.

I found this circular plant stand a few days ago at a thrift store for $4.50. It too needs a repaint. None of the welds on either stand seem to be broken so I think both were a pretty good deal.

Vintage Child's Kick Scooter...

About 5 years ago I found a kid's kick scooter in my Grandma's barn. I though I would take it home and fix it up. I'm not really sure how old it is. I think it is pretty old because you don't see too many with the wooden foot board. As you can see it was in pretty rough shape. The paint was pretty far gone and a lot of rust all over...

The forks were bent out of shape. The fender had a good size dent in it. The wood foot bed was cracked underneath...

Sad shape all around...

So... I pulled it apart when I got it home and removed as much rust as I could. I primed it and was going to restore it. But.. it got shelved so I could work on some other projects.. A few months ago I started to work on it again. I thought I would give it a western theme. Not sure why. Just thought it would go well with the wood foot board. Here is what I did to it...

• Sanded and re-primed it one more time.
• Straighted the frame.
• Banged out the dent in the fender.
• Added a brace to keep the forks straight.
• Painted it with Colonial Red and Ivory paint.
• Clear coated it.
• Polished the brake and added a spring to make it work better.
• Made new foot boards.
• Made leather grips for the handle bars and a leather pad for the center stand.
• Added all new hardware.

I think it turned out well. I could have done a better job but, I was VERY READY to end this project. It seemed to take forever to get it done. Here it is...

You can see the forks are now straight and the brace added...

The new foot board. I carved a bucking bronco image in it. I stained and top coated it. I added upholstery tacks to add some traction and to dress it up a bit. I think it fits the theme...

The new leather grips...

No more dent in the fender. The tires are still in decent shape. I didn't touch the whitewalls. They are scratched up but I just thought I would leave it like that...

Here it is with another kid's stamped metal scooter we found at a sale. Snagged it for 8 bucks. Which is a great deal. I don't think this one will get touched for awhile. Not until a lot of other projects get done. Like a Shasta...

One note: The paint I used SUCKS. There is not other way to say it. It is already started chipping during reassembly even though I took my time and tried to do a nice job spraying it. The paint is Rustoleum Painter's Touch. It is way too soft. Not tough paint at all. I will never use this paint again unless it is something decorative that will never ever get touched.

Ultimately, I'm not sure how much use this scooter will see. Even though I added a brace it is not the best riding scooter. The forks have some play in them and it probably isn't the safest thing in the world. That and it weighs a ton for something it's size. The stamped metal scooter is a lot lighter and maybe a better scooter to play with.

I think I will just keep it around because my Dad may have played with it as a kid.

The Dumpster Desk...

While going to pick up a Craigslist bed for Calvin we spotted this desk parked next to a dumpster. We pulled this beast home. The desk is pretty heavy and quite large. It was a trick just getting it home. I had to take it apart just to get it into the house. The desk is pretty simple but does have some danish lines to it. I'm unsure who made it or when. The maker's tags are missing...

I really like the handles on it. Luckily I found the original keys in the drawer...

As you can see the top was very sun damaged, dry, and cracked...

I recently sanded the desk completly down then applied a tung oil finish. I also polished all of the brass hardware...

Sorry for the bad photos but the bedroom is kinda dark...

I think the tung oil really brought out the grain really well. I was surprised the top came out so nicely...

Overall, I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. I think it will be a welcome work space in our home...

A couple of recent additions for the desk include this Moonbeam Clock I bought for Molly for our anniversary. They reproduce them but I really like this original with the dark face. The clock works well and the light still works during the alarm. It was a good buy and looks great on the desk...

Our friend Mrs. J had this small tin toy globe that she no longer wanted. I think we pinned it to the late 1930's. It has a few dents and a bit of rust but I can't complain. I love it...

So now we are on a bit of a mission to fill out the desk with vintage items. A desk lamp, a pen set, waste paper basket, and maybe a vintage in/out box will be great things to find to. Hell, the hunt is half the fun.

Our Trailer Blog Launch...

 

We have launched our vintage Shasta blog. I figured a new blog dedicated to Louise was needed for several reasons. For one I'm sure that there are folks that visit here that do not care about camper stuff. Two, there will (I hope) be enough activity to warrant it's own blog. I hope that it will not be taking all of my time away from The Addiction. I am sure that it will be somewhat time consuming at first but will die down after a while. It won't be a post a day type of blog. Maybe a post a month. Perhaps a bit more if there are some cool trailer links or online research to post about. The whole thing won't just be about our trailer. If you dig the vintage trailer stuff be sure to visit. You can find the 1964 Shasta Louise Blog here...

http://1964shastalouise.blogspot.com/

Our "New" 1964 Shasta...

SUCCESS!
Trailer Watch 2009 is over for us. I will give the quick version of the story. I found this Shasta listed on Craigslist Friday afternoon. I contacted the seller a few hours after it was posted. They only wanted a $1000 for it. The only thing was it was 6 hours away in Southern Illinois. They replied quickly and we made the long trek on Saturday. We left Wisconsin at 8 am that morning and returned with trailer in tow at 1 o'clock Sunday morning. That was one long day.

A bit about the trailer... It is a 1964 Shasta 16 SC. It was only owned by one family. We met the original owner. He bought it new in 1964 not far from where he lived. The Shasta is in good shape for the most part. Of course there are a few issues with water damage. I would be surprised if there wasn't. It is missing the iconic Shasta wings and will have to find replacements for them. The back window was taken out and an AC unit was stuffed in there. That will go and will have to find a replacement back window. The only other change is the original boomerang cabinet handles have been replaced. No sweat there either. We look forward to the restoration.

I won't go into to much detail here. I hope to launch another blog dedicated to "Louise". That is her new nickname Molly gave her. It was bought in '64 in St. Louis. St. Louis...Louise. It makes sense to us.

I hope to have the new blog up soon. The reason the for the seperate blog is so that there isn't an overflow of trailer information on this blog. I'm sure that there are folks that don't care for the trailer stuff and just want to see Mid Century stuff normally shown here. I will keep the restoration and other trailer information over there for those that want to see it. Here are a few quick shots taken today. There will be much more on the new site.
So stay tuned for the trailer blog...

Recent Finds...

Vintage TV antenna. Sorry for the crummy picture. It isn't in too bad of shape. Not sure that I could actually get it to work. But it is a nice display item. Needs a bit of cleaning up. We were watching the 2nd season of Mad Men and there is one just like it on top of Harry Crane's TV. I paid 3 bucks or so for it at a flea market.

This ice crusher was something that I always wanted but never found a good one for a good price. This one is in pretty good condition and it was free. Another find from Mrs. J. There is a small amount of pitting in the chrome top but I can't complain.

The large red and white butter dish was a gift to Molly from her sister. We found the other container up north. I'm calling it a sugar bowl because we don't know what it is. It does have a handle on the back. Not really sure. The bottom of the "sugar bowl" has the Jiffy Ware logo stamp on it. I'm not quite sure that the butter dish is from the same company but it makes a nice set. Molly paid a few bucks for it so it wasn't a bad deal.

This ball pitcher was another gift from Mrs. J. She actually had two of these but we couldn't justify taking both. What the heck are we going to do with two? This one is in real nice shape. The other had a chip in the spout so this was the winner.

Recent Finds...

We did our annual trip up north and Mrs. J. was kind enough to send us home with a few freebies. Boy, do we love her...

Salt and pepper collection of various shapes and sizes...
Two sets of Ball Salt and Pepper Sets. Brand new and in the box. Far as I can tell these are probably from the 70's. Here are a couple links to Ball sets..

http://glassjunkie.coolfreepages.com/shakers.html

http://www.rubylane.com/shops/teesantiqueorchard/item/12864

I think this is considered a relish dish. Right? It is nice and heavy and has a great shape.

Quite a few matchbooks. All in real good condition. Some have never been used...

This one is my favorite. The match heads form the bearskin shakos of the marching soldiers printed on the matches.

More to come in another post.

Recent Finds...

We have had some pretty great finds lately. I won't go crazy and show them all at once so here are just two...

You can see from him sitting on a CD that this ceramic panther is pretty small. I'm sure that he is from Japan given the paint job. He was only 4 bucks.

Sorry...There is a bit of wash out from the flash but this is one of our wacky finds. A ceramic hanging wall planter. The wacky part is the bird being bright red and the back being chartreuse with the black splatter glaze. What a wierd color combo. There is a chip out of his tail but heck...he was only 50 cents at a garage sale. I'm not sure what we are going to do with him but I couldn't leave it there for 50 cents.

The Best Travel Trailer EVER...

I have been kinda hot on travel trailers lately. You know that time of year when you want to get out and about. Doing some searching I came across this trailer...

It is the 1960 Holiday House Model "X" (later named The Geographic). Those lines are so awesome. That big wrap around front window. Wow, this thing is neat.

Bardy Azadmard put together a nice site called www.1960prototype.com showing his trailer and some of the history behind it. Some restro pictures and quite a few ads are also on the site. Man I wish I could get my hands on one of these (if they had made more then one).

Wealth of Information...

We were recently given a ton of magazines from the 40's, 50's and 60's. Molly's Aunt and Uncle cleaned out a old lady's home and saved all of these from the trash. They thought we might be able to use them and they sure were right! Thanks guys!

There are a lot of womans magazines such as McCalls, Ladies Home Journal, and Mademoiselle. These are great to look at and have some real funny things in them. Some of the recipes are some of the worst food I have ever seen. Some really nasty stuff. The ads are the best.

The really best part is the Better Homes and Gardens from the late forties, fifties, and early sixties. They are great. I haven't even been able to get through all of them yet.

I hope to share many of the things in these publications. The Better Homes and Gardens have enough in them to fill a blog alone. Not everyone can get their hands on these mags so I figure that there is much to share. I know I have learned a lot from looking at these.

1961 How-To-Do-It Encyclopedia (Part 9)

I have not done this for a while. I think it is overdue. I did add some high rez images for each picture...

CABANA:

I really like the storage for this backyard cabana...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31076498@N06/3594544063/sizes/l/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31076498@N06/3594547071/sizes/l/

CABINETS:

There were a few other cabinets in this section but this was the best one...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31076498@N06/3595356122/sizes/l/

CABINS:

Kinda plain but I like the louvered windows and exposed cantilevered rafters... http://www.flickr.com/photos/31076498@N06/3595359498/sizes/l/

275 dollars??? Yeah right. The permit alone would probably cost that to build nowadays...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31076498@N06/3595361520/

CAULKING:

Boring!

next time...

CAMPING: