Rock Patio

While on vacation this summer, Queenie and I built a rock patio down by the lake.  We've been collecting flat rocks and turned a spot that was neglected to a nice place to sit and have a fire.  We re-purposed an old wood stove fireplace insert that we bought in BC into a fire pit that will draft and enclose. I'm going to install a short stove pipe and spark arrestor.

We cleaned up a bunch of brush and and trimmed dead tree branches then placed our rocks and wood stove. Then we filled it in and washed it off clean.  Queenie made a little garden for the milkweed which the butterflies like.

I had two old metal lawn chairs that I bought in St. Regis last year, and while we were antique hunting this summer we found two more that matched in Kalispell. I didn't buy them when we first saw them because I didn't have the truck to get them with.  Later, I figured we might as well have 4 matching chairs.  I actually have two more in Washington but one of those is a rocker so I figured I'd go ahead and buy the two in Kalispell as they were within reach and looked good.  I'm glad I did as I think they are really cool.  I did have to take the truck back up there to get them on a day when I was supposed to return to Washington, then I had to wait for the antique store to open as they were an hour late opening.  So I worked for those chairs and I paid a premium, but I'll probably have them for years.

Chromcraft Dinette

I tend to keep buying mid century dinettes.  I found this Chromcraft table at a thrift store for $14.99.  It came with a leaf.  Good deal..!  The minute I saw it I knew what it was and knew I had to have it.  It did not have the chairs, and I'm still on the hunt for the matching ones, but I did find these tulip chairs at another antique store for about $30 each which I think work OK with the table.  I believe them to also be Cromcraft.  So I'm into this set less than $150.  I took this photo before I had it all cleaned up.  The chairs are in really good shape as is the table.  I'm going to try some of the new headlight polish on the chairs.  I'll do it on a spot that doesn't show first, but I suspect that the "Lucite" is acrylic actually and it should work fine, not that the chairs really need it.  The back side of the chairs is a matte finish and the seating side is gloss.  I'll just polish the gloss side of course.  I'll clean up the chrome as well.

One thing I've noticed is that a lot of things I buy are really dirty.  This table was so dirty I could see why they were only asking $14.99 for it.  If the thrift stores and even some of the antique stores would just take the time to clean things up, they might be able to sell them for a lot more.  I guess part of the fun is cleaning the things up and feeling really good about how much you were able to improve the old crusty things..