Visiting and a bit of shopping

Michelle (my sister!) and Jody came over on the weekend and took all the cousins to the Aquarium, while Andrew and I got a few things done. 

Off they go in the big van!

We found the "door man" who used to be on West 4th, Martha! He's moved to Surrey with all his stuff. It's way out in the boonies, junk yard dogs prowling and barking behind the chain link fence and everything. (Apparently, there's still a store on West 4th, but it's not the same.)

This guy's got a lot of doors and lots of interesting junk.

We passed on the artwork. 

but had fun digging through the stuff, some of it just in piles like this.

As well as the perfect bathroom door, we found these treasures:

A solid-brass antique doorknob in beautiful condition. From a hotel in Vancouver that burnt down, I think he said. Forget the name of the hotel. Will see if Andrew remembers.

This gorgeous light fixture (not sure where it will go but it was too good to pass up). It was really buried deep in a pile! Apparently, people go in search of the little pendant bit on the bottom.

I had to have this pretty piece of stained glass; not sure where it will go either.

If you like hardware, Andrew found a great source for new, vintage-style hardware, The Source in Gastown. Great selection and great prices too!

We are also restoring a lot of the existing hardware; on Sunday, while I babysat the cousins, Andrew went to U-Blast in Langley and blasted some of the window sashes and things.

FYI, there are two types: sand (garnet) blasting and walnut-shell blasting (not sure, Andrew's asleep or I'd ask him). The sandblasting gets it all off and down to raw metal (on the right); the walnut gets the paint off but preserves the patina (which we prefer), but I think it's more work.

He never did get to the register grilles, which was part of the plan. I think he's decided to just go with paint stripper!

Nice to see you, couple of cuties. : )