Happy Holidays!

"Do they still make wooden Christmas Trees?"
Charles Schulz
Linus Van Pelt in Peanuts.

The tree is up and the store is looking pretty and so are the prices. Just another reminder that we are having a Customer Appreciation Sale December ninth to the twelfth. That is Thursday to Sunday just in time for Christmas shopping. There will be twenty percent off all Old House inventory and lots of other deals covering the entire Antique Mall. Now to show you a little taste of what's going on here for the holiday season.

As always we have our antique and vintage Christmas decorations out. A little less generic and uniform then the new decorations. These guys have a lot of character as they are hand crafted and painted pieces of artwork you can hang on your tree.

They range in price from three to five dollars.

We've also got the Christmas tree done up with the old world in mind. Full of class and charm the staff did a great job setting up this years tree.

It even has a little vintage faux fire burning in the fireplace insert down below that you can't see in the picture. You've got to come into the store to see everything. ;) Needless to say it has that warm fuzzy Christmas vibe as soon as you walk through the door.

It would seem that just in time for Christmas Santa has brought us mantles aplenty to setup and decorate through out the store. They range in style and age a great deal and again there are some great displays setup on and around these guys.

Believe it or not that isn't even all of them!

So whether you like the classic or the vintage we have many Christmas decorations and items available for you in the store this year.

Remember... Santa is watching... and taking pictures...?

How naughty...

Christmas Time in the City

So the snow has finally fallen and we have now put out our vintage and antique decorations. Soon we shall be putting up the tree and decorating the store. So if you are looking for some unique and amazing decorations come down and check them out. We will also be having a Christmas Customer Appreciation Sale on the weekend of December 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th. Lots of items marked down and there will also be hot cider and cookies.

Change of Hours of Operation

Hi Folks I hope everyone is keeping well in this wet weather. We would just like to let everyone know that as of October 1st we will be making a change to our hours of operation. We will now be closed on Monday for inventory and cleaning. Also we will be opening later on Fridays now with the cold weather here. So Instead of 10am we will be opening at 11:30am on Friday's. Saturdays will remain as a 10am open and Sunday's as always we will open at noon. Sorry for any inconvience this may cause. We are aways open to comments and queries should anyone have any.

Sunday: 12 -5
Monday: Closed

Tuesday: 11:30 - 5

Wednesday: 11:30 - 5

Thursday: 11:30 - 5

Friday: 11:30 - 5

Saturday: 10 - 5

Thanks, Old House Staff

Super Secret Spaces

"The space within becomes the reality of the building. "

~Frank Lloyd Wright

Because all of us here love what we do and the old stuff we work with even the places not for public access are adorned with the old; just for personal appreciation.

Some of you may have noticed, as you walk around The Old House, that there are a few places the average person can't get to on a regular basis. Well today we are going to give you a tour of these places and play a little game at the same time. I have taken pictures of the doors that are normally closed and then what is inside of them. See if you can guess where each door is located and then take a look at what's behind it!

Can you guess where this door is? Well here is what is inside it:

It's our hidden room of lighting underneath the stairs leading to the basement! Don't worry though we keep the best stuff out for you to see!

Alright here is the next set of doors. Now most people never even get to see these doors as the passage way to them is also an employee only sort of area. It's one of the fun rooms to tour through though as it is filled with a lot of magic.

The room inside goes by the affectionate name of "Mo's Workshop." Why would we call it that? Simple really, a lovely man by the name of Maurice works in there fixing and creating all kinds of things for the store.

In all honesty these few pictures don't come anywhere near to giving you an idea of the scope of this workshop. It is under the entire addition to the building and is a maze of "lost" treasures. every once in awhile we take a trip down there to see what we can pull out and put into the store.

Next up is the only place with multiple access doors. Four of them to be exact the door I've chosen to show is the only one most people don't get to see. Yet it is the one of the nicest of the four. In fact the door is far nicer then what you shall see inside.

Have you guessed it? It's the elevator!



Not very interesting inside I know.

Moving on then. This door is in a place where everyone could potentially see it but it is a tad out of the way tucked in behind the hardware section.

If you know the location then you can work out where it leads but you probably still haven't seen inside. Heck until recently many of us had not been into the depths of this place as it was supremely packed to the hilt. Right now though it is getting a good de-cluttering.

The door leads to our garage the one storey brick building you face right as your turn into our lot. We keep many a thing in the garage from extra tubs to wrought iron fence.

Last but by no means least is a door that gets the most attention. It is easily visible and because of it's window you can even get a glimpse inside without entering. It is also the most seen because of it's accessibility. If we notice people peering in and we aren't busy we love to give tours of this room. It is also the most exquisite of the rooms. I'm sure many have already guessed where or what room this is without even seeing the door but here it is anyways.

Do you know this door?

Inside is a hand picked selection of one mans favourite items over who knows how many years of collecting. As another man said when he entered the room. "Oh, here's where you keep all the things I was looking to buy." Unfortunately nothing in this room is for sale.

The answer is of course John's office! What a stunning office it is!









Everywhere you look in this room there is a treasure to drool over.



From the back lit stained glass windows.



To the eloquently done tin tile ceiling. It's an awesome office.

Believe it or not these pictures don't even showcase every treasure in the room. Not only that but this post doesn't even really show all the hidden spaces of this building. It showcases the most interesting of them though. If you'd like to come down and see the office or any of the other hidden spaces please do just ask us when you are in the store. Until next time god speed everyone!

Architecture

“There are three forms of visual art: Painting is art to look at, sculpture is art you can walk around, and architecture is art you can walk through” ~Dan Rice

Almost as well as we are known for lighting we are known for reclaimed and salvaged architectural pieces. The list of items we have in the store is numerous. We'll just brush on a few in this post though as it could go on forever if we started to list everything.

One of the most popular is the windows. Great as accent pieces or for painting on or to make into frames to hang on the wall. We have multi-pane windows, leaded and bevelled glass windows and of course stained glass windows. The old windows can be of great use in decorating or refinishing furniture. Leaded glass windows go great in cabinets and doors.

After windows comes the doors. The old doors have a load more character then most new doors. From rustic to elegant we have hundreds of doors in many a variety.

Old barn doors, butler doors, old office doors, five panel, screen doors interior or exterior and of course french doors. They can of course be used as doors but they all could be made into headboards or hung on a wall. Used as separators or even sand blasted and mounted on the walls as paneling.

Of course above the doors they used to have the classic headers. Usually Oak or Fir these great pieces of wood made doorways a lot more attractive then just having your standard trim around the door. Not only are they good for above a door they can be great for attaching hooks to and then attaching them to a wall for hanging your jackets and hats etc. We've got all the supplies necessary to undertake this project and even a few hints for making it more functional. To see what we mean though you'll have to come down and check it out.

Now for one of my favourites. The tin ceiling tiles.

Once used a lot on ceilings in restaurants, cocktail lounges and hotels these guys class a place up in a real hurry. Or if you leave the old ones in their rustic condition they add a good deal of texture to a room. We have both new and old tin tiles. Here's a sample of how each look respectively.

New

Old

We have a large selection of the old and new tiles but as we are no longer ordering the reproduction tiles if you are looking for the shiny look hurry down and grab up some of the last few.

Courtesy of the Greeks and Romans next up are the pillars and posts. Good for inside or out. We have your classic white pillars to painted veranda posts. One of the first pieces of serious architecture pillars look great in almost any setting.

On of the great centres of old houses are the fireplaces and mantles. They were once used for everything from heating and cooking to a source of light. It's no wonder people wanted them to be a standout piece of architecture. We not only have mantles but we have fireplace inserts and surrounds. From coal to the electric...

Two great mantles in this shot one nested in the other. Not to mention the insert and the andirons.

Matching pair of old coal burning fireplaces.

We'll end it here for now. Our stock goes on and on so it's impossible to list everything. To give it a shot though I didn't even touch on the massive collection of hardware we have from Doorknobs and mortise locks to glass and brass pulls for drawers and cupboards. Plumbing hardware from faucets to towel rods to spare claw feet for tubs not to mention the tubs themselves. We also have old grates and registers that are excellent for restoring old houses or re-purposing. We also have many other pieces of rescued wood from flooring to trim to baseboards to dentil moulding.

To end it off we'll throw in a few snap shots of our buildings architecture. It's a great old (1901) building...

From elevators to stairs we've got it all in this ol' building.





The old beams are massive and always draw the attention of new comers to the store.

Thanks for coming back again folks and we hope to see you in the store over the next few months. As the seasons and holidays change so will our store setup, come down and check out what we're doing!