I feel like 'Guess where I spent my summer vacation', only it's 'Guess where I spent my Thanksgiving 4-day holiday'. Ideefixe, Thank you SO VERY MUCH for the web sites and information about books with engravings, illustrations etc....so much appreciated!!!! Darlene, I didn't know about www.antiqnet another one to add to my list...Thank you so very much! I got interested after seeing the Staff cup and saucer. I remembered an elderly neighbor who used to tell me if there was ever a fire in her house, rescue her Staff collection first. That's what gave me the idea it was something either precious or of monetary value. And no kidding it's a pain. When BIL asked me to help, I had nooooo idea... I figured, wrap stuff in old towels, put in box, mark box with wide felt tip pen. Done. Nope! lol Hi Betty, Oh, I understand that store owners of any kind have to keep their doors open by making a profit. And the bigger the profit, more power to em!! *smile* My family have all been in the catering business and I understand about overhead and insurance, etc. I guess I was looking for more of a "homey-let's help each other" approach, you know, kinda like here at the board. *smile* I wouldn't have minded so much had someone been up front, honest with the value of some of the things I showed them instead of hemming and hawing. I would have rather had someone say "I'll give you X dollars for that right now and I can probably sell it for XX because the average going price is XX." Heck, at that point, being tired and all, I would have handed it to him and said "Sold!!". After spending almost 4 hours yesterday at the library, this collectors research stuff is hard work and my eyes are still burning. lol Lazygardens, You are so right!! Besides being cross-eyed from reading so many research type books, and having a red nose from all the wiping because of all the sneezing because of all the dust, the only real problem I'm having is BIL. I will start to pack something and he'll say "Wait, can you research that for me because I'm not sure if I want to sell that or keep it for one of the -nieces, nephews, grandkids-." So, out of the box it comes and into another box that goes home with me and I stay busy researching until the next time I go to the house, with more dust, more nose blowing, more...... well, you get the idea. *smile* MarieND, You too have some items? Neat! I am not too far from SC and we do go Mission Hopping several times a year so now I have even another option....Thank you so much! Lydia, Thank you so very much about the Ebay Antiques board!!! Wow, it's an active board, that's for sure! And about selling the stuff myself on Ebay.....ssshhhhhh! Don't let BIL hear you say that!!! LOL But dimes to noduts I bet that's where you'll find me in 6 months...Ebay. *smile* Cecilia, I hadn't thought about checking the bottom of the jar when I was there over the 4-day holiday. The Corn cookie jar is on a counter that hasn't been cleaned in what looks like years and there is old, dried coffee stuck to the back of the jar and then the jar looks like it is stuck in the dried coffee, right to the counter. Wow, thank you for the links and information! Although, I don't think a sticker would have survived on the cookie jar on the counter. *smile* Linda, After seeing Cecilia's link, you betcha I'm going to be checking the bottom of that dern cookie jar! LOL I've added three more pictures to the album....A chair top, a chair bottom and a rocking chair top. Sorry, it was either as close as I could get without tripping on stuff or I was too tired to move any more stuff to get a better picture. This researching is gosh-dern hard, tedious work and my hats off to all of you that do it regularly!! Here is a link that might be useful: Dining Chair and Rocker

I have no idea how I reposted my earlier post but I was trying to respond to sombreuil_mongrel! That is a beautiful home! I would love to hear about the things you did to restore it! Of course, pictures would be fantastic!! I am trying to track down some of the people who are related to the lady who owned it for almost fifty years. It's hard not to come across as a stalker but I have to believe somebody has a picture of what it looked like before it was abandoned. One picture the previous owner sent me shows the porch all closed in. He opened it back up when he bought it. The real tragedy is the carriage house in the back yard. It was left neglected for decades with errant trees tearing at the roof. My plan is to restore it but the city is pressuring me to either get started right away, which I don't have the funds to do, or tear it down.

It's referred to as neo-eclectic, as is mine.

I once heard the architecture critic for the SF Chronicle refer to this as "neo-Mexiterranean". In other words, kind of a mix of Mexican, Spanish, Italian, and French Mediterranean. He didn't mean this kindly, either, I'm afraid. ;-)