The Fireplace

The house is completely taken apart now. It was 45 feet by 28 feet. Check out the pictures of the fireplace. It was built upon a wooden structure. Between the wooden base and the bricks are big rocks. It makes you wonder how the fireplace stood for 120 years. In fact, the fireplace will continue to survive. It will be moved nearby where it will live on as an outdoor fixture for one of the neighbors.

Drinking Water from the 1950's

This was found sitting on a table in the old house.

US GOVT EMERGENCY DRINKING WATER FROM THE 1950'S. THESE WERE USED FOR THE MILITARY.

                                       

Pictures

We have gone through about 1/10 of the small contents from the house.
Here are some pictures of some items. If you have any like these and they are over 20 years old they are considered vintage.

Cruise Ship Menu



Have you ever had funny munny?
I used to but it sold on ebay.



Beautiful newspaper 1924

The House

The house is 125 years old. It was taken down for a new home to be built.

The house is bigger than how it looks in the pictures. It had four nice sized bedrooms, a kitchen and a dining room In addition to the bathroom there was a large closet behind the fireplace and a porch. The kitchen at one time was the dining room and a new kitchen was added to part of the porch. It had fourteen windows all of which Josh brought home. Craftsmen and people restoring old houses like to buy the windows.

The house was made of redwood. The outside walls were double walls, but the inside walls were single walls. The ceiling was tongue and groove, and the walls were 8" to 15" wide boards. It had wainscoting four feet up the inside walls. The floor was tongue and groove about 2" wide.

The outside of the house was shiplap siding, but it is not original, because the round nails were used to put it on. The original part of the house had the square nails. A new roof was put on at one time. There was a fireplace built of red brick. The fireplace was set on a box made of wood. All the wood from the house will be used for many purposes. So the 125 year old home will live on in other homes, yards and gardens.

Check out the pictures of the house below.

A bathroom with a view now!

My favorite Picture with the fireplace in the middle

Where did the teacups go?

I have cleaned most the dishware from the old house. They had 20 plus years of dirt on them. My first method of cleaning was to put them out in the rain and let the rainwater wash away the dirt. That did a good job. I then soaked then in the sink. Then they were put through the dishwasher. Part of the dishware I

have is 11 teacup saucers with no teacups. All but two of the saucers are from different manufacturers. Where did the teacups go? Were they broken? Were they taken over the years? Why so many different manufacturers? Maybe a teacup collector was in the family. Just a few of the many questions we have about the old house.

My research reveals that the oldest saucer is from 1934. Look below at the saucers. Could you pick out the saucer that has the most interest from eBay shoppers? Maybe if I listed manufacturers you might pick it out.

Edwin M. Knowles, W.S. George Bolero, Homer Laughlin, Taylor Smith, Ly Ray Pastels, Pacific, Parma and Carr.

Take a guess.

Ok this is the saucer that we have had the most interest in.

                                                   Parma

My favorite



The oldest 1934



The Family

                                                               

                                       

So far this is what we think we know about the family whose contents we have at our house. We have come to know them, and we wish we could have met. I am not going to use names as of now until we are in contact with the family.

First, there’s Dad. He was born in 1910 and died in 1986 at the age of 76. We know the least about Dad. We do know he was in the Navy when he was younger. Next, there is son John, born in 1943; died in 2003 at the age of 59. We know he was a fireman and a fire captain. Mom was born in 1916 and died in 1991 at the age of 75. Uncle G., Mom's brother, was alive in 2003. We don't know if he is still living. Mom's Uncle W. was the owner of the house and property at one time. He died in the early 60's.

We are still going through stacks of items, and we learn more and more about this family as we do. We know that Mom, Dad, John and Uncle G. lived all or most their lives in San Francisco. We will follow the genealogy line of Mom, Uncle G, and Uncle W to find more about this land and house.

This old house and the land is about 45 miles from San Francisco in Brentwood (northern California). We are going to call the house and land the "H" Ranch. We wonder why Mom's, Dad's and John's items were in the house on the "H" Ranch. Did they ever live there? We know Mom and Dad loved to take cruises. Someone loved sports; the Giants and 49ers. Mom got very good grades in school.  We know Mom's Uncle W. was not always of sound mind. (more later)

We have started to list some items on ebay. It is hard to determine their value. If we can't find a value anywhere we list the item for a few dollars and see what happens.

We found world series ticket stub from game 7 in 1962; Giants vs. Yankees. The Giants lost to the Yankees 1-0 in the 7th game to lose the series. The Giants would not go to another World Series until 2010. The ticket had some stains and some creases in it, but Giants memorabilia is popular right now. So we listed it. ka-ching. Happy ending on the ticket! Here is a picture of the ticket.

Menus

                                                                       

I put some of the cruise ship menus between towels and ironed them with a steam iron, to make them look more crisp. Then I put them between books.

Josh informed me there are more menus in the garage in boxes.

I found my Lido menu from Indonesia on ebay. I have three of those; two in pretty good condition. They were listed for 19.99. I think that is way too high. It has been on there a long time.

I found post cards, and I know there are more in other boxes.

I found a ticket for the Alcatraz Harbor Tour. The adult ticket was 2.00. Adult tickets now range from 26.00 to 58.00 for an adult. I would like to find out when this ticket was issued. If I find out I will post it on a future blog.

Pictures of more Menu's