H2H
Banned
halfwaytohoarder gets rid of it all!
Joined: February 2017
Posts: 2,041
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Post by H2H on Mar 26, 2017 14:05:19 GMT -5
Wayyyy back when I first moved here I hired him to put in a fence when I got the dogs..
I think he saw a fellow hoarder in me back then!!!! I had no idea what I was to become. a bit later I started showing up at HIS giveaways when he had to clear out a huge barn, and once took home 18 antique wood doors!!!! I used some, plan to use some, gave some, still have many!!
I am hopeful he will show up and want to take all the tiles soon, he may stock up the really good ones and sell them off...good for him if he can! the attraction of FREE is just something I still fight.
Totally colorful guy, German, whose 2nd wife also left him because he never cleaned up the huge old 1850's schoolhouse they owned...he just could not. the stuff was more important than her. Every square inch outside is something wonderful in a pile, and 6 cats, and 12 chickens, and goats, and and and..
Now he is in his 70's whispy white hair blowing the wind, hobbling a bit, baggy tan work pants belted tight since he is smaller, and still generous and sweet to me.
before he retired he got paid to do complete home clear outs, took a huge container to dead granny's house and ..poof! stuff gone. Then he sorts and sells off the stuff..clever guy making a living off other people's junk and throw aways. He rented old barns all over the area to store the stuff ..it was that much!
I bought a few small things from him in the past, a table, a wringer washer, some antique shiplap wood I used on my tool shed, 40 ft of old CUTE CUTE picket fencing which I finally gave to my neighbors who made it into an adorable chicken fence!
he has young guys renting rooms at the schoolhouse, and they will be the ones doing the labor.
Wish me luck, I will be so grateful for him to take the tiles, and I can be less embarrassed over my front yard!
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Post by notanotherdecade on Mar 26, 2017 14:30:03 GMT -5
I would have taken the doors too. They would make one impressive garden shed  |
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H2H
Banned
halfwaytohoarder gets rid of it all!
Joined: February 2017
Posts: 2,041
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Post by H2H on Mar 26, 2017 15:17:52 GMT -5
notanotherdecade guess what? The liscenced carpenter guy I hired to build my tool shed flat refused to use the doors as a roof base..I saw them as real wood roofing, not ply or OSB..but he was the only one I could find to build it, so I just accepted not getting my way.
I AM using the doors..trimmed at bottom slightly as a WALL inside my work studio, the plainist/uglist ones go there, covers by shelving in front of them, and uses 5, 2 more nice "shabby chic" ones are work table tops in my studio, one is a glass shelf holder in the guest bath, and a cute blue chipped and flaking one is used artfully.
on the web are a ton of ideas for doors..real wood ones have a ton of uses.
Here are just 3... the use of a door as a Potting table is so cool..putting together an old table, shutters, and door is pretty fast to do.
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Post by def6 on Mar 27, 2017 0:02:37 GMT -5
That breaks my heart about his wife leaving him. Too bad the xwife couldn't have her own place and he could stay over/ eat meals/sleep /shower that sort of thing. I'm sure he is very nice and is very knowledgable about antiques.
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Post by Fivecat on Mar 27, 2017 0:29:09 GMT -5
That breaks my heart about his wife leaving him. Too bad the xwife couldn't have her own place and he could stay over/ eat meals/sleep /shower that sort of thing. I'm sure he is very nice and is very knowledgable about antiques. But what if he started hoarding up that place, too? |
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Post by def6 on Mar 27, 2017 0:37:57 GMT -5
He probably would FivecatI guess that is the saddest part to me about hoarding ...is when it dictates who gets to come over, can't date anyone, who loves you and worst of all when kids get removed. Makes me want to jump up and clean. Things are just not worth paying that kind of price. |
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Post by Fivecat on Mar 27, 2017 5:29:40 GMT -5
He probably would FivecatI guess that is the saddest part to me about hoarding ...is when it dictates who gets to come over, can't date anyone, who loves you and worst of all when kids get removed. Makes me want to jump up and clean. Things are just not worth paying that kind of price. Agree. |
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Post by Jannie on Mar 27, 2017 8:29:25 GMT -5
My granparents took some old doors they "found" and used them to construct a closet in their basement. Odd choice, but it does show their mentality, Depression-era folks, who hated to waste anything.
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H2H
Banned
halfwaytohoarder gets rid of it all!
Joined: February 2017
Posts: 2,041
|
Post by H2H on Mar 27, 2017 11:56:02 GMT -5
Jannie that depression era, when they truly had nothing, not food, or money, or goods, and no way to get them, is still reflected in the last 2 decades of "live simply" now, but reversed in fighting to keep away from having too much.
there was a big back to the land and simplicity in the 70s, and it reemerged in the late 90's- and continues today. Turning down "so much stuff' is the reverse of the depression, and harder I think, because you can have it, but must fight 'social convention' to choose not too.
People who are younger are not as aware this is really cyclical.
Those who had parents from the depression era were constantly raised to save everything...so we have hoarders from their 90s to their 20s in age.
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H2H
Banned
halfwaytohoarder gets rid of it all!
Joined: February 2017
Posts: 2,041
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Post by H2H on Mar 27, 2017 12:33:08 GMT -5
def6 I wanted to share what I know of the wife is she tried for many years to gothic to change, he PROMISED he'd change, and could not, they are both very Christian, and practicing, she left him, and quickly married another Christian guy from an online site, and moved away. Surprised me because neither one hung in there.
So I don't know how long or how bad or how much he swore to change...having the business he did did not help, as there is always attraction to the free for him, and I recognize that in myself.
believe he is happy now, doing his own thing in his 70's...he has his church, saves food and feeds people by distributing it, even feeds cows with bakery rolls and bread going to the trash.
PS my adoptive mom who was 44 years old when I was 4, showed me her "pocketbook" (love that word) with left over ration stamps, and she clearly explained WHY you have to be thrifty and frugal...
She was a survivor, with two hungry teen to feed, a divorcee', in a hard world, and an actual Rosie the Riveter in 1943 ( I have pics of her with her sturdy overalls, kerchief on her head and big metal lunchbox with all the other women who worked in the factory!!
the social change started when all this talent was dismissed to home again, and the ones who chose more freedom to work outside the home vs marriage and babies only, led the way for the 70's change..so it is ALL cyclical.
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Post by nifty50 on Mar 27, 2017 13:48:02 GMT -5
I'm glad he's happy, and he sounds sweet, but he's in his final decades of healthy life, and who is going to clean up those barns full of hoarded stuff when he dies? Sorry to be harsh but I've gone through this a few times in recent years. The cleanup job is horrible, it has no benefits or bright side or inherent reward, and for some reason it always seems to land on the person who has the least amount of extra time or energy to give to it. And the stuff never just evaporates. The burden often falls on grown children, and if there aren't any of those, sometimes an ex will step in, just because there is no one else. Or, if there is a will, whoever inherits the property. (There very often isn't a will, so the stuff will languish while the property is in probate.) If it's a rental and there's no surviving family, someone still has to deal with it. Maybe a hired team of clean-up people -- and then all these things saved in the name of "waste not, want not" or "I might need this someday" or "it's such good material" or "I can make art out of this" -- all of it probably ends up in the landfill, defeating the original purpose of reusing/recycling.
In the properties whose cleanup ended up on my plate, I worked alone for weeks trying to salvage things from the house and outbuildings. It's just not possible to complete this kind of work on your own in a short timeframe, not if you're working fulltime and have other responsibilities. I offered things to others, gave away things left and right, but in the end, the property went out of our hands and the fate of the stuff probably was that it got bulldozed and pushed into a hole. AND THIS WASN'T EVEN A HOARDED PROPERTY -- just a normal one, out in the country with lots of useful things in the outbuildings.
I'm not happy with just being "happy" (i.e. "doing my own thing" as we used to say). I'm not really happy unless I'm taking other people into consideration. And in recent years, as I say, it's really come home to me that I need to think about not leaving unwanted burdens on other people when I die.
God willing I still have MANY years left, but even if that's true, odds are that I will be less strong, less mobile, less active as I grow into old age. The time for getting things in order is NOW!
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H2H
Banned
halfwaytohoarder gets rid of it all!
Joined: February 2017
Posts: 2,041
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Post by H2H on Mar 27, 2017 14:13:42 GMT -5
nifty50 he has 2 sons, one took over the fence build business, and is a tough cookie!
Yes I feel for what you had to do!!! it is THANKLESS. you describe what is so common when an elderly relative passes..usually a distant, busy family 5 states away just hires a company to haul it all out..and the burying of stuff sounds like a typical 'country' solution.
Because I am older, alone with no children or family living I am pushing to get rid of as much as possible. that is why I came to SOS. I DO NOT want nosy neighbors walking thru and seeing my 'stuff' if I am carried out feet first if I delay. I already stopped bringing stuff in..now am trying to purge.
It will be bad enough if/when the house goes on the market eventually, and the 'public' walks thru! Neighbors love to come in then.
When I got this place the snotty big shot RE lady looked at the kitchen counters, sighed, and said " they lived like this!" (plain black laminate board they used in 50 places here! my bath cabinet, all over)
After 17 years i STILL have those same counters, ALL MY PLANS and never got to upgrade, doing the tile work as I wanted. Sure I covered them in big slabs of granite countertop I got free, but it's not a "real" counter by conventional standards.
All the other FIXED and repaired things never show, as they are DONE, and we expect it to look normal...
I can blame medical issues, car crashes, disability, aging weakness, but all others will see is " She lived like this!" And not I was frugal, creative, independent, happy (mostly), generous, and living beneath my income.
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H2H
Banned
halfwaytohoarder gets rid of it all!
Joined: February 2017
Posts: 2,041
|
Post by H2H on May 24, 2017 12:48:42 GMT -5
A visit to Old Hoarder Guy... wonderful spur of the moment decision yesterday! I encouraged him to come see the tiles to take, to possibly loan me his goats for mowing the back 40, and to help DECIDE on this old property. He knows it all!
( I have a feeling he will be charging me to take away the tiles...and the goat rental.. hahah) Stopped by at the last second after all the Tuesday errands, veered off on my way home, down the old road I used to live off off, to his 1800s three story school house proudly facing the pastures below and overlooking the bay (white clapboard, chipped and peeling with a sign and the date 1883- a historic building) I struggle walking up a steep drive lined with amazing rusty stuff, wood, metal parts, treasures, cars, and people- his ever changing boarders, all at the back end of life..still trying, many toothless, and bearded, a little suspicious, but they warm to me. usually. I grin when I see the entryway path to the door.. two huge iron 'piston' things 3' tall one one either side greet me, prolly from a great ship, followed by an antique NYC steam radiator,.. totally scrolled with designs, gold colored and has about 6-8 humps..(see pic and link) I can see it coming from the Bronx maybe..or some person bright it here from the East Coast when they built a Victorian in what is now old town. (We have 10,000 Victorians, many in perfect shape as renovated heavily and restored expensively by 'equity emigres' from LA, and SF.. many MORE from pride of family ownership for 150 years here. www.antiqueplumbingandradiators.comCemented into the walk are two iron gears.. I keep grinning because i have TWO (maybe) piston things also, 2' tall, setting on either side of MY front porch..and 3 large rusty cast iron gears and machine parts on the fence. I used to have a cast iron CORN seeder- "icing bag" shaped (triangle with hole at bottom) CORN seeder.. not too similar to pic below..hung it on the front gate with dry flowers..loved that thing. The fancy Restoration Hardware company online also has thick catalogs full of "gears mounted to wood blocks"- see pic below-- the sell for HUNDREDS $$ and I have 3 plus other cool machine parts I use for door stops, vases, decorative... seeing that yuppies will pay big money for what I see value in decoratively keeps me from thinking negatively about 'stuff'. some have value to some people. I am just not paying for it!! Inside there are 5' tall gears and wheel parts up on the wall, and 10' windows allow the afternoon sun in..OHG sits in his recliner..and we chat. I invited him to come see the tile piles..THEN explored the idea of selling my house as a "teardown' or AS IS due to the many fixes..he has torn down so MANY and knows everything there is to know about value of old places. Turns out here is a REAL shortage of properties to buy..to fix or flip.. so may be good news for me when I am ready to leave!
He bragged on being hired to move a grand piano he got paid to take away, now selling it for $200, AND paid to deliver it, and the old clawfoot tub for $125. Hehas made a healthy living for 40 years mostly getting free stuff to haul from full houses, and torn down ones..to people willing to pay for antique junk, distressed wood, old fencing pickets, tables, windows.. he chuckles a lot. His thrifty German heritage is so evident |
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