Today's Copper Score

[Stinky The Clown]

http://img.photobucket.com.nyud.net:8090/albums/v510/MMPics/051028-CopperScore.jpg

I had a little time while running SparklyJr to the doc this afternoon. Conveniently close are a Marshall's and a Home Goods. Soooooo ..... while killing time I figured what the hell, I'll troll for some copper.

As you can see, hunting was good. All three pieces are Ruffoni. Made in Italy, they're pretty much the equal of my French Mauviel. The pot on the left is a huge 6 qt sauce pan. The one in the back is an equally huge 6 qt casserole. The small saute pan in the front is a nice 9 incher.

All together ...... $107. I can't find them on the net, but I suspect the online retail would be in the range of $250.

What with the indictment today, I'm feelin' pretty damned good! :)

[eleny]

1. Those are beauties!

And the dinette set is pretty darned cute, too! I bet you get as many comments on that set as you do your new copper.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. The dinette set ..... loooooong story .......

You may recall from other pictures we posted that we used to have a 7-1/2 foot church pew and a custom 6 foot table in that spot.

My son just got into his (our, actually) new rowhouse in Baltimore. He needed a dining room set. So, we agreed to go in half with his mother and get him one for his birthday.

We went out shopping. Everything he wanted was twice our agreed-to budget. Sparkly said if I kicked in more for my 'half' of the gift, she'd pummel me (mind you, Sparkly and I just bought him the damned house! :)). Sooooo ..... we decided to take a different tack. We knew my son wanted the pew and custom table, so we decided to look for something for ourselves.

Some years ago, we had found the table you see, but the four chairs with it were in bad shape. We found a different set with a nice table and four great chairs. The 'new' set's table, however, was kinda plain.

So we used the 'new' chairs with the 'old' table and gave the church pew and table, and the chairs that went with that, to my son and we have this new 'set'.

The colors work really well in our kitchen. The chairs go great with the floor and the soffit color while the green table goes great with the only artwork in the room, that picture you juuuuuust barely see. It is a print of Tamara de Lempicka's "Woman in Green".

http://www.artnet.com.nyud.net:8090/Magazine/news/ntm4/Images/ntm8-2-10.jpg

[eleny]

3. I recognized your wall color

And wondered where this set would be. I recall your church pew set from the earlier pics. This set must look really nice in your kitchen with all that dominant stainless. A great theme going. I love the color mix you have going. It works for me!

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Yeah, it really does work

The table, with those little tubes below the top, is really a killer design. It just seemed the right thing with all the other metal in there.

Sparkly is the one who picked the colors originally. I remember the day we went to the Sherwin Willimas store to buy the paint. The woman in the store said she was really impressed with the pallete we wanted.

[eleny]

5. Our bedroom is painted in a very similar color

I find the yellow family very uplifting. Since our bedroom is right off an enclosed north facing front porch, the yellow provides a sort of sunlight. We like it even if we had our doubts after the first coat. :)

Funny you mentioned the tubes on your table. I've been thinking about your table here this evening and the style with those tubes kept coming back to mind. I've never seen one like that. And the metal is in such gleaming shape. Since you live on a coast, it's amazing to find one like this.

I want to build a kitchen table with a solid surface top. But that's for another thread!

[Stinky The Clown]

6. Funny thing about these old table sets with metal bases ......

The older they are, the better the chrome. These were made, generally, from the 40s (after WWII) to the early 60s. The styles and the Formica changed, but the chrome was the constant. The chrome on the older sets was thicker and thereby held up better.

The flip side is, that the vinyl used on the earlier chairs was of the unbacked type (no cloth backing on the face vinyl). This older vinyl was less durable than the later material. Consequently the chairs on an old set often need reupholstering. The vinyl and laminate to match are being reproduced. Our table and chairs have the 'cracked ice' pattern. Below you will find two links.

What I found is the chrome can be in so-so shape and can still be made to look pretty good. Use good old Bar Keeper's Friend. It dissolves the rust and really brings up the shine. The rust is usually a stain that surrounds a very tiny pit in the chrome. The Bar Keeper's dissolves the surface rust and all you can see is the pit, which is often so small that from a foot or so away, it is virtually invisible.

By the way, at the links below you will also find complete repro sets, but they're damned pricey.

http://www.barsandbooths.com/bandblaminates.htm
http://www.pastense.com/surfaces2.html

[NMDemDist2]

7. ahhh an all around good day it seems H2S! beautiful copper indeed

and the indictments weren't bad either :rofl:

I spent the afternoon working the Democratic Party booth at the local State Fair

Lots and LOTS of thumbs up from the fair goers and several new volunteers "We've just GOT to get that guy (Bush) out of there."

also had two old gents come by and tell us they stopped at the repuke booth to tell them they could no longer support the GOP and they were going independent. I found it interesting that they made a point of stopping to tell us Dems the news........

a good day indeed :bounce: and tomorrow, a new kitchen sink... life is pretty darn good eh?

[Stinky The Clown]

8. I've had that John Paul Young song buzzing through my head

Love is in the air .... substitute 'change' for 'love' .......

CHANGE (LOVE) IS IN THE AIR (John Paul Young)

Change is in the air
Everywhere I look around
Change is in the air
Every sight and every sound

[NMDemDist2]

9. a perfect ditty for the day, now I'll be humming it all day too! n/t

[OldLeftieLawyer]

10. Marshall's?

You mean they have other stuff besides Ralph Lauren linens and some really great socks?

You got this stuff at MARSHALL'S?

:::: thud ::::

[Stinky The Clown]

11. Yup .... Marshall's and Home Goods

They are both stores that carry other stores' closeouts and manufacturer overstocks (as you probably know). Home Goods carry what the store name implies .... home decor, kitchen wares, furniture, etc. Marshall's is known mostly for clothes, but they have a home decor/kitchen ware section, too. I only know of one Home Goods in this area. Its in Columbia (Snowden Square shopping center). There is a Marshall's two doors down. However, I have been to other Marshall's and they don't seem to carry the same kinds of kitchen wares - most notably, the one in Greenbelt, right at the Beltway and the BW Parkway.

I've gotten a boatload of copper over the last few years. All of it has been great stuff, too. Mostly Mauviel, which is a high line brand from France. I also got a few pieces from Spring (a high line Swiss brand) and these three from Ruffoni. They have also had some no-name stuff from Portugal and Italy, but that seemed to be somewhat lesser qualty, but still very, very serviceable. I let that go.

Really, those two stores, if you have the time to check in there frequently, are a great way to build up a selection of top quality kitchenwares at reasonable prices. Not only do I buy for us, I also buy for my kids if I find good stuff at good prices. For example, they carry Wusthoff's China-made line of knives. Certainly not as good as the European made stuff, it is still not bad. Far better 'starter' stuff than anything you'll find for an equal price anyhere else. And if you're not an anal-retentive, perfectionist fetishist-type person about your kitchen tools, they are probably as good as anyone would ever need. Just by way of example, I got a really nice Wusthoff Santoku knife for the princely sum of $14.00. I bought a few of them so I could one each to my sons.

By the way ... did you ever notice that if you're not careful, it is easy to make a mistake on a normal QWERTY keyboard and type 'sins' when you mean 'sons'? I don't know if that means anything or not, but thought I would share that insight. :)

[OldLeftieLawyer]

13. We've got three Marshall's within 15 minutes

but Home Goods is an unknown for me. I've scored some really nice Ralph Lauren pillows and linens, and, of all things, great mirrors. But, I'm certainly going to have to check out their housewares now. I'm so totally knocked out by what you got and what you so kindly took the time to tell me above. Thank you for that.

Sons, sins, what's the difference? When I was between marriages, and got together with old high school friends to plan our 25th reunion, I met their kids, too. Hit it off nicely with their very nice offspring. It all came to a head a few weeks later when my old best friend from high school asked me please not to marry her son.

As my deeply insightful and contantly sighing old Italian grandmother used to say as she watched me do some particularly inane thing, something that usually ended up with me either in tears, bleeding, or screaming, "You raise kids, you raise pigs."

Although, as I watched our kids do their own inane things, I remembered what my girlfriend's Sicilian mother always said: "You plant potatoes, you get potatoes."

Tomorrow, a survey trip to Marshall's. I always end up with at least one set of RL linens, which are really, really nice, by the way.

Thanks for all that, H2S. Your time was well spent, indeed.

[Sparkly]

12. Ahem....

Yup, once again, I saw the tell-tale outlines of copper pans inside a bag as Husb snuck in while I was teaching... When I'm with him on errands, I can curb his copper cravings (with subtle suggestions like "DROP IT!").

We have no ROOM for any more pots or pans, I remind him. And sure enough, this morning I heard him in there muttering, "Now where am I going to put these..." Far be it from me to say "I told you so," but I did tell him so.

Husb? Read my lips: "No new copper."

(Btw, the store in Greenbelt is a Ross, not a Marshall's. I know from my own little shopping excursions which we won't discuss.)

[OldLeftieLawyer]

14. Ross?

They sell cookware? We got two or three of them around here, as I recall.

Hey, if you want to sell any of "his" copper stuff, PM me. I pay cash....

[anitar1]

19. Ross is great. Tons of clothes in front. Housewares at

the rear of the store. One has to dig and sort but it is worth it, and fun.We do not have Marshalls here but used to go to one when I lived in Las Vegas.Great store for finding treasures at bargain prices.

[NMDemDist2]

15. yanno Sparkly, on the HGTV "Organize" shows, they make the people

PROMISE to get rid of something if they buy a new something...

just a thought (and H2S will now bang me over the head with the "huge 6 qt sauce pan" for my traitorous ways no doubt)

:yoiks:

[SW FL Dem]

16. Great finds!

I love Home Goods, Ross and Marshalls. I have found many great Calphalon pieces there. My kitchen is full of stuff from those stores. Unfortunately, it's too full :(. I have got to do some "spring cleaning" to make room for my latest find - casserole pans in wrought iron serving trays.

[Stinky The Clown]

17. 'Too Full'

Yup! I know what that's about.

I gotta get rid of some of this stuff. But I can't. I love it all, and actually find that over the course of, say, a month, I use most of it. The few things I rarely use are in the basement.

I pity our kids. When we go, they're gunna have a hell of a time cleaning this place out!

Keep your eyes on eBay! That'll be our stuff. :)

[SW FL Dem]

18. AHHH that's the difference - you have a basement

I am not so lucky. I don't even have a pantry and the garage will only fit two cars if there is nothing along the walls. The joys of living in a tract house in Florida :(. I have NO storage, so I must get rid of something when I buy something. Luckily, we have a great freecycle group here so I know someone will enjoy my cast offs.

[Stinky The Clown]

21. How did you hook up with that freecycle group

We just bagged up a buncha kids' clothes out of SparklyJr's (long ignored and grossly overloaded) closet. There was even some leftovers from her stepbrothers (my sons) who are now 28 and 30. We're talking 4th grade books and size child small clothes.

(I wonder if we can be considered hoarders or pack rats for this offense?)

[SW FL Dem]

23. Go to Freecycle.org and put in your zip code

That should lead you to a Yahoo group where you can sign up. I joined my local group earlier this year and have gotten rid of a lot of stuff.

[Stinky The Clown]

24. Mille Grazie!

[SW FL Dem]

25. De nada!

[anitar1]

20. I've been thinking about a new kitchen set and I love yours.

Great combo of colors. To think I had one of these years ago and gave it away. Great pans too. I have 2 attic closets with shelves where I can store the pots ect that I do not use often. Handy.

[Stinky The Clown]

22. That set's a bit younger than me and a bit older than Sparkly!

I see them on eBay quite often. And those two links I gave to eleny, above, sell very nice (but very pricey) reproductions.