Out with the Old and In With the... Um, Old

I have been working on the Art Shack and the Oasis in between repeated mowings and Scotch broom whacking this spring and it's really coming along. Soon I will be jealous of our guests as they while away the hours in their own tiny heaven on top of the hill.

The Oasis is in need of a lot of cleaning because, besides the fact that it sat unloved for a couple of years with a hole in its roof,

 it was also an "Elk Camp" trailer for years before that. And if you don't know what that means I'll sum it up for you. Many adults with guns, beer, bacon and no constraints of social norms, like cleaning the kitchen when your done frying those pork chops or doing silly things like wiping your feet.

Nothing a little soap, bleach and Windex can't fix.

 Another thing that I find hilarious and maddening is the incredible amount of hardware that has been tapped, screwed and unceremoniously glued to the inside of this poor trailer. Every time I think I have pulled all the superfluous things out of the once magnificent insides I find another row of tiny nails (to hold wires?) or another hook (to hang what?).

 

I have an entire clock box full of this stuff and it keeps appearing before my eyes.

One of the little pet projects I have been cheering myself up with is stopping at thrift stores now and then and searching for just the right dishes and pans for a 1958 Oasis.

 

 Like this sweet little tea kettle (and the whistle still works).

The Folger's coffee can to hold matches (like my grandma had). I also found the light globe at the Habitat for Humanity "ReStore" for .75 cents (SCORE).

 

Some things did have to be replaced with the new.
For instance, I draw the line at cutting my food on this fine, original cutting board.

So into the back closet it goes, in case someone cares later about "original parts".

 I bought this bamboo cutting board at Grocery Outlet for $8.

 

I ran it through the table saw and used the trimmings to make a stop on the bottom.

 

Now we can have PBJ sandwiches without the Formica flakes.

And now,  I GIVE YOU (drum roll, please) THE (slightly politically incorrect as only things from the 50's and 60's can be) TRAVEL PLATES!

O.K. this is more of a grandma plate but I couldn't resist it.

And the most outrageous of the bunch, (I must apologize to any Pennsylvanians) the Pennsylvania Dutch plate.
You have to admit this is pretty funny and awful. It's good to look back at our ancestors and what they thought was perfectly O.K. to make fun of. It gives us perspective.