Vintage houses and things.....

[lizzie]

A couple of weeks ago, I had a message to call the niece of the elderly woman who used to be my next door neighbor.
My neighbor moved down to the Houston area a few years ago, after losing her husband, then her daughter, to live with her grandson, and she and her husband had lived next door to me in an OLD trailer (what we call a mobile home these days). It is essentially what seems to be a step between a travel trailer and modern mobile home....and it's around 50 years old, and up until she moved, she was still living in it.
Anyway, the niece was trying to contact me to tell me that I can have the trailer and the cedar storage building that my neighbor had built on her place if I wanted them....I'd just have to move them.

I thought about it for a couple of days, and decided to take her up on the offer, and have them moved over here only my place, with the total moving distance around 1000 feet. At some point, one of her grandsons will be building a log cabin on her old place, so I will be getting a new neighbor, but am happy that it will be someone in her family!
I will be refurbishing the mobile home if it's something that can be made livable, and I would actually be interested in living in it myself. If it ISN'T structurally sound enough to live in, then I will place it at the back of my property and use it for storage, or dismantle it and use the underframe as a footbridge base for walking back and forth across my creek.

That's the background story....what my post is about is that I have been cleaning out the things that her family left behind after she moved away, and have been getting a big stack ready for donating to charity resale shops locally, and another pile for taking to the landfill.
Cleaning out her bathroom, I found what HAS to have been the very first modern hairdryer ever made! Hehe

This hair dryer has no brand name, was made in Italy, and is 600 watts....and it still WORKS, and works as well as my newer model made within the past 5 years!
It's smaller, doesn't sound like it's going to blow the house away, and amazingly has great air output!
I can't  believe it still works after 50-60 years of life, and am impressed with its performance. I just LOVE cool old stuff!

[Nod]

That's a great find Lizzie, we still have (and use) a GE electric clock that we got as a shower gift 55 years ago. Keeps perfect time. Things were built to last those days. Hope that trailer works out for you.

[lizzie]

Thank you Don! One way or another, it will be put to good use!

[Airspace]

A friend of mine who is in his mid 70s owned a home that belonged to his parents and grandparents before that. They were the original owners. I believe they saved every item of any value they ever owned. The basement of the home was packed with vintage appliances, furniture, clothes and a few things that I have no idea what they were. A local school purchased the property from him at a premium price so it had to be cleaned out. He had a line of people interested in buying items and one man who told him he would pay him a set price for everything and arrange to have it removed within 3 days. He never told me what he was paid but his wife said there 5 numbers on the check and the first one was a 9. I not a business man but if someone pays that kind of money for a basement load of items he must know something nobody else knew. He has to have a plan to make a profit.

[Sqrl Klr]

Sounds like things are working out great for you Liz congrats! Do you know her grandson? Hopefully he'll be a good neighbor for you. I still have my blow dryer that I got when I was a little kid. Doesn't blow that good compared to my other modern one but it still works.

[Sqrl Klr]

Btw I'm betting it's this company pictured on the dryer below found on Ebay as it looks very similar.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-R-BIALETTI-C-CRUSINALLO-HANDHELD-HAIR-DRYER-MODEL-PHON-5-MADE-IN-ITALY/114720455588?hash=item1ab5df3ba4:g:oGAAAOSwdtxf9Nd2

[lizzie]

A friend of mine who is in his mid 70s owned a home that belonged to his parents and grandparents before that. They were the original owners. I believe they saved every item of any value they ever owned. The basement of the home was packed with vintage appliances, furniture, clothes and a few things that I have no idea what they were. A local school purchased the property from him at a premium price so it had to be cleaned out. He had a line of people interested in buying items and one man who told him he would pay him a set price for everything and arrange to have it removed within 3 days. He never told me what he was paid but his wife said there 5 numbers on the check and the first one was a 9. I not a business man but if someone pays that kind of money for a basement load of items he must know something nobody else knew. He has to have a plan to make a profit.

Now THAT would be cool! Haha!

[lizzie]

Sounds like things are working out great for you Liz congrats! Do you know her grandson? Hopefully he'll be a good neighbor for you. I still have my blow dryer that I got when I was a little kid. Doesn't blow that good compared to my other modern one but it still works.

I don't know him, but I do know his father. I worked with his father back in the late 80's at a county hospital....I was a pediatric RN, and he was a nurse anesthetist. I know his mother as well....they are really nice folks! They have "family roots" in this specific area of the county going back at least a couple of generations older than myself.

That little dryer is amazing for 600 watts. Honestly, I can't tell much difference between the air output of that one, and those that are 1500-1600 watts today, except that the noise level on this old one is very quiet. I don't know if it's the shape of the air nozzle or what would explain it, but I took my other newer one to the thrift store today with a huge load of stuff from that old trailer. It filled up the back of my Dodge Dakota, two layers deep, to the point that I had to use side mirrors to make sure everything behind me was clear. I am looking forward to this project, and hoping the structural integrity is good enough to make the short move okay. If it doesn't literally just fall apart in transit, I plan to do a total reno. Just to tell you how old it is, it has 2x exterior walls, just like the travel trailers of yesteryear and today, and it's only 564 square feet. It actually seems pretty solid except in a couple of specific places, but I am already coming up with a plan for remedying that.

[lizzie]

Btw I'm betting it's this company pictured on the dryer below found on Ebay as it looks very similar.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-R-BIALETTI-C-CRUSINALLO-HANDHELD-HAIR-DRYER-MODEL-PHON-5-MADE-IN-ITALY/114720455588?hash=item1ab5df3ba4:g:oGAAAOSwdtxf9Nd2

Interesting! That company is still making and selling high-end expresso makers today. I sold one of them on my Etsy page a few months ago.

[mrbulk]

Eww buoy, so now Liz has to study up on both the knife and now HAIR DRYER collectible ads...

[GumpIsrael]

That’s cool, Lizzie! They don’t make things like they used to.
Reminds me of our little radio from the 50’s, still works like a charm.

[lizzie]

Eww buoy, so now Liz has to study up on both the knife and now HAIR DRYER collectible ads...

HAHA LOL

[lizzie]

That’s cool, Lizzie! They don’t make things like they used to.
Reminds me of our little radio from the 50’s, still works like a charm.

Exactly! I have quite a few old items (mostly kitchen small appliances) that are old, and I use them regularly.

[GumpIsrael]

That’s cool, Lizzie! They don’t make things like they used to.
Reminds me of our little radio from the 50’s, still works like a charm.

Exactly! I have quite a few old items (mostly kitchen small appliances) that are old, and I use them regularly.

I hear that, one of our favorites is an old blender from the 60’s, works just as good as a new one.

[lizzie]

I have one of those too....small blender...it *may* be from the 70's, though. Also an avocado green mixer, avocado green deep fryer from the 70's, and a 40's vintage electric roaster that is in near un-used condition. Oh. and the avocado green original Crock Pot brand slow cooker. Haha

[Buldawg76]

Lizzie

That's a cool old hair dryer you found in the trailer and glad its still in working condition.

I have a Montgomery Wards freezer that was made in 1975 that I bought used from a man in 1996 that was the original owner of it. It is still working perfectly today and keeps food frozen better than my year old refrigerator/freezer does inside the house. It sits in my garage that's attached to the house so is subjected to extreme temp swings in winter and summer yet still going strong.

They sure don't make them like the6yused to for sure.

BD

[Garandsx5]

My only concern about the hair dryer- by the age of it, they were probably still using asbestos. May not want to make it your daily use machine.

[jimbo]

I'm using a Powermatic table saw built in 1966 and still going strong!

[lizzie]

Lizzie

That's a cool old hair dryer you found in the trailer and glad its still in working condition.

I have a Montgomery Wards freezer that was made in 1975 that I bought used from a man in 1996 that was the original owner of it. It is still working perfectly today and keeps food frozen better than my year old refrigerator/freezer does inside the house. It sits in my garage that's attached to the house so is subjected to extreme temp swings in winter and summer yet still going strong.

They sure don't make them like the6yused to for sure.

BD

Back in the early 90's, when I was working as a director of nurses in a home health field office, my clothes washing machine went out. One evening when I was on my way home from work, I stopped in to a used appliance store just to see what they had. There was an old 60's model Maytag that the guy has refurb'd and was selling for (iirc) 35 dollars. Ii bought it, brought it home, and was still using it in 2005, when I gave it to my son, because I decided I wanted a front-loading machine. When he sold the house he was living in, he left that washer, and as far as I know, it was still operational.

[lizzie]

I'm using a Powermatic table saw built in 1966 and still going strong!

Now THAT is cool! I am amazed that it's still running well! You must have taken really good care of it!