Cataloging Wishes

We've been working on our basement for awhile now.  We've finished all of the rooms and now we're working on furnishing it.  Months ago, I bought a huge bar on Craig's List for $150, which is pretty darn amazing for the piece.  Two days ago, we also found a beautiful poker table/table with four nice chairs for the bar room as well.  Couple this with the repurposing I did with the armoire to my sewing hutch - this is a thrift shop/Craig's List basement, and it's looking great!

 

It was missing one thing.  I've searched and searched and drooled buckets over the years, trying to find the one I wanted.  However, they're obsolete and because of this, they've become collectable and people don't get rid of them.  Finishing the basement became the perfect opportunity to finally buy one and after weeks of searching Craig's List, I found one.  Four, exactly.

It's a thing of absolute beauty.  The two lower cases are the exact style.  The top part belonged to the base and top and the second section, although made by the same company as the top, is obviously more recently constructed because it has plastic drawers behind the wood front.

 

Here are the top two sections and lid.  You can see the plastic drawers on one of them.  They had a patent number on them that traces to 1972, so they're newer than that.  These are the two that are meant to go with the base and top which is sad because they have not top and bottom for themselves.

 Here are the bottom two sections. They have wooden, yet unfinished, tops and bottoms. I love the graffiti on them.  Proof that kids will always be kids. They are SOOOO well made.  The drawers glide effortlessly in and out. and the wood is certainly a better quality.

 Compare the drawers of the lighter section (not the plastic one, the all wood one) and the darker cabinets.

 You can tell how much smoother the darker one is. 

The top two sections were made by Gaylord Brothers, Inc.  Not so sure about the bottom section, but we found this card in there, which was quite a hoot.  However, it could very well belong to one of the top two sections and just placed in this one.  The cabinets are roughly the same size with the darker one being just a few fractions of an inch longer.

 So far, I've stacked the two darker and one lighter wooden one with the top in my sewing room.  They're great for holding my thread and beads etc.  Even Duke's getting in on the card catalog action.  They're too tall stacked three high...especially since I bought two more four drawer ones that will get delivered next week.  ;)

 What I really need is a second base.  I can make a second top with some particle board with no problems, but even if I stack two on the ground, they're too low to be useful.  This one with the plastic trays would be wonderful for the boy to store his Legos in.  If I put some foam in the bottom of the drawers in the other lighter section, I could put them side to side and put a large piece of board over them or square them and put a board over them for him to use as his building table.  I could then use the real top on the darker color ones in the sewing room.  I don't think the color change will make it look too bad.

Then again, do I want to give them up to him!?!  Oh, the humanity!

There's so much I want to do with them and so many ways to do them that, I can't decide.  I think I'll just go down there and stare at them for a bit. 

The morning comes early.  Sweet cataloging dreams.