E-Bay

E-bay is a great source for old house parts. Metal hardware, light fixtures, even stained glass windows are regularly listed and can sometimes be had for modest sums. Search keywords like vintage, antique, or Victorian, will regularly generate items, and many old housenicks run a battery of searches weekly. One enthusiast enters six different iterations of the keyword Handel, including misspellings.

If you bid regularly, or focus narrowly, you may develop an e-bay rivalry. One neighbor's pursuit of Carnival glass shades wrought frequent bidding wars with a username Gottahaveit43.
I routinely face a battery of rivals in my pursuit of Victorian sanitary magnificence including Plumbher, Vintageplumbing, and Sinkorswim.

Many frequent bidders use Auction Sniper, a service whereby a predetermined bid is entered seconds shy. There's a vigorish of course, typically 1% of the winning total.

Dodgy types lurk, so many buyers deal only with those sellers who've high feedback totals. In one supposed case, a bogus dealer posted photos of deluxe items taken on a house tour.

Getting outbid on one-of-a-kind articles can be a slight bummer, but nothing compared to the conferee of damaged goods. No matter the insulating properties of cardboard, stryafoam peanuts, or bubble wrap, the sickly rattle of inadequately swaddled glass, pulverized terra cotta, or severed porcelain quills, is insuperable.

Sometimes I feel a bit like a looter, raiding depressed steel towns, divesting the Piedmont South, and the architectural carcass of everyslum USA. Once, guiltily, I asked a seller in Detroit, from whence an item had come. "Palo Alto," he responded, "I had a dotcom venture in the late '90's."

Of course there's also Craig's List.......

Sharing on a Monday

Taken a week ago in the Rockler (Pasadena) parking lot. Suitably inspired (by nature, or more probably the prospect of a close), I proceeded to buy a Jet contractor's saw. My old table saw, a rickety Skil, and a gift of "Gentleman" Jim Dugan, hadn't survived the last and lengthy rip session. I bought a roller stand as well, to help cart in and out of the garage. (I like to work beneath the Sycamore tree.) The saw comes with a Biesemeyer knock-off, the first good fence I've ever owned. That'll be a pleasure, doing without c-clamps to hold the fence in place, or adding tape to keep even from end to end. Next, I've got to clear a space in the garage and put the thing together. What'll get finished first, the house or the workshop?

Favorite Vendors

John White Sewer Line Video

Using a push rod fiber optic camera, drains are probed, recorded on video.

When a property lacks a proper "clean-out", or a direct drain access, inspectors often have to enter through a roof vent, or by removing a toilet.

Most of the sewer lines I've inspected were an amalgamation of ABS plastic, cast iron, and clay. Rarely I see copper drains, a material usually reserved for supply lines.

Sometimes the inspection not only seeks to ascertain the condition of the pipe, but to prove a city sewer connection. While I've only encountered a single property without a sewer connection, many properties have no sewer connection permit on file (there isn't a connection permit requirement). This permitting detail is usually revealed in the Los Angeles City Residential Property Records Report, also called the 9A.


Operators also utilize a Locator, which can pinpoint the snake's progress and depth. Locations are marked with fluorescent paint or small flags.

On my beat, most drains exit the rear of homes, possibly towards an early septic, and then turn 90 degrees toward a driveway or sideyard, along which they travel to the street. Some continue through rear yards away from the street, en route to an alley connection.

The John White people record to DVD, adding narration, a guide through a watery world that sometimes includes insect life. Great fun for the kids!

The service costs around $300.00.

Favorite Stores

Anderson Plywood in Culver City is my favorite place to buy plywood, and cabinet building aids, fasteners and adhesives.

They carry an astonishing assortment of plywood (plyboo, anyone?), lumber (oak, fir, maple, alder, ash, pine, etc), manufactured boards (like melanine, MDF, Sound board, etc), and veneer.


Four times a year, the store hosts a used tool swap meet in the parking lot. The next is scheduled for the third Saturday in November.

Anderson will work off cut lists, and trim pieces to your exact specifications with little wait.


Also nearby, at 11266 Washington Place is Anderson Moldings, a great place to check for basic and stock mouldings.

Anderson Plywood
4020 Sepulveda Blvd.
Culver City
310-397-8227