Hello from the East Coast! We're currently in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia. As always, I'm thrilled to be here. Though we're Pacific Northwesterners now--and there are plenty of things to like about the left coast-- I will always be a Virginian.
I'm sorry I'm not sorry, but I'm insufferably snobby about where I'm from. After all, American history is Virginia history. Since the first colonists settled at Jamestown in 1607, Virginians have been making it happen, and Richmond's illustrious history is reflected by its incredible architectural diversity. Only here you can stroll along gorgeous Monument Avenue (lovingly nicknamed "Avenue of Losers" for its statues of Confederate military heroes) and then pop over to Jackson Ward to check out the home of Maggie Walker, the first African-American female bank president in the country and by all accounts an exceptional woman. The River City has everything from antebellum farmhouses to suburban colonials, Federal rowhouses to forties bungalows. You name it, it's here: nineteenth-century tobacco warehouses, skyscrapers, a relocated fifteenth-century Tudor estate, Neoclassical and Italianate train stations, an igloo house and a milk bottle building. A quick one-hour trip out of town takes you east to colonial Williamsburg and Yorktown, from whence our very own George Washington sent the British packing, or west to Charlottesville and Jefferson's Monticello (and our alma mater, the University of Virginia, where we met). I mean, there's a reason we Virginians are proud of our state.
Anyhow, a lot of historic buildings equals a lot of architectural salvage. And if you like salvage like I like salvage, you should check out Caravati's. Today we went there in search of a few things for our old house, and we left with our pockets full of doorknobs.
As I've mentioned before, the crazy-doorknob situation in my house is out. of. control. There are three doors in the house that still sport their original brass knobs:
I love those. There are also a million doors in the house that have huge mismatched shiny orange eighties knobs. After discovering the exact knobs and rosettes I needed over at houseofantiquehardware.com a few months ago, I filled a virtual shopping cart with them. I emptied it when I realized they cost $90 per pair. I've been patiently waiting, cringing every time I grabbed a massive cheap doorknob, for my opportunity to check the stock at Caravati's. I knew they'd have what I needed. And they did:
Blurry iPhone photo. Anyway, check out all. those. brass. doorknobs. We picked up two pairs: one for the second bedroom and one for the bathroom. The bathroom set is especially cool-- brass on one side (for the hallway, where it'll match all the other brass knobs) and chrome on the other (so it will coordinate with the chrome fixtures in the bathroom). We were also on the hunt for a brass mailbox, and we struck out. But while we were there we decided to poke around a little, and these were a few of my favorite things:
Safety first, right? Next up: a blurry photo of some clawfoot tubs. Pardon the terrible photography-- we stopped at Legends for lunch on the way to Caravati's. I had a beer. Sue me-- day drinking is what the South is all about.
Ooh! Multicolored forties porcelain toilet-paper holders! Too bad we don't need these. I really like the Tiffany-blue ones:
Vintage toilets vintage toilets vintagetoiletsvintagetoiletsvintagetoilets:
And a rack of multicolored toilet-tank lids in the stairwell because why not:
Corbels and corbels all day long. I love 'em:
One tenth of one percent of the windows you can find in Caravati's:
More windows? Right this way:
So we'll be heading back to Oregon with some very heavy vintage Virginia doorknobs in our luggage. I'm always thrilled when a little bit of Virginia makes it out to the West Coast, but I'm never happy when my baggage is overweight. Cross your fingers for us. I'm shooting for 49.9lbs.
*Do forgive me for paraphrasing John Mayer. He is both a racist and a no-talent asshole. His songs and dress sense are aggressively awful, and I will say ten Our Fathers and one hundred Hail Marys tonight as penance for the title of this post.
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