L.A. part 2

Last Saturday, 23 November, we made another trek to LA in search of a great deal at a estate sale and the elusive Eames chair. We began our quest early that morning without breakfast but plenty of coffee. Our first way point was at the home of Michael Jackson's dermatologist, Dr. Klein. Apparently he was bankrupt, his home sold at auction and the estate sale held to pay his creditors. The home was built in 1914, about 11,000sqft and ended up selling for around $4 million and according to one of the workers the new buyer planned to put in another $2 million to fix it up and it really needs it. I guess Michael Jackson actually lived at the house for a period of time and they really played it up with identifying his room/bathroom/patio.

View down the street

Michael Jackson's bathroom

We arrived on the last day of the sale and most everything had been sold but I guess there was a boatload of Michael Jackson stuff. It wasn't cheap either, there was a fedora that he wore in a concert that was going for $5,000 and a picture on the stairs that was listed at $55,000(see picture). Needless to say we didn't purchase anything.

Yes that is really listed at $55,000

The other estate sale we went was a short distance away and this treasure trove featured a lot of rugs which is why we wanted to go. Of course we also wanted to see the house, and what a house it was. It sat on almost an acre in the middle of LA with a pool (of course) and a 4 car garage (of course). the house was smaller than Dr. Klein's at only 8,000sqft built in 1924 but was in almost pristine condition. It sold for over $8 million. The rugs were beautiful but really overpriced. Of course they were saying to make an offer but when they have the tagged prices between $6,000 to $20,000 I don't think they would like my offers. Besides most of the rugs were way too large, we need them around 8'x10'.

The Driveway

"A" really likes steel frame windows and this place had an entire wall of steel framed windows (see photos). We would have liked to get them for our house but unfortunately I am sure they would have been way too expensive.

From there we decided to eat before the final journey to our Eames chair was completed. After lunch we proceeded to Burbank where the chair located and got to see a really neat site. Once we parked I looked over and saw a doe come out of the bushes as I told "A" another doe came out followed by a really nice looking buck. In the end 4 does and 1 buck came out to feed on the apartments landscaping. I asked the owner of the chair and he said they came all the time but usually in the morning. It was quite a site in the middle of LA to see a family of deer.

Our quest ended with the capture of the chair and an uneventful drive back to San Diego.

Museum day

"A" received some free passes to the Mingei Museum at Balboa Park. I'm not much into museums, usually after 10 minutes I'm ready to stab myself in the eye with a spoon, but one of the displays consisted of furniture. I know what you are thinking, booorrrringggg, but a lot of this was mid-century and that just happens to be what we are looking for.

There were other displays of "art" and I have to tell you some of it was crap. I can't believe what people pass off as art.

Anyway here are some pictures of the stuff that we were interested in.

L.A.

I want to apologize to all my dedicated readers, all 5 of you. I have neglected to post anything for several weeks, but we have been busy. Last Saturday we drove to LA for two reasons,
there were a couple of estate sales that "A" wanted to go to and we were looking at purchasing a Eames  chair (reproduction). It was less expensive to drive up and buy it than to purchase it online and have it shipped. Besides, I wanted to try out the chair in person before I dropped that kind of money. I am really glad that we did because the chair was too small in the back, it didn't support my head like "A"s chair does. Overall it seems that to get what we want we are going to have to look north to LA. You would think that San Diego is a big town but it really isn't when
looking for specific items, namely mid-century furniture or anything that is not mainstream.

Chinese Theater Hollywood

One of the estate sales was from the winner of the first HGTV Design Star, Emily Henderson. I had never heard of her because I never watched the show but "A" wanted to go and take a look and see her. I will say that I didn't expect she would even be there, I figured she would hire someone to do it, but she was actually the cashier. We didn't buy anything because we got there a little later and most items were snapped up, besides the checkout line was HUGE, I mean really was HUGE. I guess it probably would have taken at least 30 min to buy anything.

The other estate sale we went to had a lot of really nice items. The owner, Pierre Cabrol, was an architect who worked with Welton Becket who was the architect for the Capital Records building and the house was really cool. We ended up buying a hand knotted rug and a Marcel Breuer Cesca chair (reproduction) at a reasonable price.

WTF????? I parked anyway :)