In the past week, I finished two projects that have gone unfinished for more than a year. First, a big deal:  We installed a vintage Lightolier chandelier into our colonial-modern living room. This replaced a simple colonial reproduction purchased as a placeholder for the space when we moved in 10 years ago. I am so happy with this gorgeous Lightolier — it evokes exactly the colonial + modern = coolonial look that I want, and it’s an amazing piece of midcentury modern American craftsmanship.

The dining room has a fundamentally colonial vibe, with cherry built-ins and wrought iron hardware. A wrought iron light always made sense for this space. The sellers had a crystal chandelier, not original, and took it with them. To fill the gap, we quickly bought the light, above, when we moved in, in 2001, for $60 from a big box store.  Meanwhile, I thought I’d keep my eye out for something with a modern personality, yet which would fit the colonial vibe. Ummm, nearly a decade passed… because as you all know, there are always a multitude of other urgent projects and live-your-life demands that get stacked up.

Finally, one day last October — 2010 — I saw this light on ebay from sellers Peter and Grove. Yes: It was modern! Yes: It referenced colonial! Perfect! The price was also right — $150, Buy It Now — which I thought was terrific for real deal vintage Lightolier. The thing was, I had to pick it up, in Essex, Mass. Now, that’s just three hours over to Boston, and I thought I would be getting over there soon enough, so I went ahead and BIN’d.

Alas, weeks, month, a year… I never did seem to get over to Boston… I was in touch with the folks at Peter and Grove… they didn’t seem to mind…. But, enough already.

Finally, after I launched the Finish What You Started campaign, I contacted them with an idea: Let’s have the UPS Store do it all. Bless their hearts, they agreed to take the light to the next town over, where the UPS Store packed the whole thing and shipped it to me. Yikes, the UPS Store would not take my credit card by phone, so Peter and Grove agreed to bill me via paypal and then pay UPS direct. Packing and shipping $160, and I paid Peter and Grove their gas money and a little time. These guys were saints — I would have been seriously annoyed at me! I love you, Peter & Grove!

UPS did a great job with the pack and ship: The base went in one box, the shades, in another. Many styrofoam peanuts gave their life. Tip: Want to make sure your precious cargo arrives safely? Have the UPS Store both pack and ship it — it will cost you, but they don’t want the stuff to break.

Once the light was here, I took it to the local lighting store, and they checked to ensure the wiring was sound. I bought new bulbs from them. Note, this light is super fantastic in that it has light bulbs at the top, under the round, handblown seeded glass shades, and, there are bulbs underneath, too! There is a switch on the fixture than enables you to cycle up, down, or both. The light store also helped me specify the wattage up and down, to be safe.

DH and I installed the light. Many curse words — many many many — were uttered. I think there was even screaming — mine — with this one. It all turned out fine, though. We kissed and made up and were very proud of ourselves, with me secretly committing to myself that next time, I’d pay the lighting store to come install the light while DH was at work.

While I had this project in process, I also repainted the dining room ceiling. The painter last summer mistakenly painted this ceiling in a semi-gloss finish, rather than a matte finish. Ack! It took me four coats to get the semi-gloss covered — I kept missing spots. And truth be told, there are still a few very small spots where I haven’t covered the semi-gloss. I couldn’t take it any longer, though: The Retro Decorating Gods do not demand perfection.

Why does it take so darn long to get these projects done? Because it’s all one huge can of worms. For example, I now have two more things to do — each with many more multiple steps –which revealed themselves in the aftermath of “completing” these projects:

• (1) The light is not sitting low enough. Now we need to take measurements, take down the light, haul it to the lighting store and have them extend (likely this will mean: replace) the wire to drop it down, and add some black chain. As mentioned above, given cursing and screaming incident, I will ask the lighting store if they can re-install it.
• And (2) I now need to repaint another square of ceiling further down in the adjacent living room. (My living room and dining room are open to each other, with a step down into the living room. The 45′ x 15′ ceiling is separated into section, by beams.) The painter also had “touched up” a spot in a nearby section. But again, he used semi-gloss. However, now, when I went to paint over his paint, I could see that my paint did not match. This doesn’t show when I do the entire section (vs. just a spot) so now I really need to paint the whole section. Which means I may need to paint all five sections, if the difference starts to show section-to-section.

It never ever ends.

Week #5 of Finish What You Started. Upload your photos and show us your productive self –>

What project(s) did you complete in Weeks #4 and #5?
Comment and/or share a photo with the uploader, below

Tips:

• (1) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE set your camera to no bigger than “medium” images, so files aren’t too large — large files really slow down the slide show and over time increase my costs to run this website. 
• (2) Uploader DOES work but message you get on screen *may be* funky and confusing. Upload ONCE and trust the image it there — I just need to “set new photos free” from my control panel and will be checking hourly to do so. 
• (3) Terms of Use apply.

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I recently purchased a very large number of Emerson Imperial light fixtures still in the original boxes. I do not know what they are worth or where to sell them. Any ideas?

I asked Pam to send some photos, and did she ever: Above are thumbnails of an album she sent to me. She says that in many cases, there are multiples of the fixtures shown. What a treasure trove. I’ve now asked for the back story — where the heck did these all come from. But, I cannot wait to show these lovelies photos — so here I am with some thoughts on her question.

How much are New-Old-Stock — NOS – also sometimes called Deadstock, New In Box (NIB), Mint In Box (MIB) – lights worth?

Probably the most mainstream way to check values is to look at Completed Listings on ebay. Use a wide variety of search terms. You can only count Sold items in your survey. You are looking for comparable items in terms of design and all-new quality. Please know, that old fixtures, even if they have never been used, should be rewired. There are sellers who sell beautiful vintage lights all rewired, and who get a pretty penny for them — but, recognize, the rewiring is done so these can realistically sell for more.

I’d say that in the past 5 years I’ve been watching vintage lighting on ebay, prices have increased dramatically. I bought my NOS Imperialite kitchen light for less that $20. The same light today would go for $100, or more, I bet. Good for sellers, bad for buyers, but I credit this blog for driving prices up.

What is the best way to sell NOS lighting?

I think the best way –  in general – to sell NOS lighting is on ebay, where you reach the largest possible audience.  You can list the lights with a set price via Buy It Now, or list them in auctions and hope to make some big strickes. Goodness, there is a whole science and art to ebay that is way beyond me. Ebay also has fees consistent with auction services that will eat into your profit; you need to take this into account.

As an alternative, you could try listing the lights on craigslist. The advantage: No fees, and assuming all your buyers are local, they would not have to pay shipping, either. Shipping is going to be a lot for these lights — you are not going to want them to break. Also, if you are in a big mid mod mad market — like on the west coast — you may already be in a sweet spot where you find lots of local buyers, fast. I spy with my little eye what looks to be maybe a storybook ranch in your photos. Perhaps you are surrounded by folks interested in updating their little midcentury houses all Retro Renovation style??

Finally, some folks who, like you, found a big stash of lights, listed them on our Buy/Sell Forum — and I think they found some buyers. My Forum is mostly about connecting buyers and sellers of vintage steel kitchen cabinets. But, I also have a spot for other stuff. And, there are a lot of active readers. Like craigslist, it’s free.

What would this Pam do? (1) Research the prices on ebay. (2) List the lights for sale on craigslist, to avoid fees and all the hassle of shipping. (3) Try the Retro Renovation Forum next, if craigslist did not work (avoids ebay fees). (4) If that was too slow, start listing on ebay. One more thought: Heck, you have so many lights, I might just try to make a big local event out of it: A big garage or tag sale. Advertise it in craigslist or maybe the local newspaper. See if there are mid mod mad bloggers in your city and get the word out to them. Make it a frenzy.

Readers, as soon as get more details on the find from reader Pam, I’ll post the story. Meanwhile, I bet you want to see more of Pam’s stash: To view the slide show, click on the first thumbnail. Move forward of back via the arrows just below the photo; you may start or stop at any thumbnail:

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