Only A Few Times In One's "Picking" Adventures Does A Fella Come Across An Acquisition Such As This. Status: A Little Stunned.

Earlier this week (last weekend actually) Nickarmadillo of Mid-Century Midwest snapped up a great Herman Miller slat bench for next to nothing (even with over offering / paying).  I have to say I was a little bummed as I too had fired off an e-mail after seeing the ad (and also over offered) and realized the seller had no idea what they were selling.  Well...Sunday brought blue skies again as these popped up on the list while I was poking around on my phone sittin' in the Mr. Chair.

I won't lie, I almost peed my pants when I spotted the ad.  I've been hoping to find a set of

Erik Buck barstools for about 4 or 5 years!  I won't crush you with the asking price of the set

but I'll give you this: I didn't make an over offer...I just called the number listed, showed up at

the door, looked them over and calmly (ohhhh...it was so hard to be calm!) calmy handed the

seller EIGHT TIMES THEIR ASKING PRICE.  They didn't even blink.  They didn't ask why

or anything.  I simply explained that they can consider it a tip and that the stools were worth

much more.  I grabbed them up, carefully placed them in the back of Frank and drove home

all giddy with excitement!

Now understand this, even though I gave the seller WAY more than their asking price I paid

nowhere near the $500 - $600 these would cost on eBay...never mind 1stDibs.  Still, I feel

like my Karma is well in order.  The seller had a big grin on their face when I left...almost as

big as mine!  They surely thought me mad.  "What kinda idiot pays MORE for old junk we

just had sittin' out in the garage?" they must be thinking.

Farm Fresh. It's a term pickers use to describe an item just pulled from a barn or out building.

Usually these items would be covered in dust, rust and spiderwebs. Well, these barstools didn't

come from any farm or barn but they were apparently stored out in a south city garage which

would technically be an out building as the garages on the south side are butted up against the

alley and not connected to the homes. Then there's all that dust, a little caked mud and yes

spiderwebs! Definitely Farm Fresh!

I first encountered the Erik Buck barstool when I was researching my three danish style

barstools that we are currently using here at the Modtomic Ranch / Lily (her name...we name

everything) Pad.  While I love the barstools we have, when I found pics on the web of the

Erik Buck models...well, I was smitten.  Finding these is better than when I found the Bertoia

Diamond chairs, though those definitely have a better story attached to them.  I've been hoping

to find a set For FOUR or FIVE Years!  It's called patience...it's a virtue.

Oh...oh my...look at that.  That my friends is Rosewood.  Don't you just love how it contrasts

and yet compliments the frames made of...uh, what...Walnut?  I'd guess Teak but Teak is

notoriously hard on tools and these aren't hand crafted as much as mass produced.  But then

again...most of those on the net that do list a wood type list the frames as Teak.  I can't guess.

They cleaned up nice but the seats still need some more attention.  I only had about 20 minutes

to clean these up before shooting them for the blog this morning.  Not nearly enough time to

clean the seats properly.  Can you imagine...these were just left out in the garage until last

Sunday.  Then the stars all lined up just so...and they got rescued.  I bet this morning was the

first time in decades that they got the kinda love they shoulda' been gettin' all along.

Only one still has it's original label. Oddly the manufacturer deemed it necessary to apply the

label not to the wood frame where the adhesive could get a good purchase, but to the fuzzy

bottom of the seat? Huh? Go figure. Now comes the hard part...keep or flip. Seems to be one

of the bigger questions these days. It's so hard to let my babies go!