<p>Interesting-looking cut glass/crystal vases in the chair. Does anyone have time to look for marks? It looks like the large rose bowl and the other one are the same pattern. Can’t tell about the tall vase.</p>
<p>I was able to find that Robert Wood website, which I posted above, but no luck on the other signatiure. </p>
<p>It appears that the majority of the items in the house belong to his friend that passed away. They lived together and the older gentleman passed away in 2007. According to some of the neighbors the exterior and landscaping were in good condition until about 5 years ago. So, the Estate Administrator and I have surmised that Walter may have been in serious grief over his friend and just let everything go. There was also an issue that Walter had no money so he just couldn’t keep it up and obviously didn’t pay his property taxes.</p>
<p>I have carefully viewed the ‘Robert Wood’ and the one that I have seems to be a very popular print/commissioned reproduction, probably only worth about $30. So at this point all the paintings are going into the Estate Sale and will probably just get purchased for the frames. I cannot even figure out what the initials are on the original oil painting that I took a photo of.</p>
<p>I am having a hard time trying to figure out what to do with the albums. I researched three or four of the albums and I get variations on what they are worth. If I go to the ’ album value’ website popsike.com, I can see details about ebay auctions that show value of $125!!! for one of the albums and pricing of about $30-$50 on some of the others. These are really old Duke Ellington and Pearl Bailey. But, when I go onto ebay it appears that there are several of the same old albums priced about $10 and they are not selling. Have no idea what I am supposed to believe.</p>
<p>Then I read a detailed ‘how to value’ guide at gocontinental.com and they are adamant that only early rock n roll LPs are worth a lot of money. Their reasoning is rather interesting… the buyer population who love Big Band or Duke Ellington or Sinatra are aging and old and not out buying or collecting. In fact there may not be any market for these types of albums in the near future. It appears that early Rock LPs (especially Beatles or Stones) bring the highest value.</p>
<p>CB, I do not know the right terminology for this… But! Vinyls were pressed from a “mold”, and the earlier pressed copies apparenly were much better quality than the last ones. They are supposed to have some distinctive marks indicating that fact. Please do your research on this!! Read this!!!</p>
<p><a href=“Shop by Category | eBay”>Shop by Category | eBay;
<p>Price accordingly!</p>
<p>I didn’t realize Walter hadn’t paid his property taxes. You don’t wind up being responsible for them, do you??</p>
<p>I think everyone had a Robert Woods “painting.” I know most of our older relatives did at least. They all seem to be woodsy/creek type scenes. DH’s mom gave us and old one of hers and when we looked it up it was worth $10. I hated it and we didn’t keep it.</p>
<p>Yes, Robert Woods was one of the first artists to commission reproductions that were sold in catalogs by the thousands. Ours is a ocean scene and I think it is very common.</p>
<p>I guess I forgot to mention that when Walter inherited the house in 2007 there was a reassessment of the house up to value of $650,000 from the ‘transfer of ownership’. Those of us in California will know what that means. In California we are under the famous Prop 13 for taxes. As long as someone remains living in a home as their primary residence their property value remains at the value they purchased at, or 1973 value if they lived in the house that long. It only increases by 2% a year for consumer price index. And our ‘tax rate’ is frozen at 1%, plus any voter approved bonds and stuff.</p>
<p>So, he was suddenly hit with very large taxes annually, about $7,000 probably. It appears that he either appealed that value or the County Assessor dropped the value down to $500,000 in 2012 due to the general property value declines. Either way, he owed about $25,000 in back property taxes, penalties and interest. In California if you do not pay your taxes for 5 years, the County has the right to sell the house at auction. He was very close to losing his house. Taxes were paid off from Seller proceeds in escrow since it was a regular sale.</p>
<p>However, if this house had been purchased at foreclosure auction, the Buyer would have been responsible for paying off the back taxes because they are liened on the house and are not wiped out in foreclosure. When I am buying at auction I have to do some very thorough research on taxes, mechanics liens and IRS liens. Mechanics liens are very tricky because if they are recorded after the mortgage, they are wiped off. Obviously most of them are recorded after the mortgage is recorded, but there is a little loophole. If the mechanic states (on the recorded document) that the work was started before the mortgage was recorded, BUT the lien was recorded after the mortgage by recording date, they can come after the new owner for the money. So, you have to get a copy of every mechanic lien and carefully read through the work start dates.</p>
<p>Regarding the albums, thank you for the information regarding checking for original pressings. It seems very complicated. Last night I just gave up on trying to research all these albums. We have 170 albums. So, I hired the daughter of one of my friends to come over and take a picture of each album cover. I am paying her $8/hour to research all of these albums carefully. She is ecstatic because she is making money on a fun little project (well, to her it is a fun project). She’s into vinyl and has a little record player.</p>
<p>Obviously now I have to get her back over to the Hoarder House and open all these up and check for all those ‘pressing’ details and serial numbers</p>
<p>REMODEL ALMOST DONE!
Everything downstairs for the remodel on the townhome is done. I loaded some final pictures. Still trying to finish master bathroom upstairs because of tile. Had to fire my tile guy (gee… substance abuse problem). I was honest with the owner that I fired the guy and my lead is on his hands and knees laying a very intricate inset pattern on the master floor. It’s gorgeous, but it takes a long time. Still have to install vanity, sink, faucet, baseboard, toilet, towel rods, toilet paper holder and medicine cabinet. </p>
<p>The owner was very nice and made a large final payment, even though we were not really done. But, I was out about $10,000 at this point and I need to pay month end credit card bills and stuff. She sent a huge thank you email out to everyone and was very grateful that we finished on time and on budget and really watched out for safety issues in the house for her. </p>
<p>Granite guy came and created a small little quartz plug for the end of the countertop, all good. In fact the owner had noticed the strange opening last week but she did not say anything to me because she trusted I would be finishing the details… and I did! Photo loaded</p>
<p>Photos are loaded for final shots downstairs. I’ll load final photos of the bathrooms next week.</p>
<p>For those that asked… this house is located on the hill above Ocean Beach with panoramic views north to Mission Bay and West to ocean (well, if you don’t count all the telephone lines in the way). Unfortunately, right under the San Diego Airport takeoff flight path, but that is normal for the area.</p>
<p>Amazing how much better the counter looks now that it’s plugged. I love the staircase lighting and the railing. Thanks for sharing!</p>
<p>Remodel is amazing…shocking how that little counter corner piece makes such a big difference. Great job!</p>
<p>Coral, first THANK YOU so much for these threads and the photos. I love watching you. (not in a creepy way, really!)</p>
<p>second, on the crystal in the photo which is sitting on a chair, you should take the time to look at the bottoms of the pieces because signed ones are worth 10x the unsigned ones. The market for cut glass (if it is cut and not pressed) is but still there are collectors. Cut glass will feel “sharp” on the edges and ring beautiful when lightly tapped with a fingernail.
Having just emptied my grandmother’s collection of cut glass, at auction at Michaans in Oakland, if not signed, I would put between $35 and $50 on each of the pieces in the chair. So if signed, don’t leave $215 on the table…
signed and silver, but still…</p>
<p><a href=“http://catalog.michaans.com/Michaans/pages/inv_a_detail.php?recid=41343&skip=0”>http://catalog.michaans.com/Michaans/pages/inv_a_detail.php?recid=41343&skip=0</a></p>
<p>Sorry–what’s the link to see the photos of the gorgeous renovations? They sound very inspiring!</p>
<p>The link to the nearly remodeled house is in post 1 on Page 1. The link to the House of Trash and Maybe Collectibles is in posts 189 and again in 226 (pages 13 and 16).</p>
<p>Thx. This thread is fascinating!</p>
<p>BTW, because I know I’ll keep going back to coralbrook’s links, I add them to my “favorites” so they’re handy. Then, when she’s done with the project and on to the next, I delete them. </p>
<p>Me, too VH!</p>
<p>Argggg… I still don’t know how to use this new board format. How do I add that to my CC favorites?</p>
<p>I add the links to my favorites/bookmarks on the computer, not inside of CC. Not sure if that is what others do, anxiousmom.</p>