December 15, 2020
#408
Gentle reader,
Nancy and I have acquired many diverse collections in our twenty-five years of marriage.
Many have come and gone, for instance, many years ago upon my finding an old Yashica 35mm film rangefinder camera at a church bazaar, I decided I was going to collect cameras. I ended up owning more than 500 of them. Usually about half that many were on display at any one time. Now, I have only twelve. Most of those were gifts or inherited from Nancy's father. One of which is the same model Yashica as my very first find. Her Dad taught me about how to focus a rangefinder camera when I first showed it to him.
The only photo I have of that very first camera. I still had a lot to learn about photography back then.
Our current obsession is diecast cars. I have been collecting them for years and had bought Nancy a few Model A Fords (which her dad restored them when she was a kid) and a couple 1963 Ford Falcons. It being her first car, even though it was made two years before she was born!
When 3DBotmaker's wonderful 1:64th scale diecast racing videos first showed up on YouTube and I had Nancy watch some, it hooked us both (and thousands of other adults) into the hobby of collecting AND racing those iconic Hot Wheels and other brands of 1:64th scale cars and trucks. Like many people around the world, we too are building our own scale race course.
All that aside, the very room where I sit and type these articles went from being a small bedroom, in 2001, to home office/museum/second music listening room. I had covered almost every inch of wall space with framed posters and racing photographs as well as other framed items. I also had hung the pair of BOSE 301 "direct-reflecting" speakers which Nancy bought for me on the wall opposite me (and wrote about how you too could do it) and had as many as FIVE pairs of speakers in here. It was getting ridiculous.
So, I decided it was time to simplify. I started by removing all the artwork. Then all the toys from various shelves. Boxing the framed art that would fit. I then began filling all the MANY holes I had once made with nails, screws and pushpins/thumbtacks in 19 years in this room.
I first wrote about this room back in 2008, here is a link which will give you an idea what it looked like way back then. MANY times I have moved things around added or removed shelves and desks and other things:
The Robb Collections: The OFFICE a virtual tour
Go ahead and click on that, and then just click or tap on the first photo in the article and then you can quickly go through a "virtual" tour from twelve years ago. Then come back here.
The photo below is from three years ago and shows how packed with things the walls had become.
I also simulation race in here (although not in a long time), you can see the top of my gaming chair and the 42" TV can be seen.
So, may I assume you have looked at the "before" photos in the 2008 article? Good.
Let me quickly show you the now empty walls in the following photos. Starting to the right of the door:
The bump-out of the closet and one of two shelves I made for the girls when we moved here in 2001. It's too wide for that wall, but I had no where else to put it.
Two airsoft AEG rifles and two vintage Daisy pop-guns like we had as kids up on a vintage rifle rack.
The large white foam boards are what I use atop that little table to shoot items on for eBay and sometimes for articles too.
I built that base shelf/cabinet in the 1970's from white Walnut wood with the guidance of my then-girlfriend's father. He felled the tree on his land in the mountains of Virginia (it had died), had it sawed and planed into boards by a sawmill.
Black and white photo by my brother Jim of me at 19 working on it. Color photo below is from one of three color slides my girlfriend's father took of it. The same man who helped me build the record shelf/cabinet.
Next shelf up: I bought the neighbor's 1975 Chevrolet Monza 2+2 which had a V8 engine in it with the intent of transferring the V8 into the Vega. The Monza was burgundy with brown leather interior. A 1975 Monza 2+2 is shown here in white as a promotional model which the the green Vega also is.
YEARS later, I was shed of that wife and married to Nancy. I traded my 1993 Ford Escort five-speed station wagon for a used 1996 Chrysler Sebring JXi convertible, shown here in red. The top WORKS on that car, it is fabric and folds up and down. THEN, years later, I bought the 1987 Porsche 924S, represented her as an orange 924 Turbo model car.
Top shelf has a red/black promotional model of a Chevrolet Camaro Z28. We had a white one with charcoal leather interior and T-Tops. I built a 1:20th scale model of in which is in the larger cabinet. Then a red Audi TT quattro from Welly, the only 1:24th one I could find at the time, and the Volvo C30 represents the 2005 V50 T5 M66 wagon which I currently own. (I have a 1:43rd V50 model.)
If you'd like to see ALL of the cars I have owned, there are a lot of them, click here:
The Robb Collections: A Journey through time, via Automobile Sales Brochures
My 1:43rd scale Volvo wagon collection. My V50 is third from the right. Same color as the real one. I bought it used, if I'd bought it new, it would be red.
Lastly, all the main characters from Pixar's CARS movie. Our ever-thoughtful daughter bought me the whole set after the film came out. They are plastic. But, we have thirty-some other CARS models all in diecast metal.
Whew! I DO tend to run off at the fingers. I hope it was not too confusing.
I now have the task of deciding what to put back up on the walls. This room will be the LAST one I fix up in the house.
Please take a moment to click or tap the FOLLOW button, it's by the photo with the rifle rack, and receive notices of new articles when they come out.
Also, take a moment to comment below, or on Facebook. I REALLY appreciate your taking the time to read my humble blog.
Scott & Nancy
December 15, 2020
#408
No comments:
Post a Comment