"With Old Things Comes Old Friends"

By -

Ohmega has been around for quite some time now. With that longevity comes the opportunity to meet some pretty interesting folks. It is one of the great pleasures of working here. On any given day, the mix of people you are likely to encounter coupled with our Berkeley, CA location might cause the uninitiated person's head to spin. Whether it is a customer, a neighbor, a scavenger, another business owner, or one of our vendors, it runs the gamut of profiles and experiences. You might even run into the occasional famous person. Who?, you might ask? Well you'll have to come down here yourself to find out. This is what America should be: a broad cross section of folks who come here to experience the history and variety that is us. Today it was one of our vendors and old friends. Dave Bertz is the one responsible for our having our popular collection of statues and Buddhas. An old time antiques hound and a full time character. He has been traveling to far away places and bringing things back for us for a long time. His wicked, and often bawdy, sense of humour means that you will be laughing a good part of your time with him. That is, of course, when you are not groaning at some of his jokes. He comes from quite a distance to get to us and lately, with the economy, his visits have become rare. So, today, it was good to see him, a old friend, and get some cool new statues & stuff and laugh some of the recession away. So to all of our old friends out there and the new ones on their way to becoming an old friend, come on down and say "Hi" it is always good to see you!
Steve Smith

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to fix a loose clawfoot tub foot.

By -
Image
Recently, one of our fans over on Facebook asked about fixing a clawfoot tub foot that keeps slipping off. American Standard Clawfoot Tub with tapered wedge and set screw Tub feet are typically first put on with the tub upside down. That way you do not have to fight gravity to set them in and you have full access to the screws. If the tub is already in place and you need to replace the foot it is going to be VERY difficult to do properly. There are a lot of different designs and mounting systems for tub feet .  The most common foot attachment method out there is a tapered wedge tongue with a set screw. To replace the tub foot in situ, you need to temporarily lift the tub up just a little higher than the foot when it is in place. (I've heard of using a car jack to do this, but be careful!) Place some type of wood blocks or similar to hold the tub up securely. Take the foot that has fallen out and loosen the set screw so that it does not drag across the bottom of the tub as you sl...
Read more

How to Replace Missing Clawfoot Tub Feet

By -
Image
Some of our orphan clawfoot tub feet Unfortunately, finding a set of feet to fit a vintage claw-foot tub is going to be difficult. There are literally dozens of different designs for mounting feet to tubs. While we normally do have some loose feet, it is rare that we have a matching set of four. And even more rare that those would be the exact match to your footless tub. The easiest way for us to try to get you a set of feet is if you have at least one of the old feet that could be compared with what we have on hand. If you don't have any feet it will be very difficult. We can usually tell from the mounts on the bottom of the tub what type of foot you might need, however hauling the tub around is impractical. The best solution is to send us (or another salvage yard) a picture of either an existing foot or the bottom of the tub. Also cut out a cardboard template of the bracket. This will make your search much easier and you will not have to tote your tub around in your quest. ...
Read more

How to install plaster ceiling medallions

By -
Image
In the old days, ceiling medallions were permanently plastered in place by the plasterers. Back then there was usually not an electrical box present. Ideally, you would like access to the box in case there is ever anything wrong . If it is permanently attached you might end up destroying the medallion in order to get to the box since the medallion goes over and partially covers the box . What we usually suggest to avoid this is to use trim head dry wall screws . They are like a finish nail with a reduced size head. You need to locate the wood joists or some solidly attached lath behind the plaster for the screws to securely grab onto. You also need to pre-drill pilot holes in the medallion in the locations of the wood and screw them in while holding the medallion in place.  Once this is done you can take a picture or make note of the screw locations on the medallion before they are covered over by spackle or some other filler so you'll be able to find the screws later. ...
Read more