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Inside this issue Rico’s Garden October 6
DO YOU NEED RICO’S HELP
PASSIONATE ABOUT SALVAGE
PAGES 18 & 32
10 SYMPATHETIC RESTORATION
OLD STUFF NEW LOOK IS LOOKING FOR PROJECTS! OTHER CONTENT RICO’S “OLD STUFF NEW LOOK”........102 IDEAS & INSPIRATION......................104 CLASSIFIED AND SALE ITEMS............114
Editors notes on this months issue Well three months in and things are moving forward nicely, readership is increasing and more of you are sending in your own salvage experiences. This month Rico talks about leaving the East End and the move to Basildon and what sculpted his life then and now. Why he is passionate about sympathetic refurbishment whilst incorporating as much green technology that passion will allow. Rico enjoys the fruits of his labours in the garden, researching French recipes from old cookery books he has found in his market and day sales over the last few years. We are looking for deserving cases for “OLD STUFF, NEW LOOK� a new TV series for Rico to display his skills and talents along with a few of his pals. Pre-production is under way now and we need you, our reader to put forward any cases you feel could benefit from a Rico visit even if its yourself! Just go to page 20 have a read and send us a email. Well I hope you enjoy this months Salvager and we look forward to hearing from you.
James
CARTOON
RICO’S GARDEN The weather is still warm and sunny but most of the garden has run its course. There still looks like plenty growing but most of that has been left to provide me with seed for next year. Tomatoes are still growing as are my Jerusalem artichokes which I will leave in the ground over winter and pull them as I need them. I don't like to be a scaremonger, but I am seriously worried about the state of the world and feel happier knowing i got a couple of months food safely stored underground. I can put up with the artichokes fearsome reputation for inducing gas if they keep me fed. There is a lot of food still in the garden of course. Pumpkins, marrows (way past the courgette stage), brussel sprouts, cabbages, beetroots, swedes, peppers and carrots that will still supplement my
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RICO’S GARDEN diet wonderfully along with whatever wild food I can find. I've just been experimenting very successfully with acorns and am happy to include them as a regular part of my diet as they're so easy to store for future use . The use of wild food radically extends the limits of your garden to include all the local hedgerows and woods so it makes a lot of sense. There are all sorts waiting to be harvested with little effort. Crab apples, blackberries, hazelnuts, rosehips, can all be found within a couple of hundred yards and can all be easily recycled into delicious pies and pastries. I know its fiddly work dealing with crab apples but I tend to do it while I'm watching telly so its no hardship, the other year I peeled and packed apple into kilner jars.
RICO’S GARDEN I ended up with about three dozen large jars of apple that lasted easily for a couple of years and provided raw material for many crumbles and turnovers, well worth the effort. Back to the garden where I am anxiously awaiting the ripening of my walnuts.
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RICO’S GARDEN I’ve got 4 walnut trees, three of which are producing nuts and they are smothered so its obviously a good year for walnuts. I need to wait for them to start yellowing in colour and I can start picking. If I don't time it right they'll start dropping off and I’ll lose them among the brambles. They say a walnut tree can produce 50kg of nuts when mature and I'm sure mine are well on the way to producing over half that amount, (as you can see my walnuts are now picked). So I may well go and pickle me nuts as my baskets and bowls do overflow and I have to make a start on them sometime. More from the garden next month so until then, stay safe and keep that salvage eye open...
PASSIONATE ABOUT SALVAGE It must be clear to everybody by now that I am absolutely passionate about salvage, though it may not be totally clear as to why. I think therefore that a little clarification may well be in order and to that end I have to take you all a long way back, through the mists of time, to the bomb ravaged landscape of the London’s East End and to Canning Town in fact . Canning town was where I was born and lies very close to the docks that were so vital to the long term survival of wartime Britain. A great string of docks lined the Thames from Tilbury in the east, and along up the river to Silvertown, Albert Dock ,and the East India Dock among others.
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Once old Adolph fixed his malevolent eye on dear old Blighty these precious doorways to London were all very definitely centred in the bomb sights of the Wehrmacht who did their utmost to destroy them all. Devastating factories and much of the surrounding housing in the process. My long suffering old Nan, a widow with thirteen children , got bombed out 5 times during the blitz which had been over for just 10 short years when yours truly was introduced to the world. My first memories were of that surreal bomb ravaged world. I remember being taken up to Rathbone market by my mum, balancing along low walls punctuated by little nubs of iron where war salvaged iron railings had once stood.
In a camel hair coat and with my hand firmly gripped. I was manoeuvred quickly past the many bombsites that still scarred this devastated part of the city. Rathbone market itself was scattered along scarred roads that lay between heaps of brick rubble and great holes in the ground. Only partially hidden by hoardings that struggled vainly to keep out the gangs of scrappy east end kids who used these bomb sites as playgrounds. I don't think there’s a fence yet invented that could keep out a determined kid and these great heaps of rubble and lumber were just too tempting to ignore. I was still too young to be allowed on these sites but I watched with envy as i saw kids sliding down dusty slopes sheets of tin throwing lumps of stuff at each other as they re-enacted the all too recent war and just generally doing what boys do when they find
a way to get away from fussy parents. I longed for the freedom to run wild as they did, they displayed their grazed and scabby knees as badges of honour as they played noisily in the dust. These ruined houses and factories were a paradise of useful and wonderful stuff that in the hands of inventive boys could become almost anything they chose. A sheet of rusty corrugated iron could be a sledge, a camp roof or a shield against the endless stones thrown all too frequently as fickle allegiances changed. It was already clear that a lot of mileage, fun wise, could be had from just about anything with a little ingenuity. I couldn't play on the ruin, but a great substitute for me was a trip to my Aunty Roses house who lived just a short walk away on the other side of the Barking Road.
Aunty Rose was married to my chickenfeed or as food for the uncle Ted who worked on the family dog. dustcarts. Pets then had to put up with left over’s and seemed He collected anything and perfectly happy with the idea. everything as dustmen were allowed to do back in the There was no such thing as a "good old days". disposable nappy, cat litter or It was a legitimate way of subsidising low wages and was known to the initiated as "Totting". These were the days before black bin bags so all of a households rubbish was shouldered out to the dust cart in proper metal dustbins. Once tipped into the back of the dust cart, any valuable bits of cooper, brass, aluminium or electrical wire Were clearly visible and could be hooked out and tossed up into a cage or box for later sorting and recycling. Rubbish then didn't seem quite as nasty as it is now. Plenty of households kept chickens as did my Nan so a lot of food scraps were kept back either as
the sort of excessive food waste we've been seeing in modern times which made household garbage seemed a little less nauseating. A gloved hand was free to turn bits over looking for anything useful free of risk from junkies needles and other nasty surprises. Totting was a big part of the daily routine of my uncle Ted who seemed to find
amazing gems as a seemingly everyday event. His back yard was stacked with de-nailed lumber, car batteries ,stripped copper wire, old engines ,enamel advertising signs, bicycles and my personal favourite, an Edwardian tobacco machine that offered a packet of tobacco for a penny, (how times have changed). I have no idea where or to whom he sold his many
finds, but he must have returned countless tons of "tot" to usefulness. It was always believed that the dozen or so old packets of tobacco he found inside the tobacco machine were wrapped in a lettuce leaf to soften them back up before he smoked them though that may or may not be true. I remember being taken round there every few weeks and it
was always a huge coup for me when my mum and her sister Rose were so deeply engrossed in conversation that they failed to notice me and my cousin Frank ignore their stern warnings, and slip out into that alluring yard and play. I always like a little frisson of risk and Uncle Teds yard was dripping with the stuff, but that merely served to sweeten the forbidden pleasure of playing out there. It's only now as I sit here at my computer that I realise just how much of an influence on me dear old Uncle Ted with his spivvy moustache, beautifully coiffed hair, and wonderful piles of "tot" actually was. There was another uncle ,a great, great uncle in fact who is spoken of in hushed tones in my house, I am speaking of the legendary Tod hunter or "Toddy" Daniels whose rag and bone cart worked out of a yard on the junction of Cape Street
and North Street in Barking. He died before I was born but he was a delicious character by all accounts. My Great Nans brother he was also cousin to both Pedlar Palmer, the 4 times bantamweight champion of
Britain and Max Miller the "ersatz" Jewish comedian who was in fact a gipsy born Thomas Shepherd in Brighton. I wish more tales of Toddy had survived though the best one I ever heard was of the
time he was trying to reverse a fractious horse into a scrapyard. There was no way the horse was going to oblige until eventually Toddys frayed temper caused him to storm off in a rage shouting that whoever wanted the damn thing could have it. That night by all accounts the horse was found tethered back outside his yard, though his cart had been unhitched and taken. It seemed that the useless horse wasn't wanted by anyone else either and I suspect was rapidly recycled into carpenters glue pots across the East End . Anyway back to the story . I was frustrated by the way my every move was watched by my mother despite the fact that I had a vocal, younger sister to help distract her. I still craved to explore the dereliction though that freedom eluded me seemingly forever,
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until in 1956 at the age of four my pioneering parents were among the enthusiastic vanguard that left the dust, smog, tin baths and outside toilets behind to become eager tenants of Basildon New Town thirty miles down the road. My dad had wangled a house because of the essential nature of his job at Ford Motor Company a leading employer in the embryonic town. We arrived before the footpaths and teetered everywhere on a network of slippery scaffold boards that wove between the deep tire track puddles gouged knee deep in the sticky coffee coloured clay. Here finally I'd found the freedom I desperately craved. My mother's watchful eye was less vigilant here in the safety of a cul-de-sac. Twenty safe yards of sticky Essex mud separated street door from the low level
danger of a minor road that was only infrequently host to still uncommon motor vehicles. More next month…………….
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Life and Livi Many Brits, myself included, have snapped up their bargain property ‘à renover’ and are now poised and ready to restore’. It is at this point that an enormous number of aesthetically disastrous decisions are made. My own neighbour, a skilled builder, has successfully converted the interior of his early 19th century farmhouse into a beautifully crafted disaster that is now completely devoid of character. Gone are the heavy oak, ceiling beams, all now replaced with the geometrically perfect timbers necessary to support a flat plasterboard ceiling.
I have seen in a thousand houses, and to complete the impression of visual sterility. The original stone fireplace was smashed out and replaced with a modern fire place and chimney.
The sandstone walls are now deeply buried behind crisply finished plaster. The flagstone floors are hidden below a thick The artex finish on the concrete screed, tiled with the chimney breast is almost too same faux terracotta carrelage much to bear, but I give grateful thanks to whatever
ing in France the renovation work with a vengeance, tearing down the modern plastered ceilings to expose the original smoke blackened beams beneath and re-bedding loose stones in the walls. I patched the leaky roof as best as I could; replacing cracked tiles, and kicking others back into place, a temporary repair at best. Within a week I was sleeping in the place, and even at this early stage, the building enchanted me. deity kept UPVC windows out of his way. They would have been visible from outside and brought his world into mine. I bought my French farmhouse for one simple reason. I really wanted a typical French farmhouse. Once I had my keys, I steamed into
The flagstones around the huge fireplace were cracked and broken where logs had been split for kindling. Hooks still hung from the bar inside the chimney where once bacon had been smoked and like a sentinel, the photograph of a boy in uniform hung from the same nail on a wall in the
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Life and Livi salon that had supported it since his death on the killing field of Verdun in 1916. These many references to former lives were as much a part of the house to me as the sturdy stone walls and I strove to retain the spirit of the building. Some parts of the house were beyond redemption. The leaky roof had allowed water to rot great holes through the granary floors. Some of the window frames had stopped pretending to do their job and lay in pieces on the sills. the cheapest and easiest The front door was itching to be option. broken up and contribute to the I can scratch around my fire. A huge workload, but I was property and find plenty to adamant that however I fixed occupy myself with a couple up the place. of cubic yards of builder’s I wanted it to be recognisable to sand and a dozen bags of the ghosts of the long departed white cement. tenants. I personally believe that sympathetic restoration is often
Re-pointing costs little other than your time, and looks great, and doesn’t even need
ing in France It isn’t a long list and virtually everything is readily available to replace like for like. So where to look? There are a lot of options, each more expensive than the last, with the trick being to get to the material before it reaches the last and most expensive option, the reclamation yard. In many parts of France, the prices demanded in these hard to locate yards can be truly breathtaking, but they are market driven. It is expensive because people will pay through the nose for it. painting. Apart from sand Flip through any glossy designer and cement what else do we magazine and you will see need? The materials used in kitchen floors covered in the construction of a typical beautiful old French terracotta French house are easy to tiles or new house builds that list. incorporate old oak beams • Stone rough or dressed bought in at 115 quid a foot. • Timber in various forms The trick is to beat other people • Roof tiles to the goodies and preferably • Flooring grab the stuff before it starts its • Windows, doors and pricy upward spiral. shutters.
Life and Livi For me, the best option is to get material for nothing, and you will stand the best chance of this if you ingratiate yourself with the locals. I noticed that a farmer that borrows my trailer two or three times a year was pulling down a barn. I asked if I could have some of the timber and he delivered every oak beam to my door, totally free. As a bonus he also said I could take as much stone as I liked. Building stone is durable If any of your walls are missing masonry, the chances are pretty good that it will be lying where it fell. If it isn’t, have a good look around the area. Many farm buildings have tumbledown outhouses attached.
building stone or a couple of old beams. If you need more, then bid something to clear the building.
I paid 100 quid for the tumbledown barn next to my house. It yielded 45 cubic metres of good stone, a stone I reckon a bottle of half decent arch, a stone door frame, plonk will easily negotiate a fifteen good beams and about a thousand roof tiles. few barrow-loads of
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ing in France mate just grabbed for 300Euros. I could have cried when I missed that, but if you want a similar bargain get the paper early, check the ads and get the deal done before you have your breakfast. If you dawdle you’ll miss it. While you’re looking, check for any equipment that could be useful such as scaffolding and ladders. Buy it, use it then flog it in the paper again when you are finished with it. You will get all your money back. If the roof on your house is OK I had to pull it down myself, then you are lucky indeed. The but it was still a real deal. extremes of weather here in the Small ads in the local papers Vosges mean that many roof tiles are frost damaged and often throw up bargains. cracked. Grab your dictionary and check the section headed Any attempt to repair your frag‘Materiaux’ in the small ads. ile roof will mean you crack more tiles as you move about. This can have all sorts of good deals, but rarely as The best advice if you want to good as the 90 sq. metres of reuse your tiles, inch thick oak flooring my
Life and Livi is to check them all for condition, discard any that are in any way ‘iffy‘ and hope that you end up with enough to redo one side of your roof. Storms seem to always come from the west here, the so-called ‘weather’ side, so maybe invest in some decent tiles for that side. It is pretty easy to find stacks of tiles in farm yards, tucked away in odd corners. These will have been stripped from other renovated roofs and a good percentage may be o.k., but even if they look identical to the ones you want to match up, check that they were made by the same company or double check their width and length with a tape. Similar tiles can often vary by a 4 or 5 millimetres per tile which will multiply over a run of tiles till they just can’t be made to interlock. Any tiles you don’t use can either be used as
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as hardcore or saved as spares for the next hurricane. The French boot fairs or “vide -greniers” throw up all sorts of bargains. Again it will be the early bird that catches the worm, giving you the chance to walk away with antique doors, stained glass, shutters and wrought ironwork.
ing in France you are looking for in a note book and carry it everywhere with you, along with a tape measure. If you see something good you will know instantly if its useable or not. You will often see people selling at these events that have an air of professionalism. They, invariably, have a big van and their stock will be in dozens of easy stack boxes. They’ll have old tools, crockery, bits of furniture and job lots of general rubbishy stuff and are a little like icebergs. I mostly look for old fittings such as latches, bolts, hinges etc. I hunt for the handforged ones which can often be 18th century. If you must use new doors etc. in your project, an appropriate paint finish and nice old fittings will give a good impression of antiquity. Keep the sizes of everything
You will probably only see 10% of their stock. The rest, harvested from house clearances and the like, will be crammed into their outbuildings and barns. A little chat about the things you’re trying to find will pay dividends. These people pick up everything on their travels and will often give you a really good
Life and Livi deal on a whole range of useful reclamation. My main dealer has sold me sinks, roof tiles, antique iron fencing, second hand ply and old kitchen cupboards. The ‘vide-greniers’ are normally advertised in the local papers on Saturdays. ‘Depot –ventes’ can be found in the phone book and sell a lot of stuff on behalf of the owner. They are normally massive warehouse size buildings stuffed to the rafters, but any attempt to do a deal means they have to go back to the owner to ask if they will take a bid. It could take a week to get 10 Euros knocked off a price, but they can sell literally anything, from woodstoves to crystal chandeliers and I love them. I get a lot of good furniture in these places, but I also buy broken furniture so that I can recycle the timber.
ing in France It makes great window sills and shelving etc. and usually matches any built in furniture you may have in your house. It’ll usually be oak, beech or another native hardwood and will have a great patina. I hope I’ve given you a few clues to sourcing reclaimed material. The aim is to keep your cash in your pocket, so brush up your French, pluck up your courage and have a good mooch round, It works for me!
Rico R Need a
“Rico Referb�. If you think you deserve a Rico Referb send us a e-mail with the reasons why you should be the precipitant of a Rico referb. It could be you have just moved in to your new home, or you would like a change and monies tight! Its just about your living environment, no major building work will be undertaken.
Referbs Do you have what it takes to be a salvager! If you fancy yourself as a salvager and think you have the skills we want to here from you, From soft furnishings, to Sparkies from carpenters to fabricators and decorators, amateur or professional Send us a e-mail info@redsquarepromotion.com And you could become a Rico apprentice for a fortnight!
IDEAS & INSPI ACROSS T
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WHY NOT SEND IMAGES CONVERTED ITEMS salva
IRATION FROM THE WEB
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Clam Clox
£8.00 +P&P
Clam Clox
Clam Clox Here is something entirely new, never before have I seen a clock like this, please tell me if you have, Two Large Clam shells (hinged at the back to make battery changing easy). The clock mechanism is set in to clear glue and tiny pebbles (collected from St Nicholas beach on Zakynthos) poured on the glue and stuck, then they are sat on a Driftwood base, I have made several, but order promptly to avoid disappointment, A very popular seller.
£8.00 +P&P
£8.00 +P&P
Oil Filled Lantern These beautiful lanterns are made form old hand made roof tiles, some nearing 80 yrs old ! The tube is filled with Lamp Oil and the wick can be adjusted to suit ! the lantern will burn for up to 10 hours on a full tube of oil. ÂŁ12.00 +P&P
Olive Wood Clocks Now here are the prettiest clocks we make ! Solid Olive Wood base and clock face, cut and sanded so smooth they are like glass, we have added a clear varnish to bring out the fantastic grain that the Olive wood has. Our clock mechanisms are from Germany and carry a full 2 yr full replacement guarantee( battery not included ) ÂŁ7.50