Simmons Dresser- Norman Bel Geddes Pt. 1

After looking on Craigslist.org for months I finally found a Simmons metal dresser. It was advertised as a hotel dresser from 1936. After a bit of searching for Simmons and Bel Geddes I found a picture of the dresser in question, along with a cool nightstand and bed set.

The dresser was rusty and scratched in spots on its faux wood paint. The person I purchased it from said that he had had it for 30 years and planned on restoring it, but never got around to it.

I measured my trunk before I left, going by the dimensions that were listed in the ad, the dresser would fit, but I may not be able to close the trunk. So I brought a few ratchet straps just in case. I'm glad I did, because as you can see it didn't fit very well. I didn't account for the the width of the door up towards the top and it got stuck.

I made it home just fine and started stripping the paint off of the top immediately. The dresser is extremely well built there is a piece of tarred burlap glued to the inside of the side panels so it won't sound like thunder when opening and closing the drawers and the drawer slides are made of wood so they will slide easier.

I had seen a bedside table at a vintage shop that had the same look as the Simmons stuff but was not nearly as well made.

The wood paint job is original, but past the point of saving. I didn't put the drawers back in because as is, it is very hard to move. I put it on my car creeper to make it a bit easier. The bottom "toe kick" is painted wood.



The restoration process starts!

Bathtub Faucet

Doing a bit of research, I found that cranking on the faucet handle to make it stop dripping is most likely bad seals in the stem. So I took apart the cold water side and found that it was actually cracked. Replacing the whole stem was the only way to fix it. The helpful person at the City Desk at Park Supply matched up my old stem with a new one. He found it to be a Gerber part # KIS23-1827 which is Park Supply's part number. It is about 1/4 inch longer than the old one, so it sticks out a bit further than the old one but it works great! They were 10.05 per stem cheap fix.

Building Permit Index Card

The Hennepin County library recommends that one starts their home research by finding the building permit index card for the house you are researching. On the card you can find the building permit number. With the building permit number you can look up the lot survey, which is on microfilm. Online they recommend that you call or email at least one day in advance so they can pull the index card. For me they were able to pull it and I went in later in the day. Below is the index card for my house. Also for the other Lustron on my street at 4900 Cedar Ave. The card says that the permit to build my house was issued on 10-28-48. The other Lustron was issued on 9-14-1948. A little over a month before mine. This was surprising because the home on 4900 was supposed to be the demo home for Minneapolis and is home number 15 and my home is number 845. 

Kitchen Cutting Board

via cuttingboardfactory.com

We would like to replace the integrated wood cutting board in our kitchen with a polyethylene one. Maybe it is an unfounded fear brought on by the media, but I don't like cutting raw chicken on the board and then cleaning it off to cut the vegetables. We usually end up using the Ikea cutting boards on our counter top and use up our already small work space. My idea was to router out a place for a "plastic" cutting board to sit inside of the integrated one. I found these cutting boards also each with a different color for each food group you are cutting. It looks like they can make custom cutting boards, so I could get one made to fit into my design.

 My crude drawing, the half moons are cutouts so one can remove the cutting "plastic" cutting board from the wooden one without too much trouble. It would be on the left or back because most of the cutting would be done on the right side, bottom in this photo. Straight sided so food doesn't get underneath it.