Prepare To Swoon

We took a little PJP field trip to Kansas City yesterday... The whole goal of the trip was to find a gate that would fulfill all our hopes and dreams for our new space.  You might recall that I wrote an open love letter to a gate and fence that was located in Springfield not too long ago (http://pjpies.com/2014/01/30/blog-official/).  Before we could get there to buy it, someone swooped in and bought the gate and all the available fencing.  This caused more heartbreak and gate envy than you could ever guess at PJP.  I hope whomever bought it is giving it a loving and caring home.  Sigh.

The intense Internet search for an acceptable alternative began full scale last month.  And for the most part, it was pretty disappointing.  Antique gate purchasing on a budget should be a full-on Olympic sport because nothing about it is easy.  Everything we stumbled upon was awesome and pricey or decidedly not awesome, but affordable.

My Google search kept bringing me here though...http://aoarchitecturalsalvage.com.  We just needed to find a day when we could go and then hope for the very best in inventory selection.  You know how you see people traveling to for sports events and they write something like "State Finals or Bust" on their car windows?  Our attitude yesterday was basically "Gate or Bust"...we didn't know exactly what we were looking for, but we were coming back with something.

After fortifying ourselves with an horrifying amount of carbohydrates at Buca di Beppo, we parked in front of Antiquities and Oddities with no expectations.

Have you ever experienced love at first sight?

Within 12 seconds, we were ready to pledge our lives to Antiquities and Oddities.  SMITTEN KITTENS.  If you put Jon Hamm on one street corner and Antiquities and Oddities on the other, I would seriously give pause before choosing one.  Three stories chock full of everything you can imagine (and all sorts of stuff you can't).  I don't even know what this thing is, but I wanted it:

To say that we were distracted BY ALL THE THINGS would be an exceptional understatement.  We found lights, decor, and all sorts of adorable things we had no use for (and no budget for).

After about an hour, we found at least 35 things that we wanted but where the heck were all the gates?  One quick question to a staff member and he said "gates?  oh we have so many gates in the basement!"  And he did not disappoint...gates everywhere (and toilets and drinking fountains and old doors...that is an entirely separate blog post).

Mind blown.

Big gate or small gate?  Generic gate or a period-specific gate?  Tall or short?  Rusted or not?  Actual gate or part of a fence?  The decisions went on and on.  And then like a light from the heavens, we spied it:

Have you ever met someone and you knew within a few minutes that you wanted to be in their life forever?  It was sort of like that.  It is 32 inches wide and 46.5 inches tall.  Detailed but not ornate.  Beat up but not junky.  Quirky but not bizarre.  In short, just what we wanted without being able to describe what we wanted.

And if you are curious what this sweet addition cost...$175.  I KNOW, RIGHT???!!!!!!  There will never be a day when we don't swoon over this girl.  And in a few weeks, you can swoon over her too.  Perhaps we should call her Swoon-ella.  Or Swoon-sy.  Or Swoon-ita.

Did you notice that the guy in the picture above looks like a Baldwin Brother?

He told us his entire story of regularly being mistaken for a Baldwin Brother and then he became fairly obsessed that Jeanne looks like Kathy Bates.  And now that I Google around and look at Kathy Bates and think pseudo-Baldwin Brother is pretty spot on!

Jeanne hated the comparison, but loved the gate and so she made a joke about leaving him an  autograph and then took off for the door with our precious purchase.  Despite the flattery from a young Baldwin doppelgänger, she was committed to getting Swoonella back to Columbia and would not be delayed.