Guess who found me . . .Meet Maggie

We have a friend of DH who has retired and is moving to Boise, ID.  DH is helping him pack things and last week they brought an old sewing machine here for me to research it's value.  I spent two days searching the internet for any information on it.  I called Husqvarna with the serial number and they were able to tell me what year it was manufactured.  With all the information I could find I let our friend know she is only worth about $25 in top shape and she does not have any of her accessories or case so I offered him $10-$15.  Since she is not worth too much and I had tracked down the information on her, he said I could just keep her, no charge.  That's a good thing because I fell in love when I first saw her.  She was pretty dirty inside and out so I spent two more days cleaning and oiling her and DH did a little electrical work on the foot pedal.  She runs pretty good, I think she will run better after the oil has had time to seep into all her old joints. 

Here she is all clean and pretty:

She is a White Rotary sewing machine produced in Cleveland, OH in 1954.  The White company sold out to  Husqvarna in the 1960's.  Parts are no longer made, so if anything breaks she may turn into a pretty little door stop but I love her, she is just too cute.  I think she is a 3/4 size and she is a straight stitch machine.  I don't think she saw a lot of use over the years because there are no wear marks on the sewing surface. There were a few scratches on the wooden base, but a little Old English scratch cover fixed them up.   I decided to name her Maggie after my Great Grandmother. 

This has been a busy couple of weeks.  DH daughter who was visiting with us for two weeks went home early last Monday morning.  Workers arrived a couple hours later to install a sun shade cover over our patio.  They finished that up on Tuesday and ever since we have been cleaning house and trying to get rested up!  I love company, but it wears me out.

The patio cover was a planned expense because we had the elm hedge removed from the back yard last Spring.  It is the one we had to trim every year and it was such a job.  This is the west side of our house so it heats up during the afternoon.  With the extra shade from the cover, our utility bills will be a lot lower and the house will stay cooler during the summer. 

We had a big surprise last week ago though.  Our air conditioning quit working.  After some checking by our furnace/A/C guy we found out it was going to be expensive to repair.  And since the unit is about 25 years old anyway, we decided to just have the whole system replaced.  Not what we want to do right now, but some things won't wait.  Fortunately the temperatures have cooled off during the day for now, so it is not unbearable without the air on.  In a couple of weeks the new one will be installed and the little issues we have had with the system over the last few years should be all fixed. 

We still have a few busy weeks ahead.  We are going to visit my DD in Mesa for a few days, then we have some friends we went to school with who are coming to NM for a visit.  Both events will be fun, but I am looking forward to a little down time before the holidays get into full swing next month.