About 25-30 years ago, my grandmother sold her house and gave many of her household items to various members of the family. We chose her old icebox that had been sitting in her basement (my cousin beat us to the the old Singer treadle sewing machine). It was painted green and yellow and for as long as I could remember it was used to store old jigsaw puzzles. After being stored in my garage for about 10 years, my wife had it refinished, resulting in this:
This past summer the neighborhood held it's annual "Mile Long Garage Sale". The next day I drove down the road on my motorcycle and saw another icebox sitting by the side of the road. However, this one was about 4 times the size of Grandma's. I turned around, went home, grabbed my son, Tim, and we went back to get it with my pickup. It was too heavy for us to even lay it down in the back of the truck. At that time, some guy drove up in an older Corvette and offered to buy it from me on the spot. I refused, but he was a good enough sport about it help us load it up. Later that day, two of my sons and two of their friends came over and we managed to get it into the living room (it must weigh over 500 lbs.). The oak finish is rough in spots. It looks like at some time in it's history some deranged adolescent hit it a few time with a hatchet and their are a couple of holes in the top where it looks like a refrigeration unit may have been installed at one time.
About 2 months ago I adapted an old dorm size refrigerator that my son had in his garage to fit in an opening in the back. With the dial set to the warmest setting the temperature is 52 degrees.
Yesterday I managed to fit a wine rack inside and have loaded it up with all my store-bought red wines. The wine rack was also given to me about 15 years ago, so I didn't pay for anything. However, I still have to re-finish the oak cabinetry.