Ballard's First Vintage Crawl and a New Repair Shop Open the Same Weekend
Starting at 11 a.m. on Friday, October 2, Crawl Passports can be picked up at two shops: Thread Hunter on 22nd Avenue NW and Simple & Just on Ballard Avenue NW. Ballard's first Vintage & Secondhand Crawl runs until 7 p.m. Sunday, October 4, and it's free to attend. That same Friday, a few blocks east on 14th Avenue NW, a lighting repair studio called We Fix Old Stuff opens for drop-offs.
The two openings were planned separately, but they fit together. Ballard's secondhand stores have started working as a network, and this weekend the neighborhood also gains a place to fix the old things those stores sell.
The crawl's format has already been tested in Ballard. In May, five bookstores ran the first Ballard Book Crawl from Friday, May 22, through Sunday, May 24. The stores were Ballard Books, The Ink Drinker, Secret Garden, Swoon City, and Twice Sold Tales. Shoppers collected passport stamps at each store, and the prizes, worth more than $300, included gift cards, Ballard Cocktail Trail tickets, totes, and commemorative bookmarks for anyone who finished a passport.
According to My Ballard, the book crawl drew a strong response. At a Ballard Alliance meeting afterward, businesses were encouraged to organize similar events with other groups of shops. Allison of Simple & Just and Thread Hunter co-owners Elissa Pemberton and Melissa McLennan took the idea to Ballard's vintage and secondhand stores and organized the October crawl together.
So the shops borrowed a format that had worked in spring and changed what was on the shelves. The passport mechanics carry over: pick one up, collect stamps at participating businesses, and complete the passport for a chance to win a prize. According to My Ballard's September 30 preview, the vintage version has ten shops plus four bars and cafés offering specials. The weekday wording in that preview doesn't quite match the calendar, so go by the event listing on Visit Ballard: Friday at 11 a.m. through Sunday at 7 p.m.
The participating shops are spread across several streets, not packed onto one block. Below they're grouped by street, so you can plan a walk instead of zigzagging. Discounts require the passport.
Food and drink specials are limited to one per person at each location.
Several stops on that route weren't there a few months ago. Rotations, which sells vintage clothing and vinyl alongside local art, beer, wine, and events, opened at 1417 NW 54th St in August.
Barn Owl's story goes back further. The shop started in Ballard in 2021 in a back area of roughly 700 square feet inside Sparklebarn, then moved its operations to 6012 12th Ave S. Owner Josh Dand said the Sparklebarn space was too small to grow in and that he had been looking for a larger Ballard storefront. The former Tactics and Second Ascent space on Ballard Avenue gave him one. Barn Owl Vintage A to Z opened at 5209 Ballard Ave NW on Friday, July 10, selling vintage Filson, workwear, and outdoor gear.
Within one summer, a shop that had left Ballard came back to a bigger space, a new vinyl and vintage store opened, and both are taking part in the neighborhood's first group event for secondhand shops.
The crawl covers buying. We Fix Old Stuff covers the next step, when a vintage lamp flickers or a cord turns out to be frayed.
Co-founders Ashley Zaworska and David Nebert run the shop out of the building they share with their custom lighting company, Moon Moon Lighting Co., at 4818 14th Ave NW. Zaworska is a Washington-licensed architect with a degree in architectural engineering. Nebert has more than 10 years of experience in lighting repair, restoration, design, and fabrication. The repair business grew out of the lighting company after friends and family started bringing them other broken objects. Earlier in 2026, they tried running it as a public repair shop in a six-month Seattle Restored storefront in Lake City.
Lighting is their main work: rewiring, socket replacement, fixture customization, electrification, finish work, and full restoration. Simpler jobs include replacing lamp cords a puppy chewed through, fixing flickering fixtures, and adding dimmers to lamps. Recent larger projects include putting a shattered heirloom ceramic platter back together, restoring a fire-damaged chandelier brought down from Alaska, and converting European sconces for use in American homes. They also arranged for a vintage refrigerator handle that could no longer be replaced to be 3D scanned and recast.
"Lighting is our specialty, but we're happy to be your first call for other stuff, too. If we can't fix it, we'll point you toward someone who can."
That comes from the founders' press release.
The weekend schedule lines up with the crawl. Walk-in drop-off and pickup hours are Fridays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. each day. Monday through Thursday visits are by appointment. The shop is offering a special opening-weekend rate on items brought in October 2, 3, or 4. Its announcement doesn't say how much the discount is.
To bring something in:
The location block on the shop's contact page reads 4814 14th Ave NW, but its directions link and My Ballard's coverage both use 4818. In practice, look for the loading door.
Put the pieces together and the weekend covers the whole life of an old object. Vintage furniture from Space Oddity, workwear from Barn Owl, or a record from Rotations can come home the same day, and a lamp with a bad socket or a chewed cord can be dropped off on 14th Avenue NW during the same three days. An heirloom with a broken part can go to people who know how to have a new one made.
This weekend's crawl is the first of its kind for Ballard's vintage shops, and none of the coverage so far mentions a repeat date for it or for the bookstore crawl. For now, the dates to know are October 2 through 4. Pick up a passport at Thread Hunter or Simple & Just. Bring anything that needs fixing to the loading door on 14th Avenue NW on any of those three days to get the opening rate.
Sometimes a vintage find leads to bigger questions, like whether a room needs to change or whether the house still works for you. When you get there, Mauri Tracy is glad to talk through it with you, calmly and at your own pace. Let's Connect.
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Mauri Tracy | Windermere Real Estate
MAURI TRACY | WINDERMERE REAL ESTATE
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