Wenatchee couple’s basement home to vintage cars

WENATCHEE — Bob and Sue Arbini incorporated cars into the decor of their Sunnyslope home.

Real ones.

Taking up almost all of their 3,000-square-foot daylight basement is an eclectic mix of classic and vintage cars: a 1981 Chevrolet Corvette, a 1971 Jaguar XK-E, a 1969 Chevy Nova, a 1968 Corvette, a 1965 Shelby Cobra, a modified 1923 Ford Model T hot rod and a 1969 Chevy Camaro.

“People think we’re crazy, just totally insane,” says Bob.

Just off the showroom, kind of kitty-corner to the Camaro and Model T, is a large home theater.

“This way, we can go downstairs and see our cars and watch a movie and they’re right there,” says Sue.

The car crazies don’t end there. Just off the west end of the house is a separate, 2,000-square-foot building with two garage doors and a main entryway, appearing at first glance to be what the Arbinis call “a mother-in-law” house.

In reality, it’s divided into three garage bays. One is used for storage, another for Sue’s hobby of making stained glass, glass beads and fused glass creations. The third holds Bob’s auto body and repair shop, now filled with a 2000 Chevy Silverado engine block, which will eventually go into what is an empty hulk of a 1948 GMC pickup sitting a few feet away.

“It was all rust when I first saw it,” Bob says of the weather-beaten truck he first spotted in a field near Douglas.

Bob buys cars and fixes them up. Some he sells for profit; others he keeps and puts in the showroom.

What does Sue think of all this?

“I love it,” she says.

Their love of cars, they say, stems from childhoods spent around cars.

Growing up, both lived in homes located on wrecking yards, she in Lynnwood; he in Lake City. From their parents came a love of cars.

“My dad was a mechanic, and it was just my sister and me and my mom, and he said, ‘If you’re going to have cars, you had better learn to take care of them,’ ” Sue says. “We rebuilt engines, we rebuilt carburetors, we can change oil, we can change tires.”

At the wrecking yard, Bob used to watch damaged cars coming into the yard and, if one came in that he liked, he eagerly waited to hear an insurance adjustor declare it totaled. That meant he could buy it dirt cheap, fix it up and sell it for a profit.

The Arbinis met in the late 1980s when both were working at an auto salvage and towing business in Maltby. Bob owned the business; Sue was the office manager. They married in 1990. The couple earned their nest egg, they say, from their jobs, selling fixed-up cars and real estate.

Unlike the property of some car aficionados, the Arbinis’ one-acre lot is not littered with car bodies. Driving by, a motorist would never know it was anything other than an upscale home in an upscale neighborhood.

The main floor of the Arbini home could be featured in Better Homes &Gardens magazine, with tile flooring, marble countertops and a covered patio overlooking a swimming pool, a landscaped lot and a stunning view of the Wenatchee Valley.

The shop, built by Randy Gold, was designed by Ryan Kelso to look like a small home on the property.

About three years ago, the Arbinis were living in Maltby and say they were getting tired of all the traffic. They took a drive to Cle Elum, thinking it might be a good place to relocate. Then they continued over Blewett Pass and looked at Wenatchee.

“It was beautiful,” Sue says.

They’ve also met quite a few car buffs in the area and say people would be amazed, if they could see inside people’s homes, how many people actually own a collectible car.

“Lots of people have something stuck away in their garage,” Bob says.

The Arbinis say they’ve never had a fight, and work together on everything from landscaping to kitchen duty to Sue’s glass work.

And, of course, there are the cars.

“We discuss how far to chop off the top of the truck, what engine do we get, what day are we going to the wrecking yard,” says Sue.

And they laugh at each other’s foibles.

“Two weeks ago, he was welding and caught on fire,” Sue says.

“I had a big burned area on the front of my shirt.” Bob says.

And then there was the time Sue was helping Bob in the shop, and her hair caught on fire. No injuries, quickly put out. Again, in the telling of the story, lots of laughter.