In a strange coincidence of fate, my mother's neighbors are re-doing their old house. The lady who lived there for decades was a good friend of ours and she passed away from old age about 5 months ago. Her relatives got her house and they're moving in after they fix it up all modern. I thought, nice, they'll be awesome neighbors. BUT, that top photo is one of the doors they picked to modernize the old place. I looked at it and thought, that's pretty. Cost a pretty penny too. Then I spotted the old doors laying in the yard! OMG..one of the things I'd always found so charming about that house was the old fashioned doors. Soooooo, being the thrifty pack rat I am, I asked what they were planning to do with the old doors? Throw them out!!! What?? They said, if you want 'em, take 'em. Shooot! The storms look sort of like the bottom photo. They are all wood, solid as hell and have removable glass for winter and screen for summer. The regular doors are pretty plain but solid wood, old fashioned..some even have the old crystal glass knobs!! OMG! I have doors. I am now a bag lady. But, I'm a bag lady with pretty doors..lol. Crazy, aint it? All they need is scraped, painted and hung. Then they said they were replacing all the old windows with aluminum heat savers. The windows are awesome too. Damn, I'll be known as the neighborhood weirdo toting all this across the street, but, can you blame me? Some fancy designers call it "salvage"..we call it FREEEEEEEEEEE! I'm all excited. I think I like having a house.
14 comments:
"storms"??? WTF?
If you're a bag lady, then you're a bag lady after my own heart. I love salvaging other people's "junk"! In fact, I was thinking that very thing about an hour ago. I was walking home from my mother's place, and there was all kinds of spring cleaning garbage out at the curb on her street(unfortunately, nothing interesting...sigh). But, I consoled myself with the thought of all the junk stores out there waiting to be plundered.
Your treasures have "good bones", which is all that matters. So what's a little elbow grease? ANYBODY can go buy a new door. But what you're doing--that's something to really be proud of!
CapriciousCat
Ohhhhhh, I don't know where you're from, but, around here most everyone has double doors. The regular door and the storm door over it. Usually made of aluminum and glass to keep the winter out. Otherwise you freeze ya ass off. They convert to screens in the summer. But, wooden ones are an antique treasure!
Cat, we need to go treasure hunting! I have a feeling we're a lot alike. :)
thats Shabby Chic at its best! Rachel Ashwell would be proud!!! awesome DD!
I just love the door DD and like you, I love old "good boned" things as CaprciousCat said.
You will LOVE be your door once you've finished and hung it. You'll be so proud of the work you did to bring it back to its original beauty.
You mentioned you did some planting...have you already moved into the house or do you have a space for that where you live?
Susan
I planted at the house, but, I'm not moving until I fix it up a little bit.
i've told you before how i treasure hunt every year, i LOVE IT!!! those solar lights in my front yard were from the trash, that chair was too...so was the fairy statue!
people throw out AWESOME stuff!!! be sure to tell your neighbors what you're looking for, so if they are going to be getting rid of those things they can toss 'em in your yard! :)
that door you got KICKS ASS!! are you gonna paint it? what color is your house?? if it would blend in, a bright cherry red would look awesome!
There are some VERY expensive neighbourhoods in Montreal. I wish I had a car so I could go into some of these places on garbage night. I hear they throw out some awesome stuff!
I have a recurring dream all the time about finding piles of good junk put out for garbage...weird, eh? You know, I like junk so much that I've often thought of doing it for a living...you know, finding furniture and what-nots with good potential, then fixing it, cleaning it up, and then selling it. There is so much good stuff that ends up in landfill just because the original owners don't have any imagination, or because they think "newer is better". It's funny, the older I get, the more like my father I become. He loved old things (and not just my mother, heh), and I guess he passed that on to me.
CapriciousCat
Capricious Cat, you live in Montreal?? Say hello to a fellow Montrealer, or almost. I live on the South Shore
Susan
Well hello, Susan :)
CapriciousCat
I'll take a pic of my door when I get home, it's all black metal-flowery and stuff XD
DD, I can definitely understand your excitement. My mother is just like you. Another persons junk becomes her treasure. She fixes it up and everyone who comes by admires it and wonders where in the world she got it from. I would be the exact same way if it weren't for the fact that I am a nomad who can't seem to stay in one country for long enough to actually get a place of my own where I can collect treasures. Ah, maybe one day I shall root myself.
there is nothing better than having a house.... which has just reminded me i didn't send in my renovation photos. you have to bear with me. my father died 2 years ago and so for the past two years i have been driving an hour there and an hour back to visit my grieving mother at her totally bereft, of life, retirement village. it means that, with work, i really only have one day a week to myself and some time after work but i am usually too bushed to do more than drink a beer and vegetate before bedtime. one day i will have the luxury of time. LOVE the doors!!
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