“What do you do with all that stuff?” I asked my dad. He’s lived on the same farm since the mid 60’s and has managed to acquire a few things. We walked through his shop, the barn, his storage shed, the garage, and the basement of the house—for starters. I was on the hunt.
My husband and I had moved to a newer townhome from a 1930’s brick Tudor home. I knew I’d be losing all the characteristics of an older home, but my husband was wishing to spend less time repairing and more time doing other things he loved, like golfing and biking. I couldn’t argue with that. Being healthy is certainly a worthy pursuit!
But I wanted some character in this new place, too. And I didn’t want to spend a lot of money doing it since we were still “donating” funds to various colleges on behalf of our children.
On the hunt at my dad’s I found:
The old farmhouse door. The backside of this door has a shotgun hole in it from my uncle, who was a teen on the front porch cleaning his gun back in the day. But the door is solid wood—it stopped the bullet! It now leans against the wall in my sunroom.
An old gunnysack:
A friend of mine framed the sack and my daughter-in-law sewed Mom’s old buttons on it–in the shape of an “M” for our family name.
Some old pallets:
My dad had a pile of old pallets. I picked out a few that had some wood grain I liked and my husband stained them with some leftover stain from a previous project. I also had an iron “Believe” sign with tabs on the bottom that I had purchased on sale. It was perfect to insert in-between the slats, making a new sign for my foyer.
The spindles from the old farmhouse stairway:
I asked my husband to nail the spindles to the wall in a “starburst” fashion. Didn’t he do a nice job?
And, from my aunt’s house, she gave me an old picture frame that pivots on a base:
I put a plant on the other side of the picture frame and pulled the fern through the frame.
Also from my aunt’s, an old wooden plant stand:
I pulled apart the plant stand and rearranged it on my living room floor. Then I asked my husband, “This arrangement on this wall, please?”
Find things others are throwing away. Repurpose them into a new way to use them. And enjoy the new life given!
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