Time for a little reclaiming...

Recently I ran across a Craigslist Ad for architectural salvage for sale. I contacted the poster and it turned out an old house, foursquare from the same time period as ours, was being torn down and they were selling what ever anyone would buy so it was not lost to demolition.

It makes me very sad to see old homes torn down, but I was glad to see they wanted what could be saved to not be lost forever. We purchased a built-in cabinet, some stair spindles that are the same as our missing spindles, some bookcases - sadly the doors were missing, a couple of light fixtures - which of course we now regret not buying a couple of the other fixtures,  and we purchased porch railings, and some window trim. That, also, we wished our bodies could have held out a little longer to take more of the trim down and reuse it some how. We spent the good part of a Saturday pulling and prodding on wooden parts that had been holding on for over 100 years. They were not real happy about letting go, but they finally gave. I think they will enjoy their new home - oh I hope they do - I hope they do not bring with them any unforgiving spirits with them. Yikes - hadn't thought about that until just now. Well - we'll just have to make them happy in their new home, if that is the case.

Domestic Management Services, Inc., the company that was taking care of all the transactions and contracting the excavation, was wonderful to work with. All the others working on preparing this home for its last days were also very wonderful, caring people. Overall it was a great experience, our bodies were sore and we were tired, but it was a good days work.

This is one of the lights we should have purchased. We kept going back and forth - would it look okay in our home, our home has the original light fixtures - which was something we loved about the home - we were concerned about betraying them. They wanted a bit more than we wanted to pay for a light that we weren't 100% certain we would be using. Yes, we could have sold it, but I didn't really want to do that - so we just didn't get it.

This is the built-in cabinet we purchased - which actually extended probably a foot above the ceiling. I can't wait to get this put into our home. We were originally going to put it exactly where a built-in had been taken out of our house by a PO, but this one is actually longer than the original and so it won't fit on the same wall. It was originally a beautifully stained wood cabinet and will be again. We had no idea it extended way above this ceiling. What a fabulous surprise!

I didn't take pictures of our salvaged pieces - mainly due to exhaustion - but I will soon and post them. Can't wait to get all of it incorporated!