Thoughts on repurposing

Warning:

You may not like what I have to say on this post, so if you're easily put out or don't have a sense of humor, you might want to move on.

This trend where people take old things and repurpose them... 

it's got to stop.

I know a lot of you do it, but when you're a gal that actually uses antique and vintage items for their intended purpose and the prices keep rising on things you need, because of a trend, it's annoying.

Take for instance....

Clawfoot bathtubs that used to grace the inside of beautiful victorian bathrooms are now sitting in people's yards holding flowers. Can you imagine what your great grandmother would have said if she came across such a thing?

How about sinks..

or toilets...

Good Lord, the woman would have fainted!

Metal wheel barrows are doing the same thing.

Ripped out antique windows that have lasted between 80 to 200 years in their rightful place are now gracing God knows where, instead of going into other old houses, that had their beautiful windows ripped out too, for some double paned mess that will deteriorate in 20 years. (Ask me how I know and more on that later)

Doors too.

Seriously... what is that?

That knob is a hazard!

Typewriters that used to write beautiful letters and novels are being torn apart for things like cufflinks.

Remember that trend where people ripped the covers off of antique books?

Sacrilege!

The list goes on and on.

There's a particular store here that claims they sell antiques. John and I went in and our jaws dropped. Things that we've needed for so long for the house were everywhere, but turned into something other than what they were intended for.  And the stuff that hadn't been touched was so outrageously expensive that I just shook my head.

It was depressing.

You know what else is depressing?

There's been times when I've bought something old and the person taking my money will ask me what I'm going to do with it. 

Examples:

"What are you going to do with that antique plant holder?"

Um... use it for holding a plant.

Look of shock.

"What are you going to do with that old window?

Um... use it for a window.

Look of bewilderment.

Now, I get that no one is trying to rain on my 'living vintage parade' and that everyone isn't as crazy as I am. 

I also get that some of those pinterest pictures are hard to resist.

I mean look how cute this is:

And I'm not trying to rain on anyone's farmhousey, Joanna Gaines loving heart, but I really wish another trend would come along and sweep everyone off their feet, so I didn't have to pay 50 bucks for a 1920s 2x2 window that used to be free.

I'm just glad I found Julia, 

before she was turned into this:

The horror!

By the way, she's restored and in place.

Next post is about her :)

xo

rue

PS

I warned you ;)

Autumn greetings

It's finally here!

I know some of us (cough, cough, Kim ,cough) aren't as excited about Autumn as others, but I for one am thrilled. It was a hot summer this year.... actually, who am I kidding? Every summer is hot to me and anything over 80 degrees makes me want to sit inside a refrigerator.

Anywho, on my last post I had a lot a requests for finished project pictures. I'm going to be honest here kids... None of them are finished lol

I have 400 things going on in my heads at once and sometimes in the middle of one project I'll jump to another and another and so on. It all gets done eventually, but in my time, not in normal people time.

That means the bathroom, the porch, the potting shed and the back yard are all still in limbo. So, by the way, is the dollhouse that some of you thought was a real home. Nope, just another 'smaller' home project ;)

Speaking of...

Here's the one we're currently working on...

Meet Julia.

She's named after Julia Child and she's a monitor top fridge.

She was brought home last week and we've been frantically fixing her up to go into the kitchen.

More about that later.

And by later, I mean soon, because this is one project we'll be working on until she's finished.

I want that baby in the house, yesterday! ;)

By the way, are you wondering why I'm showing these pictures of my living room?

Well, I'm finally getting around to showing you what it looks like now, a year after my mom gave me  some of her furniture after her move.

The lighting hasn't been the best with the rainstorms we've been having, but it was clean for company (i.e. no dog hair) and the curtains aren't drawn anymore to keep the dreaded summer heat out, so I grabbed my camera and.... snap, snap, snap ;)

I'll see what I can do about taking some better ones soon.

As it is, I have what seems like a billion pictures to go through, so I have been thinking about you. I've just been too busy to post them.

I also have about 6 months worth of stuff I've missed in your lives, so expect a visit from me on your blogs soon.

Hey, at least it's only been about 6 weeks since my last post ;)

Happy Autumn, my sweet friends!

xo
rue

Summer in pictures

It's been a hot and busy summer...

of baking...

growing a pot of peppers, tomatoes and basil...

surprises that popped up...

wildlife...

and working on the potting shed.

Of dogs acting goofy...

or napping...

or posing...

And when it's too hot we're working on this house too.

Details soon ;)

I hope you're enjoying your summer and if you're not, remember that autumn is right around the corner :)

xo

rue

Been a little busy

With all my long absences from this blog and my lack of visits over to your blogs, I sometimes wonder why any of you even show up, but I'm always thrilled that you do.

As always, there's a reason and this time I think you'll understand even more so.

Let me start with a cute picture and we'll go from there, because this isn't a post that's picturesque.

Bubba taking an afternoon snooze.

Okay, so here we go with the actual post...

This is a picture of the back of my home a few years ago.

Surprisingly bigger than it appears from the front, but not pretty.

That's why you've never seen anything except the front.

This view is actually the prettiest it ever looked.

But see the paint coming up?

Yeah, that's not the worst of it.

It was rotting, the nails and boards were coming apart and although it might sound fun, but wasn't for me... when you walked to the other end it moved. 

Also, there wasn't a way down into the main part of the yard unless you walked all the way to the gate that you can kind of see in the bottom picture to the left.

I lived with it this way for the last 8 years, hopping and planning that one day I could take it down.

Why not fix it or rebuild it?

Because, I found out that there was a flagstone patio underneath that was original to the house.

And if you know me at all, you would know that the wood porch was doomed from that very minute.

And so it started...

Just look at that darling step underneath!

You're probably wondering what that cage is for.

It was built for Bubba so that he can go in and out when he's not with me and not get eaten by random wild animals.

We're leaving the other side of the porch up until we get the top windows painted on the house, which are a lot higher up than they look.

Spraying off the flagstone patio...

Next the cage came off.

The house needs a little power washing, but it's not too bad.

And 4 or 5 of these still need to come out...

But overall, it's in pretty darn good shape.

Just a little patching here and there and definitely some deep cleaning.

We found a flower bed underneath all that dirt too.

We definitely have our work cut out for us, to make it what we want...

but I think the little house feels much better :)

Oh and because we're gluttons for punishment, we also have this little project going on:

More on that soon ;)

xo

rue