Around the House

I was looking at the dishes in the sink on Sunday and thought how pretty they were--and how lucky I am to be able to use them every day, and not just "for good" as my mother used to do. Dirty dishes aren't typically something we enjoy looking at, but I admit I like doing dishes now. With only two people in the house most of the time, and pretty dishes to use, what's not to like? Almost all of my dishes came from secondhand stores or yard sales and flea markets. The fun is in the finding, isn't it? And again later in the using.

The sink of dishes made me think of how much in my house is "recycled." Pretty much everything, when I think about it. I've shown some parts of the house on this blog in the past. Here's a quick tour of parts of two rooms, the kitchen and the living room:


Here is one of the two new furniture items in the house--the dining table and chairs. The other is a couch in the log room. Both are sturdy and destined for years of use. But everything on the table was bought used or gifted to me, except the little poinsettia--that was gift to myself!

In my kitchen, the jelly cupboard in the corner was obtained through a trade of an Aladdin lamp. It's chestnut wood and I used it as a pantry. The drying rack was on the trash heap when an old house was being torn down in Ripley about 30 years ago. The buffet was bought at an auction in Virginia in 1970 for $50. It's leaving soon to go to my son Derek's house--I bought another big cupboard that I sorely need for storage in my kitchen and Derek was supposed to get the buffet in my will. Why not give it to him now so he has more years to enjoy it?

Also in the kitchen, the cast iron wood cookstove we bought in 1975 for $75. It is not hooked up right now, but when we get the big storage cabinet in place, the stove will move and we'll be able to build a new chimney and put it back in use. I used it for quite a few years, but when the bank made us get fire insurance, we had to disconnect it because they didn't like the way we had the stovepipe.

By the front door, the wardrobe in the corner serves as our coat and boot closet. The oak chair is honestly just a catchall, but it's handy for putting on boots.

This cabinet came from an antique mall in Weston, WV that was going out of business. It's not in the best shape, but I love its wavy glass, and it holds a LOT of books. And other odds and ends too. The little green couch is a single-sized hide-a-bed and Hannah's favorite place to sleep when she visits. The quilt pattern pictures are made from different types of wood inlaid to make the pictures, and the red cushion covers were a surprise find in the bottom of a box of junk from an auction.

The big bookshelf was one of the first things we built in this house. I own many books on storytelling, folklore, history, poetry, gardening and so on. I am constantly buying and having to weed out books that aren't being used. They have to earn their keep--even though we've added other bookshelves, I still run out of space regularly.

The sunken section of the living room was inspired by homes built around us when we lived in Virginia. We like the way it allows the heat from the woodstove to be at floor level so the floors stay warmer than they wood if the stove was at the same level as the floors. Larry built the brick surround when Tommy was a baby to keep him from getting burned. The afghans were 25 cents at a yard sale.

The built-in couch is not my favorite--it's hard and a little too narrow. It's been in place since we built the house and I've recovered it, for my sins, many times in those 35 years. I'd like to remove all covers and padding and line it with pine shelving boards, sanded and stained and then add loose cushions so that it's more like a bench--which is what it feels like anyway. That might be a project for this winter. In the lower left corner you can see one of the three baseboard heaters we had to put in to get fire insurance--wood could not be our primary heat source. We only use them if we're going to be away overnight in winter.

That's the quick tour. Ignore the dust and dirt--I've been on the road a lot and behind on cleaning, but it will get done before Christmas, I hope. Too late to do it for Thanksgiving!