The things you keep.

We've just filled our first dumpster - and I can feel the next one coming already.

There is a fine line between antique and old.  Between vintage and garbage. Between historic and "out of date".

We're walking along all those lines right now. The house is full of many special features and items that will always remain.  Even if the door knobs vary and miss a screw here or there, they all have charm and purpose. And bathroom fixtures, heavier and more solid than anything we could buy at the store, may cost more to re-enamel than new ones, but they've earned the right to remain.

The kitchen is a different story.  Not old - 30 something years (and mid 30s is not old even if it feels like it). They are custom to walls that don't exist anymore. But the new design will strive to make them fit so in the carriage house they remain for the moment.

 

And that carriage house has it's own surprises - including the mildew ridden rotting hand knotted afghan rug Toby decided was just fine to lounge on.  We rolled it out to get a look at the patterns and left it in the driveway.  It rained.  And it rained again.  But a couple of good rains and a week of drying over old appliances and junk metal have potentially given it a new life.  There are big holes in the middle, but it will soon have it's own home just a block away.

There's more than a few curious things hidden in the carriage house.  And they will be getting attention soon.  Try as we may to make progress inside, every project will need a workshop to complete it.  Stay tuned to see how this building grows.

This move required no downsizing, and hording, like high blood pressure, might be a genetic trait I carry.  But some things you just keep because they mean something.  They don't have an expiration date.  And when you find them again, they still fit in your life and give new perspective for their meaning. I leave you with one of the most treasured.