Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Farewell To Another Old House....

I would like to pay tribute to this old house that has served several families during it's life. The farm house is slated to be burned down, I went and talked to the owner to see if there were any things in this house that could be saved from the fire.

I did try to get the window but someone had broke it trying to get it out.....

All the floor grates were removed and believe me there were a ton of them but this one remained because they couldn't get the screw out of the ceiling. Miles was with me, home from college for the day, and he came along to help me. We knew we had to get this grate.... and we did!

All the upstairs bedrooms had the old linoleum floor cloths on them that had probably been there for at last 75 years. I love the designs that each one has. Has anyone thought of any re purpose for these?

The empty hallway in the upstairs, someone else had been in and taken the mop boards and the railing from the staircase......

Another floor cloth......

Miles helping me remove this massive pocket door between the living and dining area....

Is this something you can use?

Yeah!!!! Mission accomplished!! This door is 6 feet wide and 7 feet tall, now that's a whopper! It now has a new home in the shop as a wall.

The headless man saving the cast iron floor grate......

There were also several porcelain light fixtures, so we rescued them....

And another....

Another floor cloth....

And Another......

And the decorative metal pillars holding up the porch with a great patina....

As more and more people leave the rural areas for the city life, more and more homesteads are being abandoned, purchased by the farmers, and then being erased from history. It is very sad to see these old majestic places being stripped and burned, I guess we call it progress.

Cammie(:

13 comments:

  1. Glad you saved those pieces. Did you take the floor cloths too? I would think they would be quite brittle. I got to go in an old downtown building that was going to be demolished on the junk jaunt. Love all the history in those old places.

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  2. That's just criminal that they're burning that old beauty down. I wish someone would give me a tired old farmhouse to love back to life.
    At least part of it lives on with you.
    Anne

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  3. It's so sad to think of this place burning. Imagine the families that have lived in it.

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  4. Oh, that house is awesome. Glad you were able to save a little bit of it's character that will live on. Have a good day!
    Love,
    Laurie :)

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  5. Hello...thanks for the lesson in history! And for helping me.

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  6. What a shame... My BF is an excavator he does the capoffs for old houses that are being torn down... He has found me some awesome pieces from those houses FREE... I cherish them all...you can almost feel the piece trying to tell you their story... I am glad you got some of that history to enjoy.

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  7. An old house was dozed in our town recently. Owner wouldn't even let anyone have anything! How selfish. So much waste. Glad you could repurpose some things.

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  8. Glad you were able to salvage some goodies from that house. It's a shame it had to be demolished.

    I have a Halloween treat for you. Stop by my blog to see what it is! http://www.emmasnookandgranny.com/2009_10_01_archive.html#5371612697824614338.

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  9. i'm so sad it had to be burned, but sometimes they're just too expensive to refurbish or the house is too "sick" with mold/mildew. at least you got some great treasures!

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  10. That is so sad. It's great that you had the opportunity to save the last of the treasures there. Did you save the floor cloths? Did you see in a blog - I think it might have been from the Round Top Antique Week - they had framed pieces of old floor cloths with a big, black letter on top? They were really, really cool.

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  11. that is so awesome that you pay tribute to houses like this! where was this one? in my trips from iowa to wayne and elgin i would stop at random empty houses and take photos and dream of taking all the cool stuff! love this post!

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  12. I did see where people have been using the floor cloths and framing them. Your right it was a great way to show off all those cool old designs that are on each one of them. This house was on the Pearl Creek Road by Coleridge, Nebraska. It was a majestic old house in its day! Glad you are all enjoying this post.

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  13. What a beautiful old house. Even through peeling paint and years of neglect, its beauty still shines. I'm glad you could preserve pieces of its heritage. A few years ago we found a lovely antique marble mantel that had been salvaged from a grand Victorian home in northeastern Iowa and installed it in our 1885 Iowa Victorian.

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