I recently spent some time touring an old home to help determine if it was worth restoring.  I’m a sucker for an old house with a story to tell, so I thought I’d share this one with you today.

Everything was near original – down to the 1940’s paint colors. There were three beautiful fireplaces with original tile surrounds, original windows, and a pretty horrible original bathroom.  There had once been coal stoves to help heat the small home.  There were several small handpainted metal covers placed over the holes where the old stovepipes fit into the wall.

Two elderly women had lived in it for many, many years and had been unable to keep up any kind of maintenance.   The roof had been leaking badly for so many years and, apparently,  the ladies just shut off the upstairs and let it rain up there.  The ceilings had fallen in on the second floor and water stained the walls in teary streaks.  Hardwood floors had been covered over in old sheet lino in the 1950’s.  The air conditioning units had not been operable for over a decade, and the ladies had lived like destitute recluses for the last years of their lives.  

I am captivated by wonder when I see an old house like this.  Who lived here?  What were they like?  How did the home look in its heyday?  I can imagine old music being played by the man of the house in wingtip shoes and brillo-ed hair.  Biscuits being rolled on a marble slab by a lovely lady with bright red lipstick and a frilly apon.  Marbles being rolled across the crooked floors by little boys in plaid button-down shirts and dollies being groomed by pig-tailed little girls in short dresses.  A family sitting in front of a crackling fire listening to their favorite radio program.  I’ll let you look around on your own so that you can imagine for yourself . . . 

Maybe there’s something a little odd about walking down a memory lane that doesn’t exist in your own memory.  But I just can’t help myself.  Sometimes I dream of a life rescuing a romantic old house I stumble upon, lovingly restoring it to its former glory, living  the life I “remember” in my imagination, then going on to the next abandoned and forgotten piece of architectural history and starting once again.   And in case you’re wondering . . . yes, I think this one’s worth restoring.

The haunting quality of this home makes me wistful and nostalgic for something not of my own time.  What about you?

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