Wednesday, January 14, 2009

details


When we bought our farmhouse,  it had not been occupied for thirty years,  and had been without windows for the last ten of those.  Yes, we bought the local abandoned  'haunted house'.  My husband remembers dirtbiking here with his siblings when he was a kid, and sneaking through the rooms.  It was already a broken-down old place then.

Of all the doors in our farmhouse, the only one still hanging was the front door.  All of the other doors had been ripped off their hinges and thrown out the (already broken) windows.  Any slightest bit of hardware, be it decorative or utilitarian, was stripped.  The mantels were gone, as were sliding wooden pocket doors and even the stair railing and baluster (which is sad,as those old railings really give character to a place-and of course, they were all hand-hewn back then).

We managed to salvage and re-use all of the doors- but we had to scout around for the right hardware and knobs.  





We did our best to improvise with our findings, and I think we did pretty well.  All of the doors had keyholes in them.  I guess those were the days when everything was kept under lock and key- we even found a rusted old key when digging out the flower beds.


I don't notice the knobs so much any more, but today I was thinking about how much time and effort I put into finding them.  Details are important, don't you think?

10 comments:

RURAL said...

I am such a doorknob ..... kind of person. Always had a fascination with all of them. Especially the older antique ones. What a great collection you have.

Jen

Anonymous said...

Lovely post. Taking over the haunted house and making it so lovely. Amazing!

Anonymous said...

Oh they are just wonderful! When we built out house (it's a new old farmhouse) We had trouble finding nice door knobs. It took forever.

Unknown said...

How wonderful that you restored that house! I love farmhouses and would love to own one...I am always on the lookout. The doorknobs are beautiful.

Dysd Housewife said...

I love your sense of nostalgia. I LOVE old houses. And I would dearly love to have an old farmhouse someday. :)

Leenie said...

It says a lot for the building that it lasted through all that neglect. Must be pretty solid. Love the doorknobs. The ones in my house are really boring. May have to look into finding some fun ones!

Anonymous said...

why do you need old doorknobs? I don't really understand....

hayseed said...

Well, I suppose we don't really need old doorknobs, but since we were trying to 'restore' this 155 year old house and try to maintain some of its integrity, we felt we should get the antique knobs....in Canada, that's very old for a house!! (I know in Europe, it isn't).

Pony Girl said...

Wow, what cool place! So much history and character. It is great you are restoring it to it's original glory. I think the details are important, you don't realize it until you change them and then it's like- wow!
By the way, I gave your blog a shout-out and there is a little award for you over at my site.

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

I came over here from Pony Girl.

It would be ironic if the door knobs and hardware you bought were actually the ones original to your house. Just like tomb robbers, there are folks who go around 'raping' old houses for their antiques, just to sell.

Either way, what you bought looks just perfect. I can't wait to read and see more about your old farmhouse.
Lucky you in finding it and returning it to it's glory days :)

~Lisa
aka~Rapunzle