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Not too long ago I wrote about seven simple ways to add vintage charm to your house.
After writing this post, I couldn’t help but think about where all these salvage items came from. (As you know I have many vintage items, like the display cabinet shown below, in my house.)
Women's Day Budget Decorating / Photographer - Michael Partenio
Stylist - Donna Talley, Regional Editor and Producer for Meredith Publications
One would hope these vintage treasures are from houses and buildings which have been torn down because they no longer could be saved. This however is probably not always the case.
I am guessing many of these items have been purposely removed. As someone who loves older houses with all their original details, this saddens me greatly. It is these details which are one of the main attractions of older homes.
Although I live in a new house now, I was fortunate to live in an older home many years ago.
I loved this house more for what it could be rather than what it truly was – the epitome of a money pit. Although structurally sound, nothing had been updated for many, many years. (My family thought we were crazy when they saw the house we bought.)
One of my favorite items in the house was the mirror above the fireplace.
It is hard to tell from the above (very bad) picture, but this mirror was huge, gorgeous and the real deal. I was so excited to see it still hanging in the house the day we moved in. (I later found out the mirror had been purchased by the original owner and had been installed when the house was built.)
Of course Mr. RDH and I had visions of restoring this house to its original grandeur, but as fate would have it, we ended up living there only six months. When it was time to move we faced a dilemma many people struggle with who live in older houses – should we take the mirror with us?
The answer for Mr. RDH was easy – no. I think his decision was based on many factors - the mirror was huge (where would it ever fit in our next house?), very old and fragile (no way the movers would ever get it off the wall in one piece), and much fancier than anything else we owned (just not our style). The main reason for his answer, however, is his belief in keeping as many original features in a house as possible.
My perspective, on the other hand, took a little longer to figure out. At first, my thinking went like this: “When would I ever have the chance to own something like this again? Even if I didn’t have room for it now, I might have room later. It really was not a permanent fixture. There had been other things already removed from the house. No one would know we took it.” In the end, however, we agreed the best thing to do was to leave the mirror in its place.
Am I sad we left it there? To be honest, I still think about that mirror and how much I would love to have it in my house now. Do I regret not taking it with me? Sometimes but I also feel like I did the right thing. Given the chance today, would I take it with me knowing what I know now? I really don’t know.
So what would you do if you lived in an old house and were going to move? Would you take anything with you? Should you take anything with you? I am looking forward to hearing your opinion!
