Published Thursday, February 28, 2008 11:55 AM
Updated Thursday, February 28, 2008 11:56 AM

 

Inklings 02/29/08

House Tour


Do you remember where, when and how you got all the important “stuff” in your home, like furniture and nostalgic accessories? Have you told your children? Do they remember? Does it matter? It does to me. I was watching one of those historic home shows on TV and while touring the residence the host answered many questions that provided a lot of history, not only of the home, but also of the people who lived there.

Then it struck me. I’ll do my own house tour. Granted, this will only be historic to me and my family, but it’s only for them. The cassette tape and transcribed script will get tucked into the safe deposit box and hopefully give a bit of enlightenment to those who will one day pass these things along. Thus armed with ambition and industry, I pick up my tape recorder and begin my vocal reality tour.

 For example: As you enter our home, the first thing you see is a mahogany console with a marble top. This is fondly known as “Pop’s Tool Chest.” The original owner, my husband’s father, had loads of talent, most of it in camellia gardening and outdoor sports: none at all in carpentry. The top drawer of this piece housed his entire tool collection: a hammer with a broken handle, a bent screwdriver and a couple of rusted nails. How he sired Jim – who can fix or build almost anything, and has about every tool known to Craftsman or Makita – is our genetic conundrum.

The next piece of furniture is the walnut breakfront in the dining room. This buffet has had more reincarnations than Houdini. Originally it was part of my parents’ formal dining room suite and we used it that way for years. During one move we got a smaller dining room and decided to recycle the buffet. We cut off the legs and made it a coffee table. This worked because it was finished on all four sides and had plenty of storage with four drawers and two roomy cabinets. Then it became a giant toy box for our twins, for the same reason. When they outgrew it, I rechristened the piece a “credenza” and used it as office furniture in two locations. When I finally brought it home, we put long legs back on it and the buffet returned to cradling good china, linens and flatware.

I’ll switch off the recorder now. This can be an ongoing project. There’s more. You can imagine how much more when you consider we’ve had over 50 years to collect this stuff. And believe me, we were thorough about it.

I can’t wait to get upstairs to my study to remind my family of how I bought my antique roll top desk, in pieces, off the back of a lorry (truck) in England, brought it home in our station wagon and hid it in three separate closets until I could get it cleaned and polished up enough for Jim to put it together. (I had also exceeded my budget for buying English furniture and needed to wait for just the right moment to bring it out!)

 Oh, then there’s the copper diaper boiler . . .