This old house, building, barn … hands off to some people
I love old houses, buildings, barns, anything old. I love the detail craftsman put into homes. I like single rooms with doors or arches. Don’t give me open concept, granite countertops, matching this or that.
I first became aware of Nicole Curtis the Rehab Addict when she had a program on the Home and Garden channel. Now she’s on DIY channel, which we only get when it’s free. She’s my hero.
Whether it’s a resort cottage in her former hometown somewhere in Michigan or one of the grand old mansions she’s picked up for a song in Minnesota, I’m with her nail per nail. I watch as she points out the impossible errors others have made over the years as they’ve updated or more often than not turned one house into duplexes or apartments.
I don’t have the skills or the patience that Nicole has when it comes to stripping layers of varnish, but then I don’t have a house that demands that kind of care — much to my regret.
But I just love to watch as she reveals the hidden beauty lying somewhere deep inside depressed homes.
I’ve watched a few episodes of a mother and daughter duo that attempts to do things, but while they do save a few characteristics of the intended feel, they seem too bent on opening up and enlarging areas.
And as far as the Property Brothers go, I am not a fan. I’ve seen them destroy so many things. For instance, in one program they returned to a ranch where they once lived and completely ruined the bunkhouse.
Here was this charming old bunkhouse with its wooden walls and character that spelled out Home on the Range. They whitewashed, moved walls and turned it into something that was nearly metropolitan.
They do that all the time. Recently I saw a snippet of a program where they proudly destroyed the lovely wainscoting in a charming arts and crafts style home and turned it into a modern nightmare. They even painted the walls black!
If people want that look, then please go find it and leave the past to those of us who adore it.
I finally decided that after swearing that the Property Brothers have an inability not to destroy everything they come across, I won’t watch them any longer. That helps a little bit but it doesn’t make it right. Despite my not watching them, they’re still out there turning everything into something that belongs in 2018. Someone should take Jonathan’s sledge hammer away from him. And Drew shouldn’t take people to old homes when their dreams involve something new and modern.
Nicole Curtis seems to save everything — from tiles to molding, you name it, she either seems to have just the thing to make an old fashioned bathroom complete again or she finds it. I love it. I wish I had that kind of time and money.
Sometimes I watch Saw Dawgs, a business that specializes in tearing down old buildings and salvaging all the important things (in my opinion). While I love to see the places they go and see inside old homes, buildings, churches, and see what they save, I don’t like what they build.
I guess there’s an audience out there that would appreciate the front end of a 1950s car turned into a bar feature, or a portion of a church pew that becomes some sort of uncomfortable looking love seat, but I’m not really into repurposing things that way.
I want my aunt’s upright piano to remain that way. I want my great-grandmother’s camelback trunk to remain the way it looked when she must have used it. I don’t want to see it torn apart and used as a wall ornament.
I long for a time when I can live somewhere and enjoy an old Victorian or an square-looking arts and crafts home with the big front porch and the columns. Will it happen? Probably not, but dreams are free. Dreams plus programs like the Rehab Addict are what keep me somewhat happy in my boring 1958 house.
