Thanks, POs, for at least this one thing!

A post this morning by Nate over at Nate's Fargo Fixer-Upper reminded me that I do have a few things to be grateful for from my POs. Nate made an awesome find of a slew of doorknobs on eBay (BTW-- has this been super-fabulous-deals-deals-deals January in blogland or what?) and it reminded me that pretty much every doorknob and hinge in our house is period. They may not all be original, but they're antique and mostly suited to the age of the house. Some are really plain brass (these are mostly on the retrofitted closets), but most of them are a mixture of crystal knobs on art deco plates and stamped brass on rectangular stamped plates.

Some of my favorites:


But it's not just the fact that they are still in the house. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but there was some panic during the bidding process. It's a small town and we do happen to know one of the previous owners (2 owners ago). The family was interested in buying back the house and they looked at it during the bidding period. They didn't end up bidding. But I did find out that while they installed some of my least favorite things in the house-- like the Berber carpet-- they took the time to remove all the doorknobs and hinges, strip them of their paint and polish and restore them. They also installed the brick patio in the backyard-- bricks that came from the street when the city tore it up ~15 years ago to put in modern paving. That was a feature that almost sold us on the house all by itself.

So thanks Previous Owners.

Sometimes, ok, a lot of the time, I bitch and moan about all the shitty things you've done to this house. But you're not one big blob of a PO-- some of you did some really nice things that I am ever so grateful for.

We owe you one. But just this one-- 'cause that carpeting was a bitch to get up.