IT'S STORY TIME

A lot of things in our home have a story -- this is one!

This wash stand was purchased by my grandparents when they were first married in the early 1900s.  At first, it was used as originally designed in a small farm house without indoor plumbing.  The compartment on the lower right housed the chamber pot!

The top held a wash basin and a pitcher of water along with  other needs for your morning ritual.  It served my grandparents as such until they built the new, large farmhouse with INDOOR plumbing in the early 1920s.  The little washstand was still used as storage and remained in my father's childhood bedroom until the 1960s.

 By 1961, Bob and I had been married for three years and were about to finally graduate from college and move to our first unfurnished apartment.  I was scrounging for furniture as we had nothing.  Grandma said we could have the washstand.  At some point, there had been a small fire at the farmhouse -- just a lot of smoke damage.  Grandma's solution to the smoke smell was to paint everything (two or three times!!).  So we inherited the washstand with several coats of paint on it.  No one in the 1960s embraced painted chippy furniture, so I proceeded to strip and refinish the wash stand.  In doing so, I realized that the towel bar was missing, but we still enjoyed the storage it provided for a lot of years.

 Fast forward twenty years -- In the intervening years Grandma had moved out of the farmhouse.  My parents had moved in; then subsequently sold the farm.  Another five years had passed, and the farm was for sale again.  At this time, my Dad told me that the house was empty; and asked if I wanted to go see it with him.  It was an eerie experience seeing the old house after other people had lived there; and it was completely empty -- not even a curtain rod left -- just a lot of dust bunnies.  Daddy and I toured every room reliving old memories.  We were ready to leave when I decided to take a look in the attic.  I couldn't believe my eyes -- there on a nail on a rafter was hanging the towel bar for my washstand.  Not another thing left in that huge, old house, after all those years but my TOWEL BAR!!  I still get goosebumps thinking about it.

The washstand has now resided in our home for over 50 years, 30 of those years reunited with its original towel bar.  Today, it is holding things that remind me of the old farm --

 including the chamber pot that my Dad "borrowed" from the Shirley Savoy Hotel in Denver on his senior class trip in 1931.

Please check out the following blogs for a bunch of inspiration.
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia for Tuesday Treasures
A Stroll Thru Life for Table Top Tuesday
Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays
The Shabby Creek Cottage for Transformation Thursday
No Minimalist Here for Thursday Open House
Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Friday
Miss Mustard Seed for Furniture Feature Friday
Homespun Happenings for Rustic Restorations Weekend

MORE ON THE PORCH

It seems that our screened-in porch has become the depository of all things ranch/farm/industrial that we have accumulated over the years.  In an effort to corral some of the stuff into a sense of order, Bob put up a shelf in one corner last week.  The brackets are some sort of hardware store thingies that were in my Dad's farm workshop.

 The round window came out of Bob's childhood home.  I, also, have the window that was in the farm house where my Dad was born.  As soon as we get the frame spruced up, I'm going to hang it in this corner, too.

 The red barn lantern belonged to my great-grandfather; the blue-tipped thing is a sheep brand in the shape of an H for my family name; plus a cow bell; my Dad's spurs; and more brands.

There is still more stuff to organize and display.  

In the meantime, this is the view from the porch -- our shrub roses have been beautiful this year!