Repurposing Old Architectural Pieces

I never watch tv. Ok, I do, but only when it's freezing outside! It's freezing outside here in Alabama. We do not get a lot of cold weather. I'm not a fan! I would rather be outside playing tennis or building something in my barn. Gah, I keep lying! When it warms up, I will be in the barn building all kinds of cool things! We moved in and I filled that cute barn up quickly. I haven't built many things, yet! Now that I have time to play, it's just too cold to get out there and clean it up!

I have been recording Rehab Addict, The Bronson Pinchot Project and today watched two episodes of The Salvage Dawgs. I love all this old, salvaged architecture! It's amazing what can be recycled out of old buildings.

You find them everywhere. Some are sentimental for family reasons. Others belong to the government and everyone can't agree on what should be done with the building or maybe someone is planning on remodeling and just can't afford it.

My Great-Grandmothers house is an example of the first. Her old farm house is falling apart and has been taken over by animals. It's been empty for 30 years. It is sad that no one has taken care of it. It still stands up on the hill with so many memories of Easter Egg Hunts and playing in the trees.

The public buildings sit for a long time. The government wants to try and use them for something else. Then vandals take over and it becomes an eyesore. There was a building in Anniston that needed to be torn down.  A fire destroyed a lot of the building and no one wanted to put the money into it to build it back. It sat there and deteriorated. It was dangerous because the floors were rotting and people were going in and could get hurt. I got to go by and take pictures because there was talk of it being torn down and salvaged. The politics got in the way and it was torn down with a wrecker ball. The doors, bricks, and beautiful ornate pieces were all destroyed. There are so many beautiful things in old buildings that need to be salvaged. They can be used again. Can you imagine what it would cost to have the character you see in old buildings?

 I had the pleasure of working with Southern Accents when they disassembled the Gay House in Montgomery. There were a couple of stories that ran in the papers in Montgomery and Mobile. The home was built in the late 1800's. It changed hands several times and was a rental when it caught fire. The owner at the time of our demo had dreams of rebuilding, but the economy wasn't good at that time and he couldn't justify the cost. The team took a couple of days to get everything out that could be salvaged. There were some amazing pieces. You can read a little about a connection with the Gay family in this post on Southern Accents blog. It was a cool reunion in the end! We also used a lot of the wainscoting in the Green House! You can see how the pieces were re-purposed in these pictures before the house was complete.