PICK OF THE LITTER

Our dog, Lucie, checking out our finds.

I'm not talking choosing a puppy!  We got back from the cabin yesterday and were summoned to a friend's house.  They're getting ready to sell their house and the wife is "assisting" her husband in cleaning out his barn/shed.  That "assisting" is inviting friends over to (please) take things from his shed.  So, generous as I am, I obliged.  From what I understand, otherwise, it was going in to the garbage or the burn pile.

We're hoping to remodel/renovate our cabin in the (here's the hopeful) NEAR future.  I would like to do that renovation with recycled materials as much as possible.  That's partly to appease the bargain shopper in me, partly to be "green" and partly for the creative challenge it presents.  I have to say, I felt like a full fledged "picker" in there.  And when my friend said the barn was stuffed, she wasn't kidding.  I'd say we just made it through the FIRST layer.

Here's what I scored:  3 nice pieces of marble - 2 white, 1 rose.  One of the white pieces and one rose piece are good sizes for shelves and I'll use one of them in the bathroom remodel as a shelf or a backsplash.  The larger white piece of marble I hope to incorporate into an inlay for our kitchen counter top and it'll be my pastry center (am I big in to pastry?  No but it sounds so cool!).

 We grabbed some beautiful wood beadboard.  I'd like to come up with enough beadboard to use it on the ceiling of the kitchen and as wainscotting in the bathroom, but we'll see.  We claimed 4 enameled porcelain hoosier or table tops.  I've not got a clear idea yet of how I'm going to use them but I do have thoughts:  I might be able to incorporate them into my kitchen countertops, use one as a potting table in the shed, use one as a table or island top and maybe even use some of them as kitchen counter backsplash.  We'll see where that goes.

My oh so patient husband, John

He's still smiling!!!

 I also nabbed a small box full of decorative wood pieces.  I'll find places for them - above doorways or mirrors or added to cabinetry in the kitchen.

 Also ours, are some metal pipes that were legs to banquet tables but we (or should I say John) is going to transform them into a base for a bathroom sink set on another piece of marble we already had and 4 rusty metal grates that John took.  I have no idea what his intent was but I'm thinking they could be made into a neat hanging pot rack.

Needless to say, we're going to be taking our friends out to dinner to thank them!  And hopefully we'll be invited back to go through the second, third and fourth layer of stuff!