Scavenger Chic

Treasure Hunting in an old Farm House

• By Joan
• February 23, 2017
• 7 Comments

Have you ever seen the show American Pickers?  Two guys, Mike and Frank, travel the country in search of treasures that they can sell at their antique store in Iowa.  Sometimes they’ll get a referral, but very often they’ll just show up at someone’s doorstep because they’ll see a lot of stuff from the road and they’ll just go knocking on the door to see if they’ll part with any of their treasures.  Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t.  They’ll open barns and warehouses and crawl into attics and dusty corners and see what they can uncover.

I want to be them!

I mention this show because  that is how I felt on Monday when my sister asked if I wanted to go pick an old farmhouse with her.  It turns out that my sister’s, husband’s, daughter’s husband (got all that?)  had a job cleaning out an old farmhouse and nursery.  He had to haul the stuff away but there were a bunch of antiques he thought my sister would be interested in.

So she texts me, “Are you interested?”  Oh my gosh yes, I need a new supply of junk!

I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures of the house or the barn, by the time we arrived the sun was just beginning to set so we only had a few minutes to quickly go through the barn and greenhouse. I loved the wood on the barn but took a pass at most of the stuff inside.  We struck out again in the greenhouse which had seen better days.  Most of the glass that had originally been on the ceiling was now crunching beneath our feet.

Finally we worked our way into the farmhouse.

We actually took a pass on the antiques he thought we’d be interested in. There were a few huge antique dressers and wardrobes  in great shape but they were actually too big for us to work with.

I did grab this poor old record cabinet.  The inside is in fairly good shape but the veneer has seen better days.  That is not paper on the top of the cabinet, that is peeling veneer.

Finally made our way to the basement…this was the pickers paradise. This was the place where we had to crawl into the dusty corners and poke and prod to see what we could uncover.  If you could overlook the mold and dirt it was absolutely perfect.

Didn’t find any gold but I did find treasures that I could absolutely work with like these two old windows.

Some old hardwood flooring was already bundled and ready for me.  Better yet, someone had removed all the nails.

I think my sister picked up these two old house vents but she let me have them thinking I could come up with a project.  The pressure is on, now I have to come up with a great project.

I know there is a green porcelain light under that dirt. Did I mention it was dirty in the basement.

I don’t know if the previous owner was a hoarder but he definitely wasn’t someone that threw anything away. Two handle-less rakes are perfect for repurposing.

There were a few of these drawers but I grabbed the one with the bottom intact.  

There were probably 10 of these spool ends, I brought home 2.  

A beautiful piece of old rough cut barn wood.  There is definitely a vintage style sign gonna happen here.

I was told this was a meat grinder but I’ve never seen one quite this vicious looking. I don’t know if I can repurpose this thing but it was too cool to pass up.

This was some of the wood siding from the farmhouse.

This old oak arm chair is in need of some serious TLC and a new seat.

I already have several vintage suitcases but I couldn’t resist one more.

I didn’t get home until after eight and hit the shower immediately.  It wasn’t until the next morning that I opened my car and saw this pile of crap beautiful treasures.

Seriously, my car kind of stunk with the smell of mildew.

Luckily we’ve had some beautiful weather lately and I spent a lot of the day on Tuesday giving all my new treasures a good scrubbing.  They were so happy to be out of that dark, musty, damp basement. 

I think I have enough projects to get me through the Spring and I’ve already begun to work on the drawer.

Have a wonderful weekend! Stay inspired!

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