Ancestral Roofs

"In Praise of Older Buildings"

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Party house

Henry Parliament house c.1850
Just home from a wonderful friendly open-house chez lovely friends Brenda and Peter. Among the grand chats which took place over too-tempting eats and tasty bev's were the inevitable (for me anyway) old-house chats.

Funny how old house stories connect people. Help us discover kindred spirits. I think it's because old homes have so many stories to tell...they're happy when they've found folks who value them, want to tell them, and hear them.

Today I had a lovely long chat with a woman who visited (I think it was) this old  house on Consecon Lake, while she and her husband were looking for a home in Prince Edward County. She talked with admiration about its linoleum covered plank floors, its pressed tin ceiling waiting under acoustic tile for someone who loved old houses to release it. About how big the old centre hall houses were.

So there it is. A moment shared. A rainy December night in Madoc takes me back to a day I spent with my lovely man and our dear Aunt two years ago, "looking" as she says, because she likes looking. Because we all like to be around old houses, listening.

3 comments:

  1. As I watched you writing down contact information again this year, I thought to myself, 'Look, Ma! I'm a facilitator!' I love the connections that occur at these gatherings.

    ReplyDelete
  2. And I love the gatherings where these connections occur (especially yours!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Looking." What a nice way to put it! "Going for a drive," we used to say. But really, what were we doing? We were looking.

    ReplyDelete