:: Eye Opener : Photo Essay ::

As I've read through other blogs, I realize that I was not the only one searching for the perfect subject matter. I happened to like the idea that Ruthanne had about looking around her parent's home in Wisconsin. When I started really looking, I was reminded of how talented my father, who has been deceased for 16 years, was at carpentry. He built many items out of wood that he found at auctions or cut down from our wooded 25 acres of land. Below you will find a sampling of his handy work and some of my step-mom's.

Many years ago, this garage had the usual purpose of housing vehicles. It isn't in the best shape.I'm sure my dad worried that sooner or later it may fall in and crush the car that was parked in it. He had it moved to a different part of the property and re-purposed it to be his wood working storeroom. As you can see in the two outer picturees, this garage is filled with planks of wood (with some extra stuff laying around). Much of the wood that you can see came from the deck that was on my house.

I look at this table each and every day and never thought of it as a re-purposed item until doing this assignment. The base of this table was a part of an old sewing machine. I couldn't tell you how old it is. My dad re-purposed it to be a table that my step-mom covers with flower pots every summer.

My dad liked a challenge. He never wanted to build just a plain building. He loved odd shapes. Growing up, we had a small hobby farm on our property. We had chickens, ducks, and geese. We ate the eggs that the chickens produced. I'm sure someone ate the chickens, ducks and geese...but it wasn't us. The building in these photos was the chicken coup. In the second photo, you can see the small door that the chickens used. Much like the garage, this building was moved to a different location on our property. It purpose now is a storage building. My step-mom stores many of her cermanic molds in this building. It is located right next to her studio "apartment."

At some point (much before my time), they built an addition onto the house. My room in the basement and the living room upstairs were the results of that addition. The photo on the left is the narrow hole in the former exterior wall that leads into my room. This "doorway" is much to small for a conventional door. My dad, knowing that I would want some privacy, built this door out of wood that was in the wood shop. It even has a really old door knob. The closet that is in my room is also made out of this wood.

The photo on the left is one of the many "buckets" my Dad made. As I said, he liked a challenge. He would spend many hours perfecting the art of making round things. The photo on the left is the original cabinets that were in my house. This one now resides in my step-mom's studio apartment.

I keep talking about my step-mom's studio apartment. The picture on the left is her home. My dad originally built this place (which is located 20 feet from my house) as a ceramic studio. For many years, my step-mom taught ceramic classes in the basement of our house. She quit teaching while she helped to raise me, but my Dad thought she needed to pick the hobby back up again after I moved out. When my Dad built it, it was a one-room "classroom" filled with with several tables, shelves and kilns. Ten years ago, when the big house next door became too much for her, we turned her little ceramic studio into a studio apartment for her instead of putting her in a senior housing unit. It works out great to be right next door to her. She watches us...we keep an eye on her. I'm thankful she is right next door. The pictures blow show how we changed this one room building into a livable space with a large bedroom and a large kitchen. She has everything she needs in this little space.

Obviously, my step-mom stopped teaching ceramic classes after we completed her studio makeover. She moved on to another hobby. She bought herself a fancy sewing machine and starting making tote bags. This is a sample of two of her tote bags. These two are made out of a pair of my jeans and a pair of my daughter's jeans. These are two of her favorites as she has decorated them up with all the pins as well.

Okay, I've been saving my FAVORITE re-purposing project for the very last on this page. My best friend's husband, Nate and my youngest daughter have been building a "cabin in the woods" for the past year. They have not purchased any materials for this fancy place. They have used wood from the wood shed, as we as from projects where others were getting rid of wood. They obtained window screens from a friend that was replacing his windows and are using those to vent the top of the cabin and to allow light in. They still have a ways to go on the "cabin in the woods," but I'm proud of them for reusing so many materials to build it. As you can see, they still have a roof to put up. Hopefully they finish this project next summer.