Door(s)...and Mudroom

The laundry room is never a favorite room
in a home, but for me, ours is special because of
'a door'.

This door was once the front door for a home
in South Mississippi.
The history of this home in our family goes back to it
being built in the early 1900's.
I've heard stories from people who remember
the beams being brought in with horse & buggy..
and hopefully the 'history' as I remember it being
told is accurate...
My sister-in-law's Great-Grandparents
originally built the home.
Later she lived in this home with her parents,
then a first cousin of ours owned this home.
Then my parents bought this home from my Dad's nephew
and while living there,
my younger (only/favorite:))
brother lived in the same bedroom
that his 'wife to be' lived in when she was younger.

Her Grandmother lived next door and that is how
she and my brother first met.

We lost my Grandmother, Dad and Mother in this home,
in that order. There were times when my Mother
didn't know if she could stay there, but thankfully she did
as we LOVED this 'old home'.
This place always felt like "Home" p.e.r.i.o.d.

When we lost my Mom in 1998, one of our main concerns
was, "how in this world would we ever find GOOD
neighbors for our sister-in-laws very special Grandmother?"
As we pondered several scenarios we asked my
brother and his wife if they'd like to have the home.
They finally agreed!
My sister, Stephanie's Grandmother
and I were VERY thankful!

They remodeled the home, removing all windows and doors,
and added a bathroom which had always been needed.
When they decided to take on this project, I told
them I'd LOVE to have the windows and doors
that were removed from the home.

These were brought to Texas and placed in our
warehouse not knowing how-when-if we'd ever
find a way to use them.

After losing our home in 2005,
I wanted "the door" in our new home.
We finally decided to use it on the utility room
closet door. A friend took the door and later
told me he could not count the layers of paint
he removed while sanding it.
After he sanded it to its original color,
we whitewashed it, then sanded more,
revealing almost a 'crackled' finish.

Needless to say, I LOVE this door
and all that it stands for.

..a framed cross stitch piece given to me by
Tripp and his family...that I have hanging next to
"the door"...

...and loving red once again...had these cabinets
in the utility room 'roughed up' a bit..

..and had the cabinet guy build in drawers
under the washer and dryer to hold hangers...

..and have thoroughly enjoyed the
sink in the utility room for watering plants,
washing off 'very' dirty shoes, etc....

...found these old ammunition boxes that
I've used around the house to hold books...

...engraved MUDROOM on a cabinet door,
then faux painted it and filled in the engraving
with black paint....

I engraved cabinet doors naming a few rooms
in the house and we joked about it at the time
saying these were made for Jack, so he'd always
know 'where' he was in the house:)
Needless to say, I've yet to 'finish' the others
to hang throughout the house...
maybe one day!

...and one of my favorite Scriptures engraved
on a tile...I previously had cross stitched this
Scripture and had it in our entry way in our
previous home....

..this cabinet is in our mudroom/mud hall area.
It was built to hold 'electrical stuff'..
a pet peeve of mine is hating to see cords.
I had a lot of electrical plugs installed
inside these cabinets to hold cell phone chargers,
weather radio, camera battery chargers,
answering machine, etc.....

..and bins, coat racks, hat racks,
umbrella holders,
baskets in bins for gloves, flashlights, etc...
in this hallway/mud hall...

HOPE
..a wonderful reminder hanging in the hallway,
given to us by Mary Katherine & her family...

..a framed embroidered piece...
and a decoupaged Scripture to
hang in the hallway...
both found at Goodwill...
Philippians 4:7

...a young man who works for us a couple of hours
each afternoon was in the midst of remodeling his
home while we were building.
He brought this door
he removed from his home for us
after he learned about the
door from my parents' home...
so we used it in Jack's TV room...

...and this framed print hangs in Jack's TV room.
This was a 'gem' of a find for me at the auction!
My Dad's parents had this same print in their home
and when I saw it, I knew it was a 'must buy'.

I learned Auction's #1 Rule that night.
It was our first time there and when this came
up for auction I raised my number and left it up!
It DID NOT MATTER who else wanted it,
I was going to win this auction at all costs!
The people around me, my husband included,
scolded me, telling me,
"DO NOT EVER DO THAT AGAIN!"

I was lucky, it didn't cost an arm and a leg,
but never again did I raise my number and
KEEP IT RAISED
while an item was being auctioned off.
To be honest,
there were times I wanted to. I kept reminding
myself of Auction's #1 Rule.....
Of course, the auctioneer got a
kick out of watching this
as it transpired and told me later
I did 'exactly' the right thing.
But having heard otherwise from so
many people there, I decided they were right
and he was wrong, or he was LOVING my
'auction way', and why shouldn't he,
since that is the business he is in!

Later I learned the framed print had belonged
to a personal friend. He came up to me that evening
and asked, "why did you want that SO bad?"
He totally understood...once I explained to him,
it was a very sentimental print.
Thanks Jeff for offering your print in the auction!

And no,
they don't allow me to go to the auction anymore:(
...which in all honesty,
is probably a 'good' thing...

Thanks to sweet Kelly for allowing
the 'show us where you live' tours...

...enjoy browsing through others homes...

Thanks for stopping by &
blessings to all for a safe and wonderful weekend,
Kaye
Matthew 21:22
Revelation 21:5

For everything that was written in the past
was written to teach us,
so that through endurance and the encouragement
of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Romans 15:4 NIV