@white_swan53 Said
I enjoy finding old furniture that is in need of some TLC .
I don't mean antique pieces because they lose their value if any changes are done .
I'm partial to home made cupboards and cabinets built around the time of the depression . Back when money was hard to come by and a lot of imagination was needed to make a house into a home .
Electricity could be had if you lived in a city a large town but was still more then a decade away in most rural areas .
Because money was short most households couldn't afford ready made cupboards and cabinets .
And so with a hand saw ,a hammer , some nails and lots of imagination men who were use to working with their hands and doing it right the first time , 'knocked together ' chest of drawers , kitchen furniture , end tables and cabinets in all sizes and shapes to store linens or dishes or clothing and anything else a wife decided she needed a cabinet for .
I found this one large kitchen cup board that had been painted with battleship grey paint . That paint was named that because it was used to paint battle ships . Stripping that cupboard down to the wood took some real elbow grease and lots of time .
I really like the look of unpainted wood . So any time I find a piece that has been painted I strip the paint off . That old pine lumber really looks nice sanded smooth with a couple of coats of flat varnish applied to protect it from stains .
I have a set of bedside cabinets that was made with rough cut pine lumber that I refinished . 3 kitchen cupboards that was made with finished pine lumber . I've done a half a dozen bathroom medicine cabinets I kept one , I gave one away to friend , two to family members and sold the other two .
I tried my hand at building cabinets . I made two , one with a door and one without a door. They turned out okay but in doing so I found that I enjoy refinishing whole lot more then building .
I have a house that was built in 1880 by the masons with lots of hand craved doorway..fireplace..etc.. I am the third person to own this house in 136 years..in 2009 the 2ed owners did a land contract to try and sale the house...That idiot..went and painted... in this off white paint...all the hand built cabinets..doors..and doorways...
and then abandoned the house for 5 years before I bought it...
I have been working for 2 years now to get all that paint off...tried all kinds of chemical crap to remove it ..but found that steam works best.... I understand your love of making old things new and also share that love...