Thursday, March 7, 2013

CraftsmanShip

My Mom was crafty, oh so crafty!  She could create anything she wanted with fabric.  We would go to the Mall and she would sketch something, go home and the next day I would have it.  She made Halloween costume, baby clothes and even cabbage patch kids! We had planned for her to make my wedding dress but she was just too sick.  She did make a beautiful christening dress that all her descentents will be christened in, starting with Jakes.

My Mom got the crafty genes from her father, only he worked with Wood.  He could build anything he put his mind to.  He built the house my mother grew up in.  There were so many lovely touches to it.  There was a central house vac; all you had to do was plug the hose into the wall socket, not dragging a canister out and about.  There was a laundry shoot that went from the third floor to the basement where the machines were.  No excuses not to have your clothes down there, just drop them on down.

I remember Granddaddy coming to stay with us once.  He was converting the attic into a sewing room for Mom.  He'd already done the first half of the house, making a bedroom and half bath for my parents.

When converting the attic, there were sloping walls that would have been wasted space, no one over three feet would have been able to stand.  So Granddaddy built dressers in that space.  All along one wall there was dressers for Mom to store fabrics or whatever she needed.  The other wall, he framed in and behind there was a cubby hole for storing the Christmas decorations and such.  As the piest de resistance, he built a table that was waist high and 4 x 4 foot square.  It had to be built IN the room.  I don't remember how we got it out of there after Mom passed.

I know Granddaddy made lots of things over the years.  After building the house, furniture was needed.  So he built a bedroom suit.  A double bed frame, two twin bed frames, a chest of drawers, a dresser and a night stand.  There was also a matching crib that my mom and her siblings slept in.

When my grandparents passed, I inherited the bedroom suit.  When I was preggers with Jakes, I got the crib but the bars were too far apart for today's standards and the Ex neven finished modifying it in time for Jakes to use it.

My granddaddy knew how to build things to last.


Nigth Stand

chest of drawers

Dresser
Beautiful craftsmanship!

The other night I was sitting on my bed wallowing cause I've got a cold when the bed suddenly collapsed under me!  YIKES!  After moving the matress and box spring, this is what I found:
the siderail broke off leaving no where for the brace to rest

OOPS!

Fortunately, AZ was able to screw the piece back on and he checked all the other ones and reinforced them as well.  Hopefully, the bed is secure for another 45 years or more.

3 comments:

  1. very cool...my great uncle was much the same....i have several pieces of his furniture around the house still....and a bookshelf my father made...

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  2. I love older pieces. I've been trolling Craigslist for a French style dresser (or is it bureau? whichever is the long short one) to use as a tv stand/storage. I want to find one, strip it and paint or stain it.

    But with a convertible, and a sedan whose backseat doesn't fold down, I don't know how we'd get it home.

    Maybe I should have held onto that minivan a few more months!

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  3. my mum was much the same. but i am not crafty at all!
    i do have a couple of old pieces in my home from my grandmother.

    hope you're feeling better!

    big hugs~

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