These Are A Few of My Favorite Things: A Home Tour

It's easy to constantly change the look of your home. Especially when all you have to do is shop a website to find what you're looking for. You find something you like, it's cheap and you don't even have to go pick it up because the company offers free shipping. The problem with furniture made today is it tends to be made of cheap materials. Things like a cardboard back to a cabinet with a wood grain print on it and stickers to match for covering up shelf peg holes. There's little to no real wood in these pieces and most are made using pressed particle board. These pieces will not only fall apart over time, but they have no history or added benefit to your home.

Our home was built in the early 1920s. We are always finding evidence of stories from previous families that have lived here before us. One example is the chimney we exposed while redoing our upstairs bathroom where a child had used a pencil to draw faces on the brick while playing in the attic. For a home with so much history and character, why would we fill it with pieces that were made in a factory and hundreds of others like it fill homes across the country?

If minimalism means only having things in your space that make you happy or tell a story, then you should be able to tell visitors that story when they ask about it instead of just naming the store you purchased it from. It's not easy to find great pieces, but it's more rewarding when you do. Here are the stories behind some of our favorite finds.

This is a console my husband found on Craigslist for $50. The radio and record player were in bad shape but the speakers and exterior were in great condition. So he gutted it and installed a new radio, record player and storage for records.

This is a card catalog that my mother in law rescued from the dumpster of the school she works at in Ohio. They drove it all the way to Missouri for us because they knew we would take it in. It's great for storage and VERY heavy. Many younger generations have never used a card catalog, but we have fond memories of using this system to find a book at the library.

This is a working 1940s RCA tube radio we purchased off Craigslist. We sold an IKEA dresser to be able to purchase it and we couldn't be happier with that decision. It takes a second for it to warm up and turn on, but when it does there's a light that makes it easier to see the dials. There are presets for things like "police" and local channels. I can see listening to many baseball games on this radio in the future.

This is my grandmothers piano. Even when her memories were taken by dementia in the last years of her life, she could still sit down to this piano and somehow remember how to play songs from memory.

This is a mid century dresser we purchased from a local antique store for only $80. As with most pieces of furniture owned by people of earlier generations, there is evidence that it was loved and appreciated in the way it was very well taken care. It's made of solid wood and even bears the emblem of the local manufacturer. You can smell the wood when you open the drawers and it's a perfect addition to our home.