Keep Your Eye On The Prize

I've had my eye on this old house in Tryon, NC for some time. Two years ago, I stopped and walked through it when the family put a for sale sign on the property. I'm guessing that it was well over a hundred years old due to it's construction and state of disrepair.

In her day, she was beautiful, stately and was the epitome of charm and character. Her bones were graceful, strong and solid. Over the years, there have been additions and modifications.

On the outside, she was framed with lap board siding. If you looked closely, you could see the old saw marks left behind when the boards were hand cut in the mill.

There were many things about that house that I appreciated.

The main part of the house was an old log structure that had been covered up so that the logs were not visible. When she was built, people used what they had at hand. As time moved on, it wasn't fashionable for town's people to live in common log homes. Fancy homes that looked more refined were the rage and many of the older structures that were made of log ended up with face lifts.

The interior doors were solid, matched and were made of large planks of dark walnut. They were held on to the frames with beautiful ornate brass hinges. Ornamental brass plates that matched the hinges surrounded porcelain brown door knobs.

And the sink. It was made of big slabs of grey-black slate and it had two basins. It was large, very heavy, deep and rectangular. I loved it.

I once thought about purchasing the home and ended up buying another "project" that was a little further out.

The first sign I saw in the yard was taken down long ago and the family ended up doing some work on the house. They recently put the house back up for sale and it quickly sold along with the old gas station/garage in front of it.

A week after the SOLD sign was erected, a thought came to mind that I should find out who bought it, call them up and see what they were going to do with the structure.

Due to it's condition, I was expecting it to be torn down and if it was, I was hoping I could speak with the owner and ask if I could have the doors, the sink and the log beams.

TOO LATE!

When I drove by the following afternoon, a big orange bull dozier was in the yard and half of the house was already in a dumpster! I felt sick.

Has this ever happened to you? Did you have your eye on something that you could see value in and you didn't have time or make time to save what could be saved or treasured by someone else? treasureholic@gmail.com