A Sentimental Old Window

My Grandparents (Mom's side) bought their house in Burbank, CA in 1951. My Grandma still lives in that house today at 89 years old. My sisters and I have fond memories of this little playhouse they used to have in their backyard. It actually belonged to a neighbor on the same street but they had an only child who never played in the little house because she was always at my grandparent's house playing with my mom. So her parents asked my grandparents if they wanted to move the playhouse to their yard so the girls could play in it. That is how it came to be my mom's playhouse. When my sisters and I were old enough, they threw in a little play kitchen and it became our favorite part of Grandma and Grandpa's house. Sadly, the house began to rot and critters moved in underneath, so my family tore it down in 2001. It would have been great if it was still around for my kids to play in, although they'd have to wrestle it away from the racoons first. So for the sake of rabies, maybe it's good that it's long gone.

When my dad was tearing down the house I begged my parents to save the little front window for me to have one day. And being the hoarder he is, he gladly said yes and tossed it into his pile in the garage. Even 10 years ago, I loved random old crap. And that window was the bomb, we used it to serve things out of it, like our pretend ice cream cones or pretend lemonade or pretend cupcakes or whatever else we were pretend selling.

So back in the spring my parents were driving out for a visit and I asked them to bring the old window so I could see it, fix it up and figure out what to do with it. It was a busy weekend and Steve didn't notice that some new junk had sneaked into his garage, but when he did notice it, the conversation went something like this:

S: You have 10 seconds to explain why a junky old window is in my garage before I throw it in the trash

Me: you touch that window and you will lose a finger.

He listened to the story of the old window and tried to reason with me that it was falling apart and paint was chipping off and it was held together by some twine my Dad had wrapped around it and where would we put it and we move all the time and you're crazy. All of which is completely correct. But it's my sentimental old window!

So I fixed her up with a little (or alot) of wood glue, gave her a bath and stuck her up on the "mantle" (a shelf really) in her place of glory with all her old chippy paint yumminess and rusty hardware patina.

Here she is with my back-to-school themed mantle/shelf

They just don't make 'em like this anymore people! I love you chippy old window!