I’ve always felt that one’s home should be a giant scrapbook. Paste in your mementos from your travels, the colors and textures you love, and hang your past on the walls.
This skeleton key was found in the chimney of the first house I ever bought. Built in 1920 as a “worker’s cottage” near the stockyards in Omaha, that house needed a new furnace and air conditioning unit. My husband wasn’t about to live in humid Omaha without AC.
In order to put in all that new stuff, the old stuff had to be brought up to code. There’s a money-pit-lesson for all you youngins wanting to buy an old house and fix it up. When the chimney got the once over, this rusted piece of history fell out tinkling on the basement floor. What was a skeleton key doing in in the chimney? Did Santa or a roofer drop it accidently? Your guess is as good as mine.
But I took that key and tried it in the lock on the front door – still the original that had been drilled to fit a modern deadbolt. Sure enough, it fit! And the lock turned, too!
When we sold the house and left Omaha, I toyed with leaving it in the house. But selfishness kicked in and I kept it. Hey, don’t judge! I left the beautiful 1920s light fixture in the dining room, which I regret to this very day. 
Jazzed up with a silk tassel, the key hangs in our tiny townhouse – the fourth house we ever bought. It reminds me of where we’ve been. Every time I walk by it I remember not just the house, but those few years we spent in Omaha. It’s our past hanging on the wall of our present.
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Filed und
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
What a lovely post! I’d never really put these thoughts into words before, but you nailed it. I love your theory about decorating. Having moved every 2 years growing up, I never truly felt a sense of place until I bought my first place. I know you’re uninspired in your townhome, but your NEXT place will rock!
Read sue´s last post … freedom
Thanks, Sue! I’m making a very long wish list of what I want in our next place
While I’ll admit I love watching interior designers do their thing on HGTV and in shelter magazines, there’s always something missing no matter how beautiful the design. That something is the essence of the person/people who will there.