The Remodelers’ Legacy

They tore down the wall and found the fireplace. Ash and age had stained the bricks, which they cleaned as best they could. The woodworking around the entry took more time. Some occupant in a misguided age had painted it, covered the grain and its ornamentation in generic white, but a scraper and painstaking hours released the relic within: chestnut, common enough in 1891 but a disappeared wood now. It took the years and the blight between to clarify its worth.

This is the living room in which our dogs play, where we drop crumbs while watching television, where our children have spilled juice, and that is as it should be: this is a room with history.