Beautiful At Any Age

I felt an unexpected kinship with those weathered and worn boards.  Haphazardly stacked and looking a bit disheveled, it would have been easy to pass by the cart of scrap wood in front of Habitat's Restore shop.  The handwritten sign noted just one defining word scrawled in red Sharpie maker: FREE.  Free indeed.  Free to be re-imagined, re-designed, re-worked, re-born.

Tabb and I poured through that cart like hungry racoons, scavenging planks as treasured morsels.  Distressed finishes were seen as beautiful, aged patina.  Blemishes and marks became known as 'character.'

Money did change hands, once inside.  A long, narrow barn board with a lovely routed design will soon have 'Corrotoman' painted on it, for the river we love so much.  The scalloped cabinet piece will be renewed in a similar quarterboard fashion with inspiring words like, "wag more, bark less."  Perhaps they'll one day hang over the transom windows or fireplace of a Northern Neck river home.  Maybe, just maybe, it will be treasured in our own 'someday' home on the Corrotoman River, aptly named
"Chateau Relaxo."

I look forward to this process of re-creating... both the beauty of those aged boards and my life ahead.