Out With The New and in With the Old? Part 2

Living sustainably in my old house really comes in two additional forms that don't involve our electrical consumption.  We try to reduce landfill waste and save as much as we can while we make changes to our house.  At the end of the day, the most sustainable thing you can do is use what you already have and implement pieces that already exist.  

We are definitely doing that here in the bungalow!  Between choosing from my stash of roadside sinks or my collection of window sashes and old doors, we've been able to save beautiful old pieces from going to the landfill, reduce our own carbon footprint by eliminating most production and shipping for new materials, and save money along the way.  Saving what I can, often with a plan or an idea for reuse, has quickly become something I'm really passionate about with finding sustainable solutions for our house.  The balance?  I don't take things that are too badly broken to be reasonably repaired.  Rewiring or replacing a part in a light fixture? Sure.  Repairing the porcelain on a wall sink?  It's not necessarily helpful, but everyone has different thresholds.  It's all about finding what that is for each person.  

I really focus on keeping everything that your senses interact with detailed in a way that speaks to the age of our house.  It's not an easy decision, but it works really well for us in how we balance time, value in age, and material costs.  All of our basement doors are vintage, but they all came in many layers of paint or in different stages of disrepair.  Instead of seeing these go in the dumpster (or in one case be completely eaten by squirrels), I stripped the paint, stained, and sealed them all.  Now they match the house and feel like they belong here.  A lot of our lighting and our hardware is from Etsy, and what we have had to recreate, we did so by trying to match styles.  

Our bathroom and kitchen are a good example of mixing old and new to make our house both cohesive and authentically vintage.  The sinks and tub are vintage, and what was sourced new was purchased with old styling in mind.  It really works.  But we did bring in new in things where we've needed to add them, and in our systems: our up-to-date plumbing and electrical is almost an insurance policy on its own.  And since these aren't things we interact with directly, these are the things that are imperative to keep as safe as possible.  

If at all possible, my biggest advice for old house lovers and sustainability enthusiasts is to source used items first!  You really never know what you'll find out there!