Inspiration

INSPIRATION is an odd thing, it comes and goes and for some people, it seems to never appear at all. I seem to find it everywhere, whether I'm travelling to somewhere new or walking down one of my favorite streets on Beacon Hill, there's always something in front of me that I get excited about. My vice has always been old homes-inside, outside, they have always held a unique fascination for me. I think that maybe this came from living in a house built in the early 1990's to look like an early Cape with a few neoclassical touches such as  pillars in the front. I've never really called any other building home, not yet anyway, and living in a new house built to look old probably inspired me to see what the real thing looked like.This fascination with old houses only grew when my Grandmother began to take me along to preview the auctions at her favorite local auction house. The time for what she called " box-lots" had passed but there were still some large homes around Springfield that were emptying their attics of beautiful items that I was surprised to find were selling below estimated value. When I moved to Boston I immediately fell in love with the Gibson House Museum, a Victorian Brownstone that hasn't been changed since the late 1800s http://www.thegibsonhouse.org/ as well as the Otis House Museum http://www.historicnewengland.org/historic-properties/homes/otis-house/otis-house. But not only am I inspired by historic homes, but also a new fad called Pinterest ( you can follow me at http://pinterest.com/jpvantassel/). Described as a virtually flipping through a home, style, and advice magazine without the ads, I love being able to hold all my favorite pictures together without cutting and pasting from magazines. I also love perusing design websites,especially from local designers such as this one http://www.bostondesignguide.com/files/showcase. I would love to one-day restore old houses, but I suppose I'll have to wait until awhile until the economy changes, and be content now to gather ideas.