10.03.11
the life of a house

I live next door to an old white-frame house that, by today’s standards, most would consider a cottage. It was sold recently and will soon be torn down to make room for a new home, four-times the size, with all the bells and whistles.

As an unwitting bystander to this process, a number of thoughts have struck me, but the one I’ve found most interesting is that instinctively, although I didn’t see my neighbour actually ‘move’, one day and one look at the house, told me he was gone.

Now, this isn’t a home that has big urns at the front door that I would miss, or noticeable cars coming and going. It’s a quiet little place that, on the day the door was closed, took it’s last breath and in that instant, changed from a charming home to an abandoned house.

I suppose it isn’t much different then what happens to a brand new house the day it’s first moved into. It also makes an instant transformation from a ‘new-build’ to a ‘new-home’ and like a slap on a baby’s bottom, it begins to breathe.

The white frame house next door serviced a family well for many years. Although it’s tempting to mourn the lovely old home it was, without the evening lights in the windows, smoke drifting out of the chimney, or broom leaning against the garage, the soul and spirit of the house have clearly moved on and so must we.

Cobi Ladner, Creator and Editor, cobistyle

from my studio

When we were photographing the initial cobistyle furniture collection, we were struck by how pretty the vibrant velvet pieces looked against the raw concrete at the photographer’s loading dock and snapped some shots. This is still one of my favourite pictures of the line.