Buck-ing Responsibility

I believe a brief introduction is in order. We purchased This Old Purple House with three inclusions, all of which were in "the tavern," as we call it.

The main house is a fairly large 1700s 4-over-4 colonial. And, attached corner-to-corner on the northwest side, is a barn of sorts. It sits on a granite foundation, with no apparent access from any side, although there is a semi-modern concrete wall in that corner of the main house basement that reads "1962". What's behind that wall is a curiosity for another day...

On the first floor, it is one huge room -- about 800 square feet. The floors are worn plank pine. At one point they were waxed, but, for the most part they are now bare and both dust-colored and -textured. The 10-foot ceiling is spanned by 10x10 chestnut beams. The walls are dark pine tongue-and-groove paneling from floor to ceiling. A narrow, winding staircase leads from one corner to another single-room expanse upstairs that we call "the bunk room". It too is walled in pine, but it is further outfitted with a symmetrical series of built-ins -- beds, dressers, closets, cabinets, shelves, etc. It's all there. Permanently.

Back to the tavern down the winding, corner stairs... I mentioned some "inclusions" with the house. I should mention that all of these items are technically movable, unlike the furniture upstairs, which I could take or leave. These contractual inclusions appeared so permanent in the existential sense that we let them be and took them as is. Time will tell how these items fit in to our life here.

First, there is a bar that sits near the only outside door. It's a belly-up sort -- the kind with overhangs, but not so much that you could cozy a stool up and under. There are several shelves built into the innards of it, but none that accommodate a handle of booze standing up. (What were these people drinking?)

There is also a piano. It's an early Ludwig upright with heavy-handed wood carvings. At some point someone painted it red with some faux-grain glaze. It's been played hard and put up dry -- you can almost see a semi-sober, no-sheet-music-required piano man struggling to bang out a tune with a tipsy tart teetering on the edge of his bench. Today, let's just say that if there were a kitten on its keys, it would be well-fed given the resident mice in the chord case.

Finally, there is a dead animal, or that's how I thought of it as we negotiated the deal on this seemingly soulless essentially-abandoned house. He, as it turns out, is actually a very alert multi-point buck, mounted above the fireplace. And, I've come to believe, he is very much alive, spiritually speaking. He has proven to have a worthy opinion about things that go on here. So far he has given us nothing but sage advice, which I will recount in due course. But, in the meantime I wanted to make introductions. Now, if I refer to "Buck," you will have some idea to whom I refer. Fair enough?