Our little hawk was back this morning, scaring the sparrows and also the chickens who were the first to let me know he was perched up over their pens. They hid safely inside their coop while the little birds huddled in the depths of the viburnum and wouldn’t come out again until he was gone.

He was on a quest. A failed one, but a quest nonetheless.

Yesterday the hubs and I also went on a quest, except ours was a bit more successful than his was.

We’ve been wanting a wood stove for the house, mostly for emergencies but also for looks. We both agreed a long time ago that we weren’t going to get a modern one and we’d wait until just the right antique stove came along.

We’d love to have one of those full sized antique cook stoves but our place is too small for one, so we decided that a parlor stove is the best fit for both our house and our needs.

Since antique parlor stoves don’t just come knocking, we decided it was time to go looking for one. Lucky for us there is a gentleman nearby who restores antique stoves of all kinds so we decided to stop by his shop and take a look around to see what he had.

I love visiting his place because it isn’t your typical antique store. Most of what he has is not for sale, but the items he does have price tags on are always beautifully restored and worth the amount he’s asking.

Even if the amount is far, far above our price range. This parlor stove has a price tag of $14,000!

This one was closer to our budget…

…but it had a little bit too much chrome for our taste.

This one, however…

This one was exactly what we wanted and was at a price we could afford and feel pretty good about.

Antique stoves like these hold their value, unlike their modern counterparts, so that’s a plus. Of course now that it’s ours we probably won’t ever sell it, but our kids might want to once we’re gone.

Hopefully not, but if they do, we won’t mind. We don’t plan on hanging around to fuss over what happens to our things. 😅