Natural and Industrial Artifacts included inside house

I plan to have some fairly unusual things inside my house. Some such as big rocks and drift wood stumps will be used for seating but they will also add to thermal mass and to decor.

I won't go to great lengths to hide big posts and beams of steel and wood. I enjoy pointing out components that I've salvaged or bought for a pittance. Covering it all with drywall or ceiling tile would rob me of bragging rights and the chance to use the home as an educational tool. And I just like the artistic value that the bones of a building provides.

Whenever I go to a store that has gone for an industrial look by exposing the structure, all the kids look up at the giant ducts and beams. That raw look has a certain appeal.

I'm shopping for a Stirling engine which would be powered off the heat riser on a RMH. A big unit would loom large and I like that.

Please submit photos of unique components that you have used inside your home or things you will use in the future. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I won't be using these specific stumps but will seek similar ones close to where I can get a truck. The best stuff sometimes requires a boat.

The stump in the first photo stretches about 20 ft. with big knarly roots.

The one in the second photo is almost flat and with a suitable slab if glass, would make an awesome table. It is the smallest of the group being 8 1/2 ft wide and 2 ft thick. I estimate it at about 1 ton wet weight.

How do you make sure there are no more critters (bugs) living in these wood pieces before you bring them into the home?

I love bits of nature incorporated into design.

And some industrial - my friends' dad built a kitchen island for them out of reclaimed lumber from an old trestle bridge. The bolts were still in the pieces and they add a marvellous touch!

Anything gathered from the beach will be placed on a truck, so I'll stop by a car wash and clean things up.

Anything burried deeply will have to crawl out or starve.

Bad smells would indicate the presence of something. Clay stuffed in holes with a little charcoal might help.

The pictures below could be part of a "man vs. nature collection. I will gather some of the rounded brick and porcelain.

My place has many of the same types of rock as on this beach. Mine are covered with tough to clean silt when they come out of the ground. Several nice ones turned out to be multi colored conglomerate and other attractive forms although they came out of the ground looking like mud stone. A year in the open air usually does it.

I plan to use several boulders as seating, table legs and buttresses. Whenever digging is done, I turn up plenty of rock. Most of it is smaller than a basketball. So far there are only two big ones but this area often produces big nuggets. The excavator guy looks like I'm crazy when I insist on carefully extracting rocks so they don't get big scratches from the digging teeth. Those scratches never come out.

If I don't turn up suitable specimens, I'll buy some from a near by pit. That would be a shame. My soil is 20% rock but as stated, mostly small stuff.

Since I'm the new clean-up guy at a mill that specializes in old growth cedar, I now have access to giant slabs of quite rare quality. The one below is 7ft long and 2 1/2 ft wide. The next one is smaller but has great grain.

I may stockpile some of these with the idea of selling them as something that would work as a window sill or bench in a cob building.

Sometimes I get neat stuff like this clay tile. Rather than occupy floor space, stuff like this will be set into the earth plastered walls "good side out".

We have many potters and glass blowers around here. Kiln failures often produce ruined items that could have the defect imbedded in clay.