Laying across Sarah and Gabriel Chrisman's living room is a big swath of blue carpet. The carpet belong to Gabriel's grandmother as well as Gabriel's grandmother's cat, which spent twenty years scratching a threadbare patch right near the middle. A collector might look at this damaged rug and deem it worthless. To the Chrisman's, however, it's an invaluable family heirloom. It's story is what gives it value.
You probably know Sarah and Gabriel as "The Victorian Couple," the married couple who live in Port Townsend, WA and have dedicated their lives to studying and living amongst the culture and technologies of the late nineteenth-century. There's a good chance that you've already got a preconceived notion about who they are and how they live, but until you've stepped inside their 1888-built Victorian home and heard their reasons, you might not really understand what they're about.