DANVERS, Mass.

“I HAD a beloved dog named Henry Higgins who died two Easters ago,” John Archer was saying recently in the Danvers room, the latest addition to his ever-expanding, found-it-on-the-street house. “I put him in the car and was going to bury him at the beach house, and on my way down — remember, I had Hank for 16 years — I passed someone’s rubbish and they had thrown out a bed. I drove by thinking, ‘This is not the time, I’m in mourning,’ but then, of course, I turned around. I had to push poor little Hank’s body to the side to put this bed in.”

He is laughing, as he often does, telling stories. “The owner was saying, ‘Let me help you,’ and I’ve got this dead dog in the car, and he’s picking up this old bed,” Mr. Archer says. “I’m going, ‘No, no, I don’t need any help.’ ”

He gestures toward a wall in which pieces of the demolished bed have been incorporated and painted to match the wall. Astonishingly, it looks terrific.

“It’s a funny story,” he says. “But I will always remember my beloved beagle Hank.”

When most people find an interesting piece of architectural salvage — an old stained glass window, say, or a few pieces of 18th-century Portuguese tile — they might make an effort to carve a tiny space for it at home. When Mr. Archer, 62, finds something intriguing (and it’s usually a very large something), he often builds a new wing around it.