Old Town Home

Monday, April 29, 2013

Open Housing: A Turn of the 19th Century Lee Street Charmer

Posted by Alex

Comments 8

Over the winter we tend to go through a bit of withdrawal when it comes to our Open Housing addiction. During the colder months the market tends to soften some and far fewer homes show up on the weekly open house listings. However, when spring arrives, so too do the homes for sale in Old Town.

As has been the annual pattern, while the weather has warmed and cherry blossoms are blooming, the housing market in Old Town has really started popping again, and a few gems have been showing up on the list in recent weeks.

We recently toured a great house that Wendy and I have walked past time and again, but have never seen inside. Today, we're excited to share it with you, and of course play the "would you trade?" game.

Located along Lee Street just a few blocks from the Potomac River, this adorable wood frame clapboard sided house was built at the turn of the 18th to 19th century.

From the exterior this home is somewhat unassuming. I think it's because the paint color on the flat (and largely original) siding blends with the shutters, but when we stop to look at the home and imagine a few paint changes, we imagine how this very historic home could take on a whole new life with our chosen color palette.

When you enter this three bedroom, two and a half bath and roughly 1,750 square foot home, you are welcomed by a very nice hallway with the home's original newel post and stairs.

This home was built as a simple home, probably for a sailor or captain who worked on the Potomac, so the newel post is simple and understated, not nearly the type of newel post that would have ended up in the home had it been built 50 years later.

The wide hall also shows off beautiful oak flooring that, though not original to the house, still retains a good amount of character. The hall also offers a great view towards the back of the house.

The front living room of the home just to the left of the stairway is a simple, well designed room room with a modest mantel and understated moldings. I believe the mantle of the fireplace is original, and multiple builtins on either side of the chimney add a fair amount of storage to the room.

There also several windows around the room that allow plenty of the light and surely provide a nice cross breeze during the spring.

The layout of this home is actually very typical of an early 19th century home consisting of an entry hall and stairs, front living room, and a second room with a fireplace toward the back. The current owners are using this back room as a dining room, which is very common in these layouts.

The dining room leads to an addition, likely added in several phases over the years, which houses the newly remodeled kitchen...

...and cozy family room.

The kitchen has a layout conducive to entertaining. Given the age of the home, the kitchen leans a bit to the modern side of the design spectrum, and the swirled and colorful granite counters showcase a very uncommon choice we've not seen elsewhere in Old Town.

The small family room with fireplace leads to a beautiful back patio area. I can easily envision many nights spent relaxing with a glad of wine and small fire.

The second floor has the turn in the landing at the top of the stairs that I absolutely love in homes of this age, and the front bedroom is a very nice size and has a fireplace much like the front room on the first floor.

The room also has a small bathroom just off the room that is situated behind the window above the front door. It's by no means a large bath, but makes good use of the space.

One of the things I love about this front bedroom is the view of the street. This home is in one of the most picturesque and historic blocks of Old Town and looks out on some of our favorite homes in town.

The homes across the street range from mid to late 18th century, all the way to late 19th century Victorians. This is easily one of the best features of this home.

Towards the back of the second floor, the uncharacteristically long hallway provides evidence that the rear rooms were added over time. In person, you can see roughly where each addition starts and stops based on the undulations in the hallway floor and baseboards.

Off of the hallway sits the bright and cozy second bedroom...

...as well as a recently renovated and nicely appointed bathroom.

There's also a third bedroom at the rear of the home, currently configured as a charming children's bedroom.

Though the house does have a partial basement with room for storage, it would make a tight workshop area, and it probably isn't really feasible to finish the space without significant work due to the low ceilings, mechanicals, and various obstructions.

There is one hidden space near the front of the basement that had both Wendy and me saying "Ooh, ooh, ooh, look!" A much needed wine cellar.

Overall, this home is an excellent example of an 1800's house that has been nicely maintained and updated. Though some of the changes are not period accurate, most are well done and make for a very comfortable home. And we'd be leaving out a significant detail if we didn't mention the true allure of this home -- the fact it's located in prime Lee Street Halloween celebrating area. Living on Lee Street during Halloween is a true dream of Wendy's, that's for sure.

And now for our game...

Would You Trade?

Alex: This is really hard, but I'm going to go with "Yes." The home is the absolute ideal age of a home I really want to live in, and while the home is "done," there is still a lot of room for projects to bring the home in line with our personal taste and style. I would love to spend time to bring the home into much more of a period appropriate style in the way of moldings, hardware, and fixtures. However, the back yard is smaller than ours, and there's no parking, both negatives in my "will you trade?" book. The other issue is the lack of a good basement work area, perhaps we'd need to dig it down a few feet so I could work somewhat comfortably. So if you're selling this house and you'd like to trade for our house, give us a call and we'll see what we can work out.

Wendy: This is a tough call for me too, and I'm totally on the fence. I absolutely love our street and our neighbors, but as Alex pointed out, this home is located in a more desirable location, especially come Halloween. I think the home has great curb appeal, a charming outdoor space, and I love the openness between the kitchen and family rooms. I also love that there are three true bedrooms (unlike our two bedrooms and an office configurations), and the fact that this home has a first floor powder room is a true plus. I'd also be remiss of course if I didn't mention the Christmas staircase.

The biggest drawback for me is the home's lack of parking, and due to the age of the home, the ceilings are much lower than those in our home. The master bathroom is also roughly 1/3 the size ours will be when complete. I'm waffling here, but after careful consideration and a couple nights to sleep on it, yes, I think I would trade.

If you'd like to see additional details, they are available on the home's official listing page.

Interested in reading about other interesting homes for sale? Want to offer your take on "would you trade"? Check out the Open Housing section of Old Town Home.

Photo Credits: McEnearney Associates Inc., Realtors and listing agent, Carol Cleary, where MRIS is noted in watermark.

Categories

Open Housing

Comments 8

Thursday, April 25, 2013

10 Blogging Tips for Our 2nd Blogiversary

Posted by Alex

Comments 23

Wow! Can you believe it? Two years! Yes, that's right, this week marks our two year anniversary of when we started Old Town Home. To be quite honest, it's a little bit shocking that it's gone by so quickly. I still remember the night Wendy and I were sitting out in our backyard and getting our first blog post live, nervous with anticipation for the millions of people that would surely descend upon our site the moment our blog post was officially online. I'm a little foggy on the details, but I think something like that happened...I think.

When we decided to start our blog back in 2011, we weren't really sure what to expect. We knew we had some decent projects we could cover, as well as a few tips and how tos we could share, but we didn't have much of a grasp on what blogging entailed beyond writing our first few posts. We didn't exactly realize the time commitment each post would require, how it would impact our home project schedule, or the work required outside of just writing blog posts. To put it mildly, the last two years of consistent blogging have been quite the learning and growing experience, and now we know just how difficult -- but also fulfilling -- the realm of blogging can be.

You may have heard us say this before, but when we decide to do something, we decide to go all out. It seems we don't have a half speed setting, or a way to moderate the effort we put into our projects, as is evident from many of our home endeavors. When it came to our blog, we approached it in very much the same manner. I mean, just look at our kitchen project as an example; a budget rug and a quick coat of paint somehow turned into new counters, appliances, and decor for two rooms of our house!

From day one Wendy and I committed ourselves to daily blog posts, Monday through Friday, no matter if we were slammed at work, on vacation, or in a project slump of sorts. Some weeks it has been easier to write posts because our projects or real life allowed or inspired them, sometimes it has been harder to come up with something interesting and worthwhile (though we hope we did), but through our first several hundred posts spanning two years, we learned quite a bit about our own blog authoring process and what we hope has made Old Town Home a worthwhile and enjoyable read, whether we're talking about a specific project, and event in Old Town, or some randomness that surrounds our DIY lives.

From the last two years of blogging (and 585 individual blog posts, including today's), there are a handful of very critical yet simple things we've learned along the way that work well for us and have enriched our overall experience and enjoyment of blogging. And while we don't want to be a blog that spends a lot of time talking about blogging, our entire blogging experience has been a bit of a DIY adventure of its own, so we feel like sharing a few of our blogging tips and tricks is appropriate for our official two year blogiversary (I hate that word, by the way). For the bloggers or aspiring bloggers out there, we hope you'll find the information useful. And for the non blog authors who are reading, we hope it gives you a little insight into our creative process that helps us to formulate the items we post each day.

1. Keep your fingernails trimmed and clean.

As DIYers we work a lot with our hands. This includes everything from working on the house to whipping up a quick recipe, and we take a lot of photos of the processes. The plethora of photos that include our hands holding molding, tools, placing photos, mixing ingredients, or just about any other up close shot tends to include...you guessed it...our fingernails.

There's nothing worse than un-trimmed nails with house dirt under them to distract from the beauty of a nicely executed DIY project. I think I realized this aspect of blogging very early on when I was taking a photo that included my hand, which had a big black speck under my nail. I thought to myself, "UGH, I'm a monster, nobody will want to read blog posts from dirtyfingernails.com. I must resolve this and never make this mistake again." I hope our blog posts have been better due to my nail bed hygiene. For your benefit I will keep my nails trimmed, cuticles pushed back, and perhaps I should start getting manis just to be sure I don't leave you feeling disgusted.

2. A good blogging process is an evolution, not a set recipe.

In recent weeks we've been able to dial back our overkill on the blog a little bit, and that comes as our personal lessons around creating blogs posts has really started to evolve. Initially we were under the self imposed impression we needed to "post every day, no matter what." Lately we've been able to establish a slightly more moderate approach of "post when we are able to, as long as we have a blog post that we feel is worth reading." I know some of you have noticed a weekday or two when we haven't posted on that given day, and this is a direct result of our revised approach to blogging.

If we look back on some of our older posts, we can see a subtle yet distinct difference in the way we approached stories or recaps. I also feel we've been able to establish a better way of truly conveying how and why we do things certain ways, rather than just a step by step process of completing something. It's our hope this level of detail is able to add some richness and value to what we write about, and hopefully some of it has taught you a tip or method that can help in your projects at some point.

3. Negativity is constructive criticism, no matter how nasty it may be.

This is hard. Actually, it's really hard to remember, and we've not even had a tremendous amount of negativity on our blog, but it has happened. The main thing to remember is that any level of negativity can be seen as some level of constructive criticism, and if you can look past the negative (and possibly nasty snark), you can possibly take some good information away from the poster's response.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we are simply hanging on everyone's critiques of our work to look for validation of a project's end result, but we will take what everyone says as a way to look at our solution and its execution, perhaps modifying our plans to better incorporate other's ideas that we hadn't thought of. The last thing I want to be is one of those people that thinks my poop doesn't stink and walks around saying "haters gonna hate." Sure, there may be the occasional negativity that we should just ignore, but putting blinders on to all criticism only serves to make us narcissistic a-holes (and we don't want that). After all, If we're unable to accept and learn from some criticism we really shouldn't be blogging and putting everything out in the open for people to judge.

4. Don't ignore the difficulties.

There's nothing more frustrating than following an online guide that tries to show you how something is all sunshine and rainbows but it ignores the complexities, difficulties, or failures the author experienced along the way. Perhaps in some perfectionist society there exists superior types of people that simply do not error, but we surely do not walk among this elusive crowd.

If I'm unable to do something the first time around, or my results are less than stellar, I'm going to jump at the opportunity to poke some fun at myself about my inability to execute, but I'll also surely share some tips or tricks that helped me to finally succeed (assuming I actually reached success and whatever I was working on wasn't a complete and utter failure). The point I've realized is that no one is an expert at everything, and more than likely, most people are barely novice at most things. A foolish assumption or implication that everything is simple and anyone can do it on the first try just pisses me off, and I'd rather not inflict that type of story telling on you.

5. Try to make sure your photos don't always suck.

Ah, blog photography, mixing true amateur photographers with the expectation of magazine quality imagery. The end result of the attempts typically end up somewhere in the vicinity of "hey, I got this amazing new camera and lens but I'm not 100% sure what all of these buttons do..."

"...but look at this amazing bokeh! Yeah, I did that."

We've put a fair amount of time and effort into improving our blog photography, but not every shot can be a great one, and sometimes you need terrible ones to tell the whole story. The main thing to remember is to make every attempt possible to improve your photography where you can, knowing full well there is a ton to learn, good photography can sometimes mean expensive equipment, and sometimes the photographs are actually the hardest part of any given project. I think more fighting occurs in our relationship due to Wendy's shot obscuring arm placement when she's making a recipe and I'm trying to take photos than just about any other realm.

The best part about trying to get better at photography is that you can take tons of cute pet photos in an attempt to hone your skills. Like this one.

6. Write about what interests you.

If there's one thing we've learned as bloggers above all else, it's this one simple lesson. Appeal to and engage your readers based on your own personal interests. In other words, don't try to write a blog post just because you think your readers will like it, or it will get you a lot of traffic or comments, or lots of Pins, retweets, and likes, or that it will "really resonate with your readers."

Do write blog posts that you value and would like to share! These include tips, tricks, guides, reveals, before & afters, and anything else that floats your blogging boat.

We feel this single piece of advice is often lost as blogs try to appeal too generically to their audience as if each and evey post must apply to their readership as a whole. Or blogs that avoid topics fearing the posts might alienate people by being too complex, too expensive to implement, or too out there.

We realize that we can't appeal to everyone all of the time, but it's also important to understand that we don't have a homogenous audience of readers, so it's good to have some things that appeal to some people, and others to other people, as long as what we're writing about is originally something that interests us.

Your writing is clearly an extension of yourself and your feelings, and attempting to force something specifically because it "makes good blog content" will ultimately be transparent to your readers and will cause your blog to suffer.

7. Your daily readers are a reflection on you, so try to be genuine.

This took us the longest to realize over all other items, but it's very much the reality of writing in a personal tone and manner. The more you write, the more you will attract people who are simply engaged by your writing because it resonates with them. When you pour your personality into your blog posts, the people that will gravitate toward and return to your blog are the people who you'd probably get along with in "real life." The best part about this aspect of blogging is that we feel like we're having a nice conversation among friends, rather than just yelling into the wide open Internet for anyone that might listen.

8. It doesn't hurt to realize you're lame.

Hey, I'm the first to admit that I can be a bit of a nerd, and I want to make sure you know that I'm 100% and fully aware of that. Actually, I want you to know that I embrace it! This is not a blog about extreme sports, wing suit skydiving, and pushing the limits on everything you do. This is a blog that includes tips on how to properly antique screws, how to restore a 125 year old rim lock, where to go to sip wine in California, or how I have a problem with letting the basement get way too messy.

As cool as it to read about the amazing people in the world that will do things that I couldn't even imagine myself doing, that's not us. I mean, I dressed as a Stormtooper for Halloween one year, that's about as crazy as I get!

We are who we are, and we are often lame and a little bit (or a lot) nerdy. Since that's who we are in real life, that's who we try to be on the blog. No smoke and mirrors, no bait and switch, and we hope you like us more for it.

9. You can actually meet people who aren't creepy on the Internet!

Wendy and I started dating in 1995 when we were juniors in high school, the World Wide Web was only a few years old, and only a few geeks (myself included) were actively using this newfangled method of communication and sharing. That being said, Wendy and I never really experienced that whole "online dating" thing all the kids are doing these days. As a result, we never really met people online. Weird, I know. But this all changed two years ago when we started blogging.

Through our blogging experience and interactions we've had the opportunity to meet many different people, some of whom are now our very good friends. This includes people we know in the flesh, as well as people who may live hundreds or thousands of miles away and we only know in a more "virtual" capacity. If we had never started blogging we wouldn't have met these people and we would be worse off for it. It's strange to think that many of our interactions with various people over the past two years, and the friendships that have formed from them, simply wouldn't exist if we hadn't felt the need and desire to begin sharing our renovation and lives for all the world to see (and when I say world, I mean the random people who've stumbled upon our blog).

10. Not everyone has read every single blog post you've ever written.

Wait, what? Did I just type that? Haven't all of you all read every single sentence we've put to screen? No? Of course you haven't! As a blogger, it's your responsibility to assume that the people reading today's post are actually reading their very first post on your blog. As a result, you need to do a few things to ensure people don't simply feel lost while reading a rambling and barely coherent description of, say, historic masonry repointing.

Instead, frequently refer back to previous and supporting posts with links, give clues to past projects that have involved similar items, make references that give context to the work you're doing, and don't include tons of random inside jokes that only a handful of people will actually care about and get. Blogging is an open invitation that offers a glimpse into your life, and nobody wants to take a glimpse only to see a high school like clique of people giggling about some random item.

There you have it, 10 blogging "tips" that we've learned along the way on our two year blogging journey. We still have a ton to learn, but thus far we've had quite a bit of fun on the items we've picked up along the way. Whether this is the first blog post you've read on our site (see item #10 above), or you've been around almost since day one, we hope you've enjoyed our journey and descriptions and will continue to join us as our journey continues.

Are you a blogger? Do any of these tips sound good to you? And do you have any that you'd like to share here as well? You know we'd love to hear.

If you're not a blogger, what do you think? How are we doing? And is there something you'd really like us to improve upon?

Regardless of which reader group you fall into, we're happy you're here and we're glad to have shared the last two years with you.

Categories

Comments 23

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

A Cheerful Frame of Mind: Honoring Vacation Memories

Posted by Wendy

Comments 20

It's official. We're "those" people. You know, the ones who leave their Christmas decorations up for months into the new year. I'm shaking my head in embarrassment. Thankfully we had last Friday's neighborhood party on the books, which forced us to tackle those nagging and often overlooked issues -- like decorations of Christmas past still adorning the walls well into April.

The decorations I'm referring to were the beautifully made calligraphy Christmas carol verses, created by our friend Sarah Bohl.

We hung these unique works of art for the Alexandria Scottish Christmas Walk Weekend last year, when we were lucky enough to have our humble abode featured on the home tour. And although we managed to take down the live tree back in January, the four frames remained as is, wishing guests tidings of comfort and joy...well after Santa had come and gone.

It's not that I haven't given these frames any thought. In fact, it's quite the contrary. I've debated long and hard over what makes a suitable, year-round replacement, and came up with two finalists. The first -- obtain city maps of four of our favorite vacation destinations (London, Gothenburg, Napa Valley, and Budapest). This concept proved harder than expected. While the visitors bureau in Gothenburg, Sweden was happy to mail me a map, I had a harder time sourcing nice looking samples of the other cities that seemed frame worthy. Sure I could scour eBay, look for a vintage atlas, or source other viable locations so all maps visually seemed to be a "set," but the harder the concept, the less appealing it became.

The second option I had come up with was to frame four of our favorite vacation photos. And since these frames are in the sun porch/kitchen area, I wanted to put a twist on it and frame photos of food and drink, quite apropos for this portion of our home.

This isn't a tall order in the least, given our love of exploring local cuisine and culture whenever we're abroad. Whether we happen to be dining in off-the-beaten-path cafes, strolling the aisles of local grocery stores, or seeing and sampling goods from vendors at renowned food markets, we can't get enough of both the great tastes and often stunning visuals.

One example of our adventures came last fall when we roamed the aisles of the Great Market Hall in Budapest, Hungary.

Or last summer, when we ate doughnuts at London's Borough Market.

Or in Fall 2011, when we sipped hot apple cider from a stand in Copenhagen's Tivoli Garden. Unfortunately the cider tasted like feet, but we're still grateful for the experience!

Last week I spent time combing through our Flickr sets, trying to narrow our selection to the top four. It was fun to look back on our treasured vacation memories while working to complete the artwork update.

My goal in searching was to find examples of foodie scenes that represent places that we visited and enjoyed, but done in a way that was up close and personal with the food, rather than centered on the location where we found the food. In other words, we were trying to find the best poser hipster-esque food photos we'd taken on our various journeys.

If we were true hipsters we would have taken this photo of Cafe DuMonde beignets ironically.

After a bit of searching, I settled on four photos that we both really liked and felt fulfilled our goal of this little project:

Pastries and cappuccino in Vienna, Austria
A cheese vendor in London, England
A produce counter in Budapest, Hungary
Pretzels and cold mugs of Pilsner Urquell (the local beer of choice) in Prague, Czech Republic

These photos all had that look we were shooting for, but the orientation was landscape on two of the photos. I resolved this by cropping them using the aspect ratio of the two portrait photos. This reduced the resolution a bit, but it wasn't too severe and still maintained good quality.

After the orientation was set, we had to resolve a little issue with the colors. The colors of the photos varied a bit much from photo to photo and would look out of place all hung on the wall near one another. Given the rise in popularity of photo filters (thank you Instagram) it seems that every photo editing program out there has some level of effect that allows you to modify/age/hipstify your photos in a variety of ways.

I started to play around with the photos in Flickr using their Aviary service and available filters. After going through the various filters I ended up settling on one call San Cameron, which washes out the photo a bit to make the colors appear a bit more muted. The end result of these photos gave us the look we were after.

Take a look at the end result of the photos from above.

After finishing up the photo editing, we placed an order online with our local Walgreens. Thanks to a great coupon, we picked up four 8x10s for a mere $10.06, 40% off the normal price. I picked them up the next day, and was well on my way to a completed project.

In the hustle and bustle getting ready for our guests, we may or may not have "saved" this project until 15 or so minutes prior to our guests arriving. But there's nothing like working best under pressure, so I got to work on this simple switch out.

I started by removing the frames from the wall, and opening up the backs.

I then carefully peeled back the scotch tape, holding the Christmas carol artwork in place. These Christmas pieces are very special to me, so I really wanted to be sure I protected them as much as possible.

With the frames free and clear I secured the enlarged photos in place with some small pieces of tape.

Finally, I neatly tucked the seasonal art behind the matte for safekeeping. This way I know right where I've stored it, and it's in a safe, flat, protected space where I'll be able to easily retrieve them in the future.

In less than ten minutes, I had a new set of framed, personal artwork.

We popped them on the wall before the first guests arrived and had ourselves a special and themed set of vacation mementos celebrating some of our favorite experiences.

There are a few things that I really love about this choice in artwork.

I love that the photo effects mute the colors, so they work well with the gray frames, and blend seamlessly into the neutral color palette we established for our kitchen and sun porch.
I love that this project cost only ten dollars.
I love the fact that it commemorates some of our favorite vacation memories.
And finally, I love that I walk past these frames several times a day, and can appreciate these photos on a daily basis, rather than keeping them out of sight in a Flickr set or photo album.

If you're looking for a great way to accessorize with something special and personal, this is a fun way to incorporate your own personal touch in a non traditional way. We didn't need to include our smiling faces waving from some random tourist destinations, instead we focused on the things we remember from our own experiences, and we chose photos that had meaning to us, but applied more generically to the setting. In the end, we're totally thrilled with the results.

Have you done any sort of similar decorating in your home? Perhaps using themed vacation photos from your favorite experiences? Did you go all hipster the way we did and apply some level of photo filters? I'd love to hear what you've been up to.

Categories

Projects

Crafts

Comments 20

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Even a Monsoon Can't Stop Our Par-Tay

Posted by Wendy

Comments 12

If you stopped by last week, you probably saw that we were frantically preparing our home and yard for a neighborhood party, scheduled for last Friday night. While our frenzied efforts paid off, unfortunately I may have doomed our party from the get-go, jinxing the weather simply by using the words "Garden Party" on the invitation. Though we intended to use the outdoor space for the event, Mother Nature had other ideas. But let me back up a bit.

In the five days leading up to our neighborhood shindig, we identified several a boat load of must-do items that needed to be completed before 40 or so people descended upon our home. The list of tasks/chores included:

Trim the topiaries and plant flowers in the front urns
Plant flowers in the front bed, and mulch the area
Clean the front steps and vestibule
Rake up the sticks and debris along the side of the house
Clean out the beds in the back yard
Plants herbs
Plant the vegetable garden
Clean and oil the outdoor furniture
Clean the house
Oil the kitchen counters
Replace the Christmas carol artwork in the sun porch with something less seasonal
Purchase wine, cups, and other party items
Set up an outdoor buffet for the party

You might be thinking, "Are these two out of their minds?" A sufficient answer would be, yep, resoundingly so. But we've come to discover over several previous crunch times that giving ourselves tight, if not nearly impossible deadlines is one of the best motivators to help us to cross nagging items off of our home repair, maintenance, and renovation lists.

So how did we do after all? Here's a quick breakdown of what were able to accomplish.

We picked up some new flowers at the nursery and planted them in the front urns while also giving the topiaries a little trim.

While up front we also planted some new flowers in the front bed, and spread some fresh mulch to breathe a little color into the area.

The front steps and vestibule were covered in a layer of yellow-green pollen, so we completed our facade beautification with a quick wipe down of the whole entryway.

Moving to the side of the house, we raked the sticks and debris that had accumulated all winter. We also did our best to clean and organize the narrow area next to our house in the backyard, throwing away any trash, broken pots, or other items we didn't particularly need.

We completed the backyard prep by cleaning up the various beds and containers in the area, and planting ourselves some lettuce and herbs in a container garden...

We also tackled our third (and hopefully successful) attempt at planting an organic veggie/fruit/herb garden.

With all of our plantings complete, we turned our attention to the interior of the house. We broke up cleaning into a several night process and worked our way top to bottom, vacuuming, dusting, organizing, and tidying. There's nothing like a party to help you notice your home's "problem areas."

On Thursday night Alex oiled and waxed the kitchen counters so they'd be nice and dry by the time of the party. We're still using the same oil/wax combo we mentioned before and are still really liking the look and function of the product.

One of the items on our checklist that was long overdue was the replacement of the Christmas carol artwork in the sun porch with something less seasonal. (We'll be back with more details on this project later this week.)

After all of our extensive efforts around the house, we were finally ready to set up for the party itself. Keeping an eye on the weather radar in the run-up to the party, we were hopeful the threat of rain would hold off until after the event, but the closer we got to party time, the less likely that looked. The thing is, we're the partying type, and we're not going to let a threat of a little bit of rain, wind, thunder, and some pretty awesome lightening rain on our neighborhood block party parade. Rather than set the drinks up outside and food in the kitchen, I went ahead and designated the dining room for the appetizers and dessert people would be bringing to the potluck style event.

...And the kitchen wine bar to act as, well, a wine bar. Novel idea, eh?

And with that, our marathon that felt more like a really long sprint of preparation was complete and we were ready for people to arrive. The various weather teams had been calling for a 50% chance of rain Friday evening. Though the threat existed, by the time our 7:00pm party's start time rolled around the weather seemed to be slightly holding off. But about 10 minutes after the first few people arrived, the skies opened and a downpour of epic proportions commenced. I received a one word text from a good friend that summed it up. "Monsoon."

Alex snapped the following photo of our previously perfect backyard after the rain had begun to let up, but the "Garden Party" concept was no more. Our party was apparently meant to be a springtime indoor party rather than the relaxing indoor/outdoor event I had envisioned.

As guests arrived the dining room table was filled with a collection of delicious food.

From cheese to deviled eggs and everything in-between, there was something for every appetite.

This tradition of the neighborhood "TGIF" parties started several years ago by another neighbor who brought the tradition from her old neighborhood in New Orleans. We've found it to be a great way to meet new neighbors on the block, as well as get together with old friends. We consider ourselves fortunate to live within an area of homes with such friendly and accommodating neighbors. In a day and age of city living where many are more likely to avert their eyes when they pass someone on the sidewalk, It's not often that you can find an area where everyone is so friendly and likes to take a little time to spend with their neighbors.

The age range of our block goes from mid 20's to early 80's, and everywhere in between. It's an eclectic and interesting mix of interests, backgrounds, and professions, and it's always fun to get together.

Do you do any neighborhood entertaining? If not, would you consider hosting a party like this one or starting a similar tradition? How do you prepare for entertaining in your home? Are you a checklist person, or do you like to fly by the seat of your pants? I'd love to hear what your strategy is.

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Friday, April 19, 2013

Go Meece Lightnin'

Posted by Alex

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When living in an urban environment, we've found there are a few things you simply learn to live with. The constant elevated noise level, tight living proximity, tons of foot traffic, more trash than you'd prefer, and the occasional vermin or insect issues.

Mostly, we take these all in stride. You learn to ignore the noise, you deal with the closeness and build a new sense of boundary respect, you work to clean up your messes as well as the messes of others, and you figure out ways to periodically eliminate the pests.

Since we purchased our home we've had intermittent unwanted and uninvited house guests. No, I'm not talking about human ones, I'm referring more to the scurrying and four legged type. I tend to deal with them in a less emotional and slightly more effective manner than Wendy, though I like them no more than she does.

When we mention a mouse or (gasp) rat that we've seen around or in our house, people who live in the city get it and can relate, and people who live in the country see it as a way of life and almost pay it no attention. But people that live in the suburbs are often appalled, disgusted, and often say "that's why I don't live in the city!" But almost everyone says the same thing, "Good thing you have a dog and a cat."

It's true, we have a dog and a cat, and one would assume that having both a dog and a cat may keep our vermin issues at bay, leaving us with a home and surrounding area free of little unwanted pets. Although we take great measures to prevent the undesired pitter patter of little feet in our home, one might not realize that our cat is geriatric and doesn't have a single clawed paw (he came that way), while our dog is equal parts uncoordinated and goofy. These combinations make not the Jean Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal of mouse hunters.

Though Mel and Lulu may not be the most stealthy or accomplished hunters, our little Ollie had an instinctual nose (and tooth) for these things. Whether he was cornering a varmint that was thrashing about under the sink, or honing his skills on squeaky rat toy training devices, he knew his way around pest control.

As I mentioned earlier, Wendy doesn't really like the idea of mice in the house. We may or may not have even had an incident back around 2005 where a mouse made his way into the house and Wendy called me at work screaming about said mouse. The events that transpired will live on in infamy. Due to her somewhat hysterical and incoherent ramblings, she may have blurted the words "GIANT," "OHMYGOD," "ON THE MOVE!" I also may have put her on speaker phone in my office without letting her know. I'm not entirely clear on the details, as it did happen quite some time ago, but this may have happened, just sayin'.

After trying in vain to corner the mouse and get Mel to do his duty, Wendy eventually mustered the courage to throw a box over top of the scurrying mouse while standing on the living room ottoman. I was on the phone while this was happening as well, and at one point she believed she had thrust the box down so hard that she had decapitated the little field mouse. Once the cardboard vermin penitentiary was in place, there it sat, with the potentially decapitated mouse, for several hours, until I got home from work. When I arrived home I slid a folder under the box, determined the mouse was still alive, and I took him outside, well away from our house, and released him back into the world. I'm a lover, not a killer.

After years of disappointment in mouse hunting, Mel finally started to hit his stride in recent years. He started slow, training like the Karate Kid with fly catching, or like Rocky on the speed bag. Just imagine some great montage music playing while Mel swatted away at the hanging door toy.

His endless training continued, his skills improved, and rumor has it that he even sought a teeth sharpening service to maximize his effectiveness in the hunt. He spent one long winter stalking his prey, though he didn't kill them. Mel would corner the mice until we retrieved them (or killed them by running around and screaming like a crazy person), or he'd pick the mouse up in his mouth and come running by and drop the stunned creature at my feet. Like a gentle big cat carrying its baby, the mice were unharmed and able to go on fighting, only in another block in Old Town. But this all changed late last year!

After his emasculating experience of partial tail amputation, Mel ventured out with his courage, pride, and endless reserves of fight, and he bagged his first kill! I wasn't around to see how the whole thing went down, but it was probably not pretty for the mouse. Our guess is the mouse ventured out into the kitchen looking to snack on a little of Mel's food, but he was having none of that. In the most likely dramatic recreation, the events probably unfolded like this.

Mel noticed the mouse making a move on his food and stepped up to the unwanted visitor. "Hey, you! Yeah, you...with the mouse face. What do you think you're doing near my food. That's my food, see?" Then, with a quick swipe of the paw, he let the mouse have it, killing him in one swift shot. At least, that's what I imagine happened. Just look at the proud sense of accomplishment awash over Mel's face, seemingly at the top of the food chain, and unable to be dethroned. Hey, what can I say, we're proud of his accomplishment too.

At this point Mel, and Ollie (before his untimely departure), had proven their prowess (albeit meager) in controlling the pest population in our home, but Lulu, she remained a frustrated, frantic, and fumbling participant in the pest control arena. Sure, she has aspirations for greatness...

...but we fear she'd just be confused and overwhelmed if she somehow cornered a nemesis in the squirrel population.

Well whole confused spectator role that Lulu had previous occupied gave way to a renewed sense of conquering. Yesterday, while on her morning walk with Lulu, Wendy rounded the corner on the way into our backyard. Seemingly without warning, Lulu went from calm and goofy to a lungin' maniac, target unknown. Wendy glanced down, saw what looked like a grey rock in Lulu's mouth, then all hell broke loose.

Given Wendy's always calm demeanor and utmost tolerance for four legged rodents, I have to imagine there were some F-bombs dropped, some frantic squirming, and a little neurotic handwashing to follow, but Wendy knew what had to be done. The "gray stone" that wasn't a stone at all had to be removed from Lulu's mouth before the unthinkable could happen.

At some point during the fray, Lulu must have dropped said rodent stone, listening like a good girl, but Wendy was clearly blinded by the frantic nature of the situation and began sweeping Lulu's mouth for the fur-ball she had so mercilessly expired. I'm going to go out on a limb, once again, and say that this was likely not Wendy's calmest moment in her life as a pet owner, perhaps it may have even shaved time off of her own life expectancy.

Luckily, Lulu was listening, and she remembered her extensive training, or more specifically, her training on what to do when the command of "DROP OMG DROP DROP DROP WHATEVER IS IN YOUR MOUTH FOR THE LOVE PLEASE DROP WHAT YOU HAVE IN YOUR MOUTH OMG!!!!" is given. Laying on the ground in a little bloody mess was Lulu's first official rodent kill. If you are mildly squeamish, you may want to avert your eyes from this next photo.

Yes, Lulu captured and killed what appears either a mouse or baby rat in our back parking area. She has developed her skills over years of hard work and consistent effort, and she is now a contributing member in the Old Town Home rodent task force. In Lulu We Trust.

My favorite part about this whole story is the text message I received from Wendy. The text message had a picture attachment and a simple description:

"Any guesses why your daughter is so happy?"

I knew this was a loaded question, but Wendy was absolutely right. Lulu is beaming in that photo. She's smiling ear to ear and incredibly proud of what she'd just done. I had no idea, I was receiving this as the first text, and event had already taken place, but I knew nothing more than she was happy. It's possible that Lulu had just won the dog lottery, perhaps had been selected for the elusive promotion, or even discovered a bone she had buried long ago. Regardless, I had no idea what she did that could have made her that happy!

I soon learned of Lulu's triumph, and though I have a slight neurotic fear for the potential diseases she may have contracted from having that thing in her mouth, I too am happy for Lulu and her achievement, both in the manner she was able to accomplish a bit of extermination, and for the few moments of comical hysterics I'm sure ensued on the part of Wendy. I only wish I had been there to both witness and record the moment. You all know I would have surely shared that video with you.

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