Could it be? Yes! An estate sale! I'm sure you can probably guess (or have previously read) about how we feel about estate sales, and this one was a little better than most others. This estate sale was being held in a house on the corner of Prince and Pitt streets and is a home that Wendy and I have both admired from the outside for many, many years.

The home was built around 1820, and though the front of the house is somewhat grand and impressive, the real allure for us is the view from the sidewalk next to the home.

The second and third floor windows that look east toward the Potomac are the perfect combination of impressive, unique, and charming. We've long imagined what a view over Old Town from these windows might look like, and lucky for us, we were finally getting the chance to see it.

Over the years I've gotten more and more comfortable with the work we've been doing in our home's ducts. But my comfort with the work we've done has been due in no small part to the correct selection of my set of snips that I purchased years ago. 

When we were just starting to work on HVAC I knew I'd need a pair of straight cutting metal snips, so I headed out and picked up a pair of compound action snips with an ergonomic handle. There are many different kids out there, from the snips that look like simple oversized scissors, to ones that are actually pneumatic, but a basic middle of the road compound cutting tool should do just fine for most purposes.

The compound movement of these snips allow them to cut up to 18 gauge metal with relative ease. You don't have to exert a tremendous amount of force to get through the material, and it tends to make a nice clean line. This isn't to say you won't get a good forearm workout if you're cutting a lot of metal during a project.

These straight cutting snips are what I tend to use in probably 75% of situations where I need to cut metal for duct work. They have a small set of blades, allow you to begin cutting from a point, and they make a nice and straight line without damaging either side of the cut. Some snips will leave one side crisp while bending and folding the other side out of the way. 

I used these straight cutting snips to make the small cuts in the corners of the duct boot last week. They did just what I needed and left me with a good edge to work with. 

As useful as the straight cut snips are, there are often times where you need to make a curved cut. While the straight snips will work on a soft curve to a certain extent, if the bend of the curve gets at all tight you'll end up wrestling more with the snips and the metal than you will end up making progress. That's when the second set of snips comes into play. 

Although it's hard for me to believe there's anyone out there that wouldn't love it too, in the last week one of our crew members here at Old Town Home has made it known she wasn't happy we made a quick departure for the west coast. Do you have any guesses who that might be? Here's a hint.

Yep, that's right. This innocent face has been in a little bit of a snit since we've been back. 

In our new section called "Ask Old Town Home" you have the opportunity to ask and have your questions answered to the best of our ability. After we announced the "Ask" feature last week, we got a couple of really good questions that we're working on answering. Today's topic comes courtesy of another local Alexandria blogger, Katie of DIYDelRay.com. Katie asks:

Thanks for your question, Katie. I actually have a few ideas about what you could do to remedy this situation. First and foremost, I think you need to address the hazard this spot presents to adults and children alike. As you pointed out, the hole is large enough to cause injury to someone. Therefore, I'm going to recommend options that will eliminate the likelihood that your guests will be asking you for an ace bandage. Here's another look at the gaping hole that was left by the old AC unit.

Does anyone remember our list of New Year Resolutions that we put out there for all to see (and hold us to)? One of the items on this list for 2012 is "redecorate the sun porch to remove the tired floral window treatments, and to better incorporate the wine fridge into the furniture layout." I'm happy to report that I've made a lot of changes, but not happy when I say that I hate the space more now than when I started.

Let's start with how it looked in the beginning. Here's a look at the 8'x10' space when we first bought our house. The tile was ugly and cracked, the walls were a dingy grayish white, and the room had zero personality. 

Approximately a year after we moved in, we had done a bit to spruce it up, but not a significant amount. We were focused on other parts of the house at the time, so we applied a coat of soft yellow paint to match the kitchen, threw some existing odds and ends in the space to furnish the room, and called it "good enough."

Following the discovery of massive leak/termite/structural damage in this room (more on that disastrous experience here), we took out the offending wall, opened up the doorway between the kitchen and sun porch, installed a new beam to support the floor above, and finally had a more open flow between the two rooms. In addition to the removal of the doorway, the next phase of the room featured new custom window treatments and floor paint to hide the ugly brown tile. We were still using furniture odds and ends that were childhood pieces or outdoor furniture from our apartment. The look was greatly improved, but we still had progress to make.  

The next stage of improving this space didn't require a lot of time or money, but seemed to make the biggest impact. With the addition of a sisal rug on clearance from Home Goods, bringing in a larger lamp that we already owned, and adding a few IKEA purchases (the new wicker planter and storage cubes that Mel is lounging on in this photo), we were really happy with the space. 

Yes, the individual and often "insignificant" steps of a project, no matter how mundane or simple, are what ultimately make a project. Many times these steps require a fair amount of detail, patience, and thought to be successful, even if they will ultimately be hidden within walls, beneath the floor, or in the case of the item I've been working on of late, within the ceiling.

A while back I touched on some of the prep work we've been doing in the attic to get the HVAC duct work functioning to the best of its ability. I was back at it this week, but I've been working on some duct work that will ultimately serve a much different purpose. 

The bathroom exhaust fan is a critical component of any functional bathroom. It helps to reduce the humidity and odor that can occur in a bathroom, keeping the place in good shape regardless of how heavily the room gets used. In our master bathroom we're planning to use a super quiet inline exhaust fan. This means the fan will not be seen when you look up in the bathroom, but it will be located in the attic, never heard, and will be fed by a few duct boots positioned strategically, one above the shower door, and one above the toilet.

To mimic the other vent/register covers in the house, we'll be using 8" x 8" Reggio Register decorative vent covers. The exterior of these covers are 8" x 8" but the interiors are 6" x 6". Unfortunately, I was unable to locate any good 6" x 6" duct boots that would allow me to mount the decorative vent covers to them. However, I was able to find an 8" x 8" duct boot that I figured I could make work.

One of the things I hate about duct boots like this that they are not a rigid square, they are just flexible metal. My plan to make this work would not only allow us to mount the vent cover to the duct, bit it would provide a rigid edge to the duct boot, give the drywall an area to screw to, and ultimately provide a solid backing that the vent cover itself could screw to. 

To be perfectly honest, we were both a little nervous going into it. This was the first time either of us have done anything like it outside of work-related public speaking, so we didn't want to be boring, obnoxious, or clueless, nor did we want to publicly humiliate ourselves. To our pleasant surprise, we felt like we were able to give some decent answers to the DIY questions from the group.

The thing is, Wendy and I have opposite presentation styles, so it made prep a little hard. She's a preparer and rehearse-er, where I'm a wing-er and prayer-er. But in the end, much like in life and our renovation, our opposite styles, strengths, and approaches helped to give the people who attended a (hopefully) entertaining and enjoyable evening. Let's be honest, it didn't hurt that there was wine and delicious cupcakes to be had.

And there were also plenty of great products around the store that could distract from any lack of knowledge we may have had.

What dessert could possibly rank up there with the amazing list I've already laid out for you? I'm talking about Cinnamon Cream Cheese Bars. Since words can't adequately capture the sense of gastric euphoria that I typically experience when eating this dessert, we'll do the next best thing and share the supplies and steps necessary to construct the gustational superstar so that you may experience it on your own.

The ingredients necessary are actually quite simple, and total prep time should only take about 10-15 minutes. In addition to being simple and quick, Wendy has taken this classic dessert, and lightened it up a bit for those watching their waistlines. I'd call it a win-win dessert!

Ingredients

• 2 Containers Reduced Fat Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
• 1 1/2 Packages Neufchatel or Light Cream Cheese
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
• 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 3 Tablespoons Butter
• 4-6 Tablespoons Cinnamon Sugar (mix sugar and cinnamon in a small container in a 1:1 ratio)

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Last summer we were filmed for a brief segment on DIY Network's show, "I Want That." Back when we wrote our post about the show we couldn't specifically talk about the main item they were filming at our house, but since the show has now aired (actually, it aired back in December) we can blab all about the product.

The devices we reviewed were actually outdoor wireless speakers from Audiovox Acoustic Research. Here's a video of the show as it originally aired. But before you watch, be warned, we are definitely more "bloggers" than we are "television personalities." Our strengths lay far more on the writer/website side of things.

Ok, I hope you weren't too scared off my odd and nasally dialogue, ginormous ears, and inopportune crotch shot. At least Lulu looked good and got some screen time. She and Mel are the actual stars of our family, that's for sure.

Anyhow, we've touched on the speakers we Installed for the show a few times in the past, but we've never really spoken about them in depth.

For years we wanted speakers outside, but we've always had the challenge of needing to run wires from the speakers to the basement or family room. Given the length of wire needed, and the number of rooms we had to run through, it just wasn't really possible. A few years ago we installed a nice whole house audio system that gave us wonderful music throughout the interior of our house, but we were unfortunately without any tunes when we were spending time outside.

I tried several different approaches to alleviate this lack of music, including turning the volume up inside, using small iPod speakers, and even asking Wendy to sing. Though she doesn't have a bad voice, when I wanted to hear the latest from Mumford & Sons or Flo Rida, she really left something to be desired.

I began looking into wireless speakers and found that the pair we ended up with were given consistently wonderful reviews and rave comments by Amazon users. When I was almost to the point of deciding on the specific speakers we wanted, the DIY Network contacted us about the show and I shared my interest in the speakers. The end result, they liked the useful technology feel and novice user installation ability, and they were able to secure speakers for us for the show. Score!!!

Setup of the speakers were straight forward and easy. I had no problem configuring them to play from our stereo for the show, and then changed the configuration to run off of our whole house audio a few weeks later. All you really need to do is to plug the transmitter into RCA or headphone line out and then turn the music and speakers on. Bam, music anywhere.

When we were on vacation last week in California, we took advantage of the change of scenery to check out some of the local sites. What we came across in both Napa and Sonoma were charming, quaint, and modestly sized homes -- just what we love!

So we quickly turned into weirdos, walking up and down streets, stopping, pointing, mouths agape, snapping photos of the homes that caught our eye. So today's Opening Housing post will be a bit of a departure from our norm. Instead of touring the inside of a single home for sale and critiquing it, this time we'll be showing you some of our favorite homes from the outside, regardless of if they're on the market or not. 

We'll start our tour in Sonoma on a street just minutes from the main town square. There are several homes that were quite large and impressive, but we gravitated towards the homes we could more easily see ourselves living in. Let's start with this gorgeous home for example. I loved the exterior color scheme and the gorgeous landscaping, and the big bay of windows was to die for. (Although, I suppose without curtains it would allow for your neighbors to get to know you really well.)

Next up was this charming home. Its perfectly manicured lawn and towering old tree were stunning, and we loved the pop of color introduced by the front door.

This cute Spanish style home had great landscaping and interesting architectural details. We loved the arched doorway, but if we owned it, we'd select a new paint scheme with additional colors that would better highlight some of the features, including the clay tile roof.

So what did we do for Wendy's birthday? We went to Nap Valley! No, seriously, we did.

Actually, this all started several months ago when I asked Wendy what she wanted for her birthday. Half joking but completely serious, she said "I'd really like to go to Napa Valley." At the time, I had no issues with this and I figured it would make a very cool and very fun trip. Unfortunately, my job had other ideas.

The major project I've been working had finally received an end date. However, this end date set a vacation blackout date that happened to land right smack dab in the middle of the time we were planning to board a plane to the west coast. I had to call Wendy to let her know the sad news. She was rather disappointed but knew there was nothing I could do about it. To make matters worse, due to work commitments in both of our jobs, this past week was the only viable window for the trip, so no trip the first week of May would mean no trip until possibly September or beyond.

But wait, Wendy's frown was about to turn upside down. About two weeks ago there was a last minute change in plans on my project and that opened up the previously blacked out vacation dates. I swung into action and began planning Wendy's last minute Napa Valley adventure, as she requested. By the end of the night we had airline tickets purchased, wonderful sitters for Lulu and Mel, and hotel accommodations at our favorite place, the Silverado Resort, all lined up. With everything in order, last Sunday we boarded a plane for San Francisco and headed west to our ultimate destination, California Wine Country.

If you're a frequent reader of our blog, or a follower on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest, you may already know of our love for wine. (In fact, we've written a three part itinerary if you're interested in planning a trip of your own.) Our true enjoyment actually stems from our love of Napa Valley, and we make every attempt possible to go back for at least a short trip every year. Though we are already very familiar with the area and our favorites, there are dozens of places (both vineyards and restaurants) that we've never had the chance to experience. We decided to commit ourselves to trying out some places we've never visited on this trip, and we're quite glad we did. Today we'll share the vineyards we visited on the trip in hopes that it will either help you on your trip planning, or inspire you to consider a vacation to the Napa Valley.

After a short stop in San Francisco to see some friends who recently moved to the area, we jumped in our rental car and headed out over the Golden Gate bridge to make the short trip to the Napa Valley.

Though we've made the drive fairly regularly over the last six years, we both still fall in love with the area each time we see the first vineyards of the trip at the edge of the Carneros region.

Almost as soon as we arrived and checked into our room we headed out for our first dinner at one of our favorite places, Brix. 

The weather was absolutely perfect so we ended up sitting on their outdoor seating/garden area. The back of the restaurant looks out onto vineyard property and over the mountains. It's one of those places that has such an unbelievably relaxing feeling to it that we started planning out how we could make our own backyard feel like this one. Granted, we don't have the space, mountains, weather, etc, but hey, we can try. We're such home improvement nerds we can't help but to scheme and plan when we see ideas or inspiration, no matter how far fetched the implementation may actually be.

For dinner we enjoyed a perfectly cooked pizza while we planned out the rest of our trip. Traveling somewhere, especially a significant distance over several time zones, tends to leave us completely exhausted (which seems dumb since we're just sitting on a plane). This type of a relaxing dinner in a comfortable and familiar setting goes a long way to making us feel at ease and right at home.

On Monday we woke up bright and early (a three hour time change will do that to you) and headed out to the somewhat touristy but rather famous, Chateau Montelena.

If you're not familiar, Chateau Montelena is the vineyard featured in the movie Bottle Shock. It was one of the vineyards that helped to put the Napa Valley wine industry on the map when they were awarded first place in the 1976 "Judgement of Paris" wine competition. It was a major coup in which several American wines bested their French counterparts in a blind tasting that was judged by several French judges. The 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay is now revered in the lore of California wines, as is the 1973 Stag's Leap Cabernet Sauvignon, the winner in the red's category. Here's one of the remaining bottles of the famous 1973 chardonnay on display in the chateau's tasting area and lobby.

Though we arrived too late to get a tour of the vineyard (it's limited to just six people, first come, first served, each Monday), the person who led our tasting give us a behind the scenes tour of the main building's private and entertaining quarters. The building was built in 1882, so this tour was right up our "historic home nerd" alley.

The area is typically only made available to limited corporate events or to friends of the vineyard's owners, so it was cool to get to see the nicely and period decorated spaces. We also got a glimpse at their very nice kitchen area. Again, we try to take inspiration from just about anywhere we can, so a look at this type of a layout may very well end up in our home, even if you can fit three of our kitchens in this one.

One of the things we like to do whenever we are in Napa Valley is to talk with the locals to learn what we should do. It's good to remember that all of the people working at the vineyards are typically well informed and very friendly locals, and they usually all have a passion for wine and food, so it's great to take advantage of their knowledge of the area to further plot your vacation. On this day we struck up a great conversation while tasting the wines at Montelena and learned of several new places that we should try.

From Chateau Montelena we headed over to Schramsberg Vineyards for a sparkling wine tasting. We first learned of Schramsberg from a friend's recommendation, and then were told they have "the best bubbles in the valley," during our conversation at Montelena. 

This is another very historic and well known vineyard in northern part of the Napa Valley towards Calistoga. Founded in 1862, and constructed over several years, the original owner hired the workers who built the transcontinental railroad to dig, with shovel and axes, the extensive network of over two miles of tunnels within the mountain side. The tour covered a large number of the tunnels and was a real treat to see. Though you can't really see it in the photo, the stone walls, candle light, and cobwebs covering the walls felt like you had walked into an Indiana Jones movie. It was really cool.

Yes, those guys are stacking bottles for long term storage and aging.

During the tour we came across Ramon "The Riddler" Vierra. No no, not like in Batman, but this guy is a rock star in the champagne and sparkling wine industry. As part of the traditional methods of champagne production, a person must turn and tilt the bottles in a riddling rack to get the yeast that was added to the bottle to create the bubbles you see in sparkling wine to settle into the neck of the bottle. It's a process that takes time, expertise, and a tremendous amount of organization and patience. 

I say Ramon is a rock star because he's been riddling for 37 years and was responsible for the turning of all bottles of Schramsberg's annual production until he went into partial retirement. He now only works a few days per week, but he's just as fast as ever. Ramon has been officially clocked as the fastest riddler in the world, turing as many as 50,000-60,000 bottles in a single day of work. Here he is in action making precise turns and tilts on each and every bottle in the rack.

We're very happy to announce the winner of our Reader Reward for a $100 Mother's Day gift card to The Home Depot. Congratulations to Antonella @ LoveYourHome, a Canadian reader. We hope she'll stop back and share the useful project(s) this great Mother's Day gift card assisted with!

Thanks to everyone for entering, and keep your eyes open for a similar Father's Day celebration in the coming weeks.

We're giving one of our lucky readers a $100 gift card to The Home Depot, but more on that in a minute.

Is it just me, or is anyone else in total disbelief that it's May already?! The days and weeks seem like they're screaming by, but you have to be sure to take a moment to remember that the month of May brings a very special holiday -- Mother's Day. This year my parents are going to be in town over Mother's Day weekend, and I feel very fortunate to be able to spend Mother's Day with my mom this year. In honor of the day, I have a few special surprises up my sleeve for her visit, but I don't have a lot of time to plan, so I'd better get my act in gear.

Over the last several weeks we've been working on our outdoor area and getting it in shape for guests. This is as much for our own benefit as it is for the people we have visiting because we really love entertaining friends and family in the backyard. The work we've been doing is actually one small part of what we're trying to accomplish before the Mother's Day weekend.  

What we've been doing involves everything from planting the herb and vegetable garden, to simple cleanup around the yard. A couple weekend ago Alex and our friend Colin actually handled the dreaded task of cleaning out the stinky pond.

That's the sound of the doorbell as you stand awkwardly on someone's doorstep waiting for them to invite you into their home and join the party. If you're a bit introverted like me, the awkwardness of entering a room full of people you probably don't know is only intensified if you're standing there empty handed.

Not only do I appreciate the ice breaker of offering up a gift upon arrival, I feel the gesture of bringing a gift to thank the host or hostess for their efforts is a must. Previously I've covered ways to spruce up the typical bottle of wine offering to make hostess gifts more special, but today I want to talk specifically about housewarming gifts.

So what does "proper etiquette" dictate on this subject? Well, according to Wikipedia, gifts are customary but not necessary, and usually consist of something that can be used in the new house or enjoyed during the party. Interestingly enough, bluebirds were once given as they were believed to bless the new house with happiness and good luck, but in modern day it is more customary to provide bluebird-themed paraphernalia such as china. (I've never heard that one before!)

Remember, customary does not always equate to "tasteful."

Pineapples are also common housewarming gifts as the pineapple has served as a symbol of hospitality and warm welcome through the history of the Americas. Ironically enough, the pineapple is also the symbol of Alexandria, so I particularly love this gesture.

Would a bottle of wine work? Sure, assuming your hosts enjoy wine or would serve it at the party or to friends and family, we've given this gift often, especially in a pinch. But for close friends I think it's nice to go a little further to give them something that's meaningful or has more thought behind it.

If you don't already own and use them frequently, you've probably seen them in your hardware store, or perhaps tucked behind the ear of a general contractor or tradesman. However, it wasn't until I learned about this miraculous little pencil that I realized its true usefulness and function.

The traditional carpenter's pencil has been in use since the late 17th century in Germany and is a thick leaded wood pencil that you can buy in bulk boxes. Unlike a normal round or hexagonal lead pencil, the carpenter's pencil has been specifically designed to be a multi purpose aide when doing woodworking, construction, or just about any DIY project in need of a clearly visible and precise mark.

The first thing you...

If you're wondering who this could be and you guessed that person is Lulu or Mel, I'd have to tell you to keep trying. If you thought to yourself "it's gotta be Alex!" Unfortunately, you'd be wrong. Hmm, that only leaves one member of the crew as the primary culprit.

You see, Wendy can be a little bit, how do I put this, agressive when it comes to the actual execution of a project. This has to do with a slight lack of patience and an ever growing desire to get things completed. I can't really blame her all that much, I mean, she's been working on this house for over nine years now. At this point it's just become a fact of DIY home renovation. If I'm cutting in while painting a room, I'd better speed up because Wendy is already on my heels rolling the wall. If we're staining something and I'm not done sanding, I'd better wrap it up otherwise we're going to have a lot of dust in the stain. Do you get my drift?

Last week Wendy's slight impatience reared its head when we decided to jump forward a bit with the front tree box before getting the fence installed. I must say, Wendy's opinion that "we won't ever get anything done if I don't force us to move forward," though a bit abrasive, may not be that far from the truth. 

Last week we talked at length about those pesky tree roots and the bone rattling and knuckle crunching effort that was necessary to remove them. We'll, we were so excited to finally be free enough of roots that we headed out to Home Depot the very next day to pick up some plants that we could put in the ground. We also bought several more bags of soil and an eight foot length of metal garden edging, then rushed home in an attempt to beat the rain.

Just as we got home, the rain started up, so we decided to just get the plants in the ground so they could get a good soaking. To establish the look she wanted, Wendy placed the plants in their various future homes so that we could take a step back and assess.

It's a good thing I bought Wendy a good pair of Wellies for Christmas, they really came in handy when we were planting in the downpour. I don't know why we felt so gung-ho on getting the stuff in the ground that day, but we were undeterred by a little rain.

In the end it was not too shabby. We were able to take a final step back, give a few approving grunts and head nods, were able to appreciate just how far the bed had come, then we headed inside to dry off.

Last year we made our first attempt at building a raised bed organic vegetable garden in our back yard. After reading All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, we felt it was a simplified approach and might be easy enough for black thumbs like us to tackle. So under Lulu's watchful eye, we got to work by first pulling up a small section of bricks to make room for the 10x2 garden, followed by creating the new bed, preparing the soil, selecting the veggies to plant, and popping them in the ground. If you're interested in the whole project from the start, you can read all about last year's three part square foot garden series.

1. First Steps - Selecting the Location
2. Building the Garden Bed
3. Preparing the Soil and Planting

All this hard work left us with a great foundation for our new vegetable plants. Last year we planted cabbage, Ichiban eggplant, spinach, sugar snap peas, kale, chives, lavender, beets, and spring onions. 

We carefully cared for our new green friends all summer long, and truthfully were met with mixed results. The beets died a slow death, the sugar snap peas wilted before their big debut, and the spinach never showed up to the party. Oh, and what we thought was broccoli was actually cabbage, but we didn't know this and just kept waiting for the broccoli to show up. So by the time the black thumb crew realized it, we had even let the cabbage go to waste. Feel free to shake your head in disgust along with us at that one.

On the positive side, the chives and lavender flourished. And we even harvested four eggplants, a couple spring onions, and a good supply of chives and kale throughout the season. In our house, we consider that a modest success for year one. 

And so that brings us to year two. Undeterred by a few flops in 2011 and armed with a year of experience under our tool belts, we set off to get ready for another year of organic square foot gardening. The bed had weathered a bit during the cold months. The white wash isn't as crisp and a few faint cracks in the wood are starting to show. 

Living in the historic district, there's no shortage of ongoing construction projects at any given time. On our many runs or walks with Lulu, we often ooooohhhh and aaaahhhh at the new scaffolding that we see set up at various houses.

We talk about the tuck pointing taking place, or new copper roof and gutters being installed.

And we reminisce about the long and torturous days when we did our own siding work.

But several weeks ago we had one of our first glimpses at some of the extra efforts that...

Because we live in an urban setting, our opportunities to improve curb appeal through flowers, plants and grass are extremely limited. In fact, our only chance to make an impact are via our two cast iron urns and the area surrounding our newly planted city tree. 

Last weekend I planted flowers in the urns, and am happy to say the plants are thriving! (Phew, no deaths yet.)

So this past weekend, on a very beautiful Saturday, we turned our attention to the barren, weed-peppered "flower bed" out front. I'll use that term loosely as there isn't a flower in sight. 

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