Earlier this week we took a moment to highlight a few of our favorite blog posts that fall squarely into the renovation, projects, travel, and events categories of our website, all in recognition of our two year anniversary of blogging. While these categories are more or less the most well rounded and intentional categories we like to cover, there are many more that do not fit nearly as nicely into the "Old Town Home" box.
We're married, and married people argue. Over the past two years we've shared a few of our disagreements, "enthusiastic discussions," and pet peeves we have with our significant other. We call B.S. with the blogs that pretend that life, especially one involving a significant amount of renovation, is all sunshine and rainbows 100% of the time. Renovating is H-A-R-D, especially when fitting it in between life's other demands, including those pesky things called day jobs. After all, communication is the key to a strong and lasting relationship and healthy marriage, and what better way to communicate than by airing your dirty laundry for all the world to see? Here's the list of some of our most honest posts, ranging from spousal disagreements to some of life's downs, including the devastating loss of our dog Oliver.
There are few things better than a good meal or delectable dessert, and we like to try our hand at many different types of recipes. The ones that turn out to be crowd pleasers are the ones we like to share with you. The following recipes are a few of our favorites and most popular.
When people ask us "Do you have any children?" My response is typically "Yes, two four legged kids." It may make me sound a little like a crazy pet lady, but I'm okay with that. Lulu and Mel (as well as our late but great Oliver) are very much full fledged members of our family, and we love them both as much as any fully upright and opposable thumb possessing members of our family. As a result, we tend to frequently mention them -- if not dedicate full posts to them -- here on the blog.
What would a good blog be without some totally random stuff? We live in a world where a lot of things that don't neatly fit into a category, and sometimes those are the most fun things to share. We hope we've done an acceptable job of highlighting some of the various random sights and experiences we've encountered along the way, and that you enjoy seeing a glimpse of the world through our eyes.
There you have it, the final installment in the collection of our and our readers' favorite posts from the last two years of blogging. Hopefully we've opened your eyes to a handful of posts that you didn't know existed but can now enjoy. Or if you've been reading for quite a while, we hope we've included some of your top picks. If you think we left a good one off of the list, let us know which ones are your favorites.
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In my ongoing mission to organize my life and effectively utilize every spare square inch of storage space in our home, I'm always on the lookout for a nook or cranny that can be transformed from space-user to space-saver without sacrificing the aesthetic. At first this task was an easy one, as very little efficient storage existed in our home, but as we've slowly overhauled each room of the house, we're beginning to reach a place where a little more storage, especially for clothing or accessories, is a bit harder to come by.
Most notably, our efforts to add a wall to wall closet on a previously unused and empty wall in our bedroom doubled or tripled the amount of storage we had for our clothes. I now have space for long hanging, short hanging, off season tubs in the storage above, and fully adjustable shelves for my shoes, t-shirts, and purses.
While this closet space is a dream come true in our bedroom, the space it starting to feel a bit pinched, even after I purge items for donations with the changing seasons. You see, I have an admission, I've become addicted to purses! For some women it's shoes or jewelry, but for me, I don't know what it is or how it happened, but over the last few years I somehow developed an affinity for bags. I've always liked handbags in some capacity, but never allowed myself to purchase them. I think it started when I found a few good deals at Marshall's or TJ Maxx. Those first fateful purchases broke the seal and allowed the true me to emerge. Now I can't seem to help myself, when I find a good closeout deal and can work up a decent justification for why I need a green faux ostrich purse...I can't help but snap it up!
This moderate addiction (I guess we'll call it that) brings me to my next problem. I don't have anywhere to adequately store the purses I own. I need access to these guys on any given day depending on my outfit, and I want them to be in a place where I'm able to easily see what I have. Therefore crammed into the top of my adjustable shelves just isn't a practical location.
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Last week we celebrated our official two year anniversary of blogging. Boy, how the time flies! We commemorated the day with a post outlining a few blogging tips that we've picked up over the past 24 months. Tip number ten on our list of blogging do's and don'ts was a basic concept that many bloggers don't consider when they get to a point where they have a significant number of posts. Put simply, not everyone has read every single blog post you've ever written.
Given that we've picked up a few new periodic and daily readers in the past year that I'm confident haven't gone back through each and every post we've ever written, we feel like it might be fun to compile a few of our favorite and most popular posts from the last two years. Hopefully this collection will give you a glimpse at some of the things you may have missed since you started reading. Extra credit to everyone that looks through our list and think to themselves, "I remember when they wrote about that. Next!"
Old Town Home wouldn't be the blog that it is without all of the projects that take up our lives. Whether we're doing the work ourselves, or getting a little help from some friends (or even pros), the projects, time, and effort we put into our home is our pride and joy. The following blog posts are our most popular and/or our personal favorites, and we hope you enjoy them too.
While you may not be able to say that all renovations are projects, not all projects are renovations. Over the years we've had a handful of smaller standalone projects that were fun to undertake, and whose results we're thrilled with. These smaller items can usually be knocked out in a few days with minimal effort.
When we're not working on the house, we'd really like to be out galavanting around the world on various explorations of lands near and far. It goes without saying, the world is a big place, and there sure is a lot to see and do. We're trying to do our best to see more than less, and we've really enjoyed sharing those adventures with you. It's our hope that sharing our experiences will help you to be inspired to go somewhere you've never been, or can help bring back some memories of places that you've previously enjoyed.
We love a good event! Honestly, anything that's a departure from our normal day-to-day routine or gives us an excuse to celebrate makes us giddy with excitement. Whether we're talking about local parades, home tours, or attending something outside of the friendly confines of Old Town, Alexandria, a little fun via celebration sure is an enjoyable endeavor.
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Recently I wrote several posts detailing the process we've taken to repoint a portion of our 19th century masonry. From proper mortar selection to the whole learning process associated with making good looking mortar joints, it was a laborious task with a bit of a learning curve, but one made possible by ensuring I had the right tools for the job.
The point of this project was two fold. Primarily, I wanted to make sure the joints on this interior chimney section were in good shape before we cover them permanently, since we plan to eventually upgrade the fireplace it supports to make it functional. Secondarily, I wanted to take an opportunity to learn the skills I'd need for repointing, so I'd be able to put them to use when we perform the same process while exposing the brick in our guest bedroom.
After our last post on this subject, detailing the bulk of the work as well as my much awaited success, I had finished up repointing with the first bag of mortar. It was looking good from a technique and finished result standpoint, but the color was too gray, and wasn't a match to our original mortar. Since this will ultimately be behind a wall it caused me no concern, but I wanted to figure out the right color to use when we expose and repoint the brick in the guest bedroom (sometime in the 2020-2045 year range given our tortoise-paced whole house renovation).
I ordered a final bag of mortar in DeGruchy's "100" style and it turned out to be a nearly perfect match! After a few more hours working on the chimney, the repointing was complete and really looked great. Here's a comparison in the color from the first bag to the second bag.
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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.
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