Sleeping with the Laundry

World of Bricks open at Newport on the Levee

2017-12-13T17:40:00.001-08:00

Mother of the Year & Making Mom Memories

2017-05-12T03:26:00.001-07:00

Mother’s Day is an interesting holiday. It’s so built up that it can be hard to live up to. But it’s good that we take the time once a year to be thankful for our mothers and pause to reflect on our own mom-job.

When my kids were very young, I used to rush through the days to get to the evening when they were asleep and I could get a moment to myself. Honestly, I remember figuring that out one day and making a conscious effort not to “wish the time away.”

It took effort.

The Mom-Mode Flip

Today, my daughter is in 8^th grade and my son is a junior. Unbelievable. This spring, I know a lot of parents of graduating seniors. “It went so fast,” they all say, without fail. That’s scary.

To me, I’m now in Mega Mom Make Memories Mode. It’s like a new panic. I feel I have only 4 years left to soak it all up, before they’re both on their way…and only calling home once a week. If I’m lucky. I’m trying to write things down. Be the extra nice mom. Pack them lunch even (occasionally). Plan events. And especially take lots of pictures. Yes, I am “that” mom who asks total strangers to take our picture.

Thank you total stranger from Loveland for taking our photo.

Making Family Time

There are lots of ways to spend your time. In these Make-Memory years, I choose not to spend too many extra hours at work, nor volunteering beyond what I can do with my kids to teach them giving. There will be plenty of time for that later. I make it to their games, cook family dinners and drag them off the couch for family field trips to museums, plays, tourist attractions, historic sites and parks.

This Spring Break, we did a staycation to save money and work on our house. As it’s on the home tour this spring and we need to do some painting, yard work and some serious-serious cleaning. But we did also make time for an overnight trip to a National Park only a few hours away. There were miles of trails and we got my son’s nose out of his phone (somewhat) to do some hikes. And, of course, take pictures.

Beyond Kodak moments, best of all, I bought a pack of cards from the park gift shop. After dinner, we pulled together the chairs in our hotel room to play BS and Spoons. Our teens laughed and laughed and forgot all about being teens for a while.

One overnight stay at a park: $133 for the hotel

One pack of cards: Priceless

Add caption

Riding the Wave

On the last day of our Spring Break, to commemorate this last day, I dragged them off the couch again to rent bikes and pedal around downtown. My son does NOT like to ride, but I do. So I try to compromise. I just feel it isn’t Spring if we don’t ride bikes. My original idea was to ride about three miles to a local BBQ restaurant. My son complained.

“Ok” I said, “How about we compromise. We ride for a half hour then turn around and come back.”

“How is that a compromise?” he asked. “We are still biking.”

I laughed. He had a point. “Well, we are biking less?”

I paid him off by promising Eli's Barbeque and he went. He complained the whole way but we got out as a family. And yes, I got a picture.

Does my son look happy here? Seriously, I did see my teen smile several times during the ride. -Eli's BBQ

Bringing It Home

That same evening, on the last day of Staycation, my daughter and I went for a walk. We decided to borrow our neighbor Jenny’s Corgi dogs to walk them.

These two are the most spoiled dogs ever. They have no manners. But it is remarkable how much they love their “mom” Jenny. As we walked away from the house, we practically had to drag them. But when we turned toward home and their “mom,” they ran as fast as their fat little Corgi legs would carry them.

It was hilarious. But it also gives me hope. So I’m not Mother of the Year. But someday, if I’m good enough and give them enough memories, hopefully they too will run back to me.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all my mom friends, my mom in heaven and moms to be.

Unbroken: Life Lessons from the Original Bad Girl Scarlett O’Hara

2017-04-25T10:21:00.001-07:00

By many measures, Scarlett O’Hara from the book, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell was a Bad Girl.

She married her sister’s only boyfriend, slapped her staff, shunned book learning and did not appreciate diversity—not in the least. Yet, despite all these faults, she is a heroine for many because of her tenacity to survive against all odds and her bold modern spirit.

This past holiday season, we took Gone with the Wind with us on our long car trip to see family. And with our kids, now aged 16 and 12, we’ve found that in-car fighting is reduced when we read out loud.

In the book, as in the movie, the main character Scarlett O’Hara survives the Civil War and Restoration all while wishing for a man that does not love her (Ashley) and missing out on the one that does (Rhett).

Here are a few lessons on living from the flawed but unbreakable Katie Scarlett O’Hara:

Don’t worry what others think. Early in the book, Scarlett’s admirers were many including every beau in the county. However, many of her female peers disliked her for that very same reason. Scarlett made herself miserable at the start of the Civil War, when she married impetuously just to stop tongues from wagging about her heartbreak over Ashley. This led to a very sad period for Scarlett while she recovered from the birth of her son and had to wear mourning clothes for a man she didn’t love. Later when she bucked the convention of mourning for three years and danced with Rhett, her life started to come out of depression.

Own your own destiny. As a character of her time, Scarlett grew up with strict constraints of a social structure that taught her it was a woman’s goal to catch a man. As an ambitious woman, Scarlett was indeed very good at this goal. It took the events of the Civil War when her family’s home was ransacked by Northern forces for Scarlett to learn to stand on her own two feet. When she had no way to feed her family, she vowed (with God as her witness) to “never be hungry again.” At that point, she started taking responsibility for running her family plantation/farm and feeding her family.

Fake it till you make it. After the war and after burying her father, Scarlett was desperately trying to pay the taxes and keep the plantation. Still constrained by her time when men owned the property, she was broke and needed a cash infusion... from a marriage or from a man. She decided to ask Rhett for money. To convince him she wasn’t desperate—which she was—she tore down the curtains of Tara and sewed a dress with Mammy. Though she couldn't convince Rhett to give her the money, she managed to look confident enough to hook her sister’s beau Frank Kennedy into marriage and paying off the debts. It seems that waiting for her sister to marry Frank was taking too long and didn’t guarantee the debts of Tara would be a priority.

Do what you are good at. Scarlett was raised in a time when women were taught to act like "air brains" and defer to men. She always thought this nonsense and told Mammy early in the story, “I’m tired of pretending I have no sense and that men are smarter.” Later when in Atlanta, she looked inside herself and identified her strength of having a “good head for numbers.” She then had her greatest success when she built up Frank’s sawmill business herself by relying on her own strength.

Pick yourself up. Life is a journey and sometimes you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start again. From starving in the potato field to the end when she is cast aside by Rhett, Scarlett is a pro at picking herself up. This unbreakable spirit may be what makes her a heroine to so many. In life, that’s a good skill to have—no matter the era.

Margee Moore is a marketing professional, mother of two and blogger at sleepingwiththelaundry.com.

Easy St. Patrick's Day Decor

2017-03-13T05:57:00.000-07:00

Here's an easy idea for St. Patrick's Day Decor.

You'll need:

Small green indoor/outdoor mini lights. I used these: Brite Star 100 Count Mini String to String Lights, Green Wire, Green
6-8 Yards of green crinoline material sometimes called netting material. Here's a place on Etsy where I found green crinoline. But honestly, it is at every Hobby Lobby and Joanne's fabric. It should only cost a few dollars a yard
Twine

You may need a helper for this. Lay out the material about 3-4 yards depending on your light string size along the ground. Then take your light string and unravel it out to full length. Have another person stand at the far end of the material holding the light string above the material.

Lay the lights on top of the material holding on to both the lights and the material so the lights don't re-ravel themselves.

Then, wrap the crinoline around the lights.

Tie the twine at the neck of both ends of the plug, so that the plug is outside of the material and every few yards along the way.

You should have like a green snake of crinoline tied so it is easy to work with. Now you can wrap these crinoline/lights roping around banisters and drape over mantelpieces.

Best of all, after St. Pats, you can set painted eggs or the plastic ones on top of the green to look like eggs nested in the grass turning your St. Pat's Decor into Easter decorations.

From Fugly Duckling to 1920s Wrought Iron Patio Furniture Swan on a Shoestring Budget

2017-01-29T06:32:00.001-08:00

Two skills that I find to be essential as an old house fan are frugality and creativity. I consider it a badge of honor to be steward of my little piece of history, to shepherd it into the next generation. But it isn't an inexpensive calling.

I am feeling particularly clever right now. I took a problem, which is my EBTH.com addiction and turned it into a win for restoration and preservation.

I was recently surfing the estate sale site, when I found a sad, forlorn and downright fugly set of 1920s wrought iron patio furniture.

Long ago, my dad and mom had purchased a wrought iron lounge chair set at an auction when we lived in Virginia. My mother had re-covered it and it sat on the porch of our 1910 Victorian (now the Kings Victorian Inn). I read away many great afternoons of childhood on that porch. And that same set is still sitting on my dad's back porch in Charleston today. The stuff lasts forever.

Needless to say, I was getting nostalgic. They honestly don't make wrought iron pieces anymore. So I pulled the trigger and bid on this fugly white and yellow set. There were pictures of rust even. What was I thinking. I hoped that I would get outbid.

That was not to be the case. Of course I won the set for $54 and now it was the week of Christmas, I had to rent a truck from Lowes to get it home.Perfect. It filled the garage in the coldest season of the year. But looking closely at it. Truly it is a work of craftsmanship with lovely scrolls and delicate touches.

After the holidays, I sprang to work. There's a fantastic material store in Waynesville, Ohio called the Fabric Shack Home Decor. My friends Janice and Alex are always sport for a trip to the store. I found a whimsical outdoor fabric for under $10 per yard.

While I could have sewn slip covers, I instead prototyped simply wrapping the fabric and stapling it underneath. It looked just as good as the slip covers would have and so my daughter and I set to work stapling the new covers.

Four cans of Rustoleum later, the set is now a beautiful swan that looks period appropriate for an Old House.

Quick Holiday Budget Decor Tip: Or How I Transformed My Front Porch for the Price of a Can of Paint

2016-12-06T03:53:00.000-08:00

Here's an easy way to "spruce" up your holiday decor in three easy steps and for only the price of a can of Rustoleum.

Step 1: Gather a lot of evergreens from your yard. Use a box or a tarp so you can do all your pots at once. Cut the shrubs back in places where they can't be seen or go to town and get out your big Black+Decker and do the shaping that you probably never got to in spring like you were supposed to.

Step 2: Gather twigs from your yard or from a walk around town. Look for long branches that will be able to stick up above the evergreens. Spray them red with a can of Rustoleum. This makes them look like Red Dogwood.

Step 3: Take your tallest evergreen pieces and stick the sharp end into the middle of the pot. Angle additional evergreen pieces out from the middle by also stuffing their sharp ends into the dirt. Keep adding evergreens until the pot is full. Stick 3 pieces of red-sprayed twigs into the center of the pot as if they fan from the middle.

Voila! Your pots are ready to get you through the season. And they never need watering which is my big downfall. Just toss them into the mulch pile in the spring when you plant your pansies.

Also for fun, if you have red sports balls in your garage, try nesting those in the pots as they can look like Christmas balls from far away. The jury is still out on this. Let me know what you think.

What I Learned about the Secret Sauce of Event Marketing from the Cincinnati Music Hall Surplus Tag Sale

2016-11-24T05:51:00.001-08:00

Last week, I joined about 300 other antique and Cincinnati Music Hall fans to check out the beautiful artifacts that were now surplus from the Music Hall Restoration. One of our great local antique shops, the Wooden Nickel, was given the role of putting these treasures into the hands of new owners who will love them.

I’d talked to the several of the Wooden Nickel people in advance, both the owners Mike and Patty, to know what a tag sale means. Prices are on the items. You go in knowing your desired item’s number so you can walk in, find it and find a cashier. We had previewed the items online and knew we wanted one of the moderately priced and mid-sized chandeliers.

Friday afternoon, I left work early to take my place in the line that was forming outside of the Wooden Nickel warehouse where the sale would be. About 9 other people were already there, making me #10. The sun was shining. It was 70 degrees, a gorgeous November day. I had two folding chairs in my trunk for the occasion so I shared one with the man in line in front of me (#9). He was a retired conductor and had taken violin lessons at Music Hall. He wanted one of the bamboo chairs that he had sat upon for those lessons. I shared my own memories of watching my daughter and son fall under the spell of magic at their first Nutcracker ballet, years ago.

The lady in front of him (#8) was there for one of the BIG chandeliers, the eight foot diameter ones. She was getting it for her mom’s house in, you guessed it, Indian Hill. The two of them talked about music and the arts.

The ladies who joined the line behind me (#11, 12) were there just to see the event. Every person in line was making a $25 donation in the form of a ticket purchase to the Music Hall Restoration. Pretty cool way to give, eh?

Cincinnati Music Hall Chandelier the big ones

Being a work day, I did have some calls to make. The ladies behind me we kind enough to hold my place in line and I took them from my car. Talk about multi-tasking. Around 4:00 the Wooden Nickel team came out and gave everyone numbers to hold their place in line. We were then free to leave and come back at 5:30 before entering at 6:00. But many people stayed in the outdoor waiting area lined with chairs. It was a beautiful day and excitement was in the air.

My husband met me in the warehouse lot by then and we stepped over to Washington Park to have a drink at one of our favorite bars, Sundry and Vine.

At 5:30, back at the Wooden Nickel Warehouse, there were now about 300 people meandering in the parking lot and talking about their coveted items.

Most interesting of all, we had a conversation with Mike, the owner. We’ve always felt an affinity for Mr. Hoffman, the man who restored our 1870s Italianate home, though we never knew him. We were telling Mike about the chandelier we wanted and that we lived in Wyoming, Ohio. He said they had once done an auction at a brick house with a broad lawn. I said “That’s the place.” He knew Mr. Hoffman well. He shared that Mr. Hoffman had paid his way through law school by buying up stained glass windows in houses that were about to be torn down. He would sell them off but keep one from each sale for himself. After Mr. Hoffman passed away, they had helped Ms. Hoffman find new homes for the collection. It was fascinating to get a window into Mr. Hoffman’s life.

Back in the line, we waited for the doors to open at 6:00. People told stories about events they had seen at Music Hall and also a TV show they’d watched on Music Hall ghosts. Everyone was sharing stories. The line felt like a party.

At 6:00 the doors opened, people helped each other find their items. I cheered when one of the first dudes in line (#3) got the Rocco mirror he wanted. The items were easy to find and most everyone got what they came for.

And here’s the secret sauce of Event Marketing, we all shared an experience, a fleeting moment of time. By creating the event, publicizing it and organizing it, the Music Hall Restoration team and the Wooden Nickel fed all of our needs to celebrate the past. We briefly connected with others who felt the same, who wanted to share in a part of our city’s history. In a way the surplus sale was magic. I’ll always have a gaudy, ornate chandeliers to honor our city past and my own memories of seeing the Nutcracker with my wide eyed kids at Music Hall.

Some event marketing basics that were excellently executed at this event:

1. Create the landing page and promote the event well in advance.

2. Invest time in courting the media. On a side note, I once heard the executive team at Tom+Chee speak and they shared that they spent an entire year courting Shark Tank, which still yields huge returns every time it re-runs. So spend time on the media.

3. Make directions clear to reduce questions. Making things easy allows people to focus on anticipating the event itself.

4. At the event, create a way to connect with each other such as a line or an area for people to gather in advance of the opening.

5. Have staff on hand to socialize and answer questions.

6. Make it memorable. The team at the Wooden Nickel hung chandeliers and sconces at the entry way under a big tent. This set the scene.

Need a Rococo Gilt Mirror? Well Now You Can Take One Home from Music Hall

2016-11-02T17:29:00.001-07:00

Last week, Cincinnati.com shared the news that the long anticipated sale of several artifacts from Music Hall will star on November 11, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. We are huge fans of the Wooden Nickel shop and regularly love to browse their architectural antiques. Here's the inside scoop on how to get your own piece of HISTORY!

For starters, the sale will be similar to a tag sale. The doors will open at the appointed time. And it works on a first come, first serve basis. The items will be tagged with a price. If see an item you want (and can handle the prices, OUCH) you purchase the item.

The guys at the Wooden Nickel recommended getting in line at 5:00 for the ticketed early-bird pre-sale. And NO, you can't get a free ticket by being a good customer...or a highly-persuasive person...the ticket sales go to benefit the restoration as the proceeds from the sale do too.

Here's what you can do though...for the first time ever, you can walk up to the ticket window at the Aronoff Center and purchase tickets to go into the Wooden Nickel warehouse.

The guys at the Wooden Nickel got a kick out of that.

Here are all the goodies on sale from Music Hall on the Wooden Nickel site for preview only.

Need a large Rococo Gilt Mirror? This is your chance to take one home.

From Cincinnati.Com: Music Hall Contents to Go On Sale

Now you can take home a piece of Music Hall. Theater seats, chandeliers, mirrors, a wooden bar with brass railings and even a pair of large wooden double doors that once led into Springer Auditorium – all part of Music Hall's former decor – are being offered to the public for purchase.

The sale, Nov. 11-20, will be coordinated by Wooden Nickel Antiques, a store specializing in architectural recycling in Over-the-Rhine. An inventory of items and other sale details will be available at woodennickelantiques.net/music-hall beginning Friday, Oct. 28.

A ticketed “early-bird” pre-sale event is scheduled for 6-9 p.m. on Nov. 11 at the Wooden Nickel Antiques’ warehouse,1515 Central Parkway. Tickets, $25, go on sale at 10 a.m. Oct. 28 at www.CincinnatiArts.org, by calling 513-621-2787 and at the Aronoff Center Ticket Office. Tickets will also be available at the door. A free public sale is scheduled for Nov. 12 through Nov. 20. The times are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Nov. 12; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Nov. 13; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Nov. 14 through Nov. 18; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Nov. 19; and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Nov. 20.

Pump-kin Up the Volume: Quick Halloween Home Decor Tip

2016-10-09T04:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick and easy Halloween home decor tip. Most grocery stores like Kroger and Trader Joe's have affordable fall mums. I know I regularly throw one into the cart.

Next time you are at the store, also pick up one of the $.99 plastic pumpkins. My daughter hates these things. (I believe it's because they don't hold enough candy.)

Anyway, I love them. They are so nostalgic to me. I have old photos where my brother Jim and I are running through our lawn in Massachusetts with pumpkins in hand. I believe we played with these pumpkins for months around Halloween time.

Here's the easy way to combine these two fall favorites.

Slip your mum out of its floral wrapper.
Remove the pot and throw it away.
Place the mum back into its floral wrapper. This is very important so you don't water your counter when you water.
Slide the mum in its floral wrapper into the pumpkin.
Done!

The pumpkin looks a little like its wearing a punk rocker (or Pumpkin Rocker) costume for the season. Remember to water your new dude.

From Williamsburg to Gettysburg and Why You Can Never Go Home Again

2016-10-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

There’s an old saying that “you can't go home again.” It comes from a Thomas Wolfe novel. And though I’m a fan of Southern literature, I found the book to be perfectly unreadable. So the phrase’s meaning has never been clear. For our recent vacation, we combined a trip to Williamsburg and Gettysburg with a visit to my old home in rural Virginia. I think I now understand the meaning of that phrase. Here’s my story of our old fashioned road-trip.

Beautiful murals of the Homestead Hotel in the Homestead Hotel in Hot Springs, Virginia. A must-see sight.

Our first stop, once we entered Virginia, was my hometown of Hot Springs. Though my family has long since moved away, the 1899 Victorian where I grew up has become the King Family Victorian Inn. Our hosts and everything was elegant, right down to the breakfast served with crystal and china. But, more about going home later. Down the road, we toured our town’s resort, the Homestead. Part of the National Trust’s Historic Hotels group, it is a beautiful sprawling place, steeped in history. As part of our visit, we also swam in the 250-year-old Jefferson Springs and visited my old BFF Nancy.

The water at the Jefferson Springs really is this crystal clear and beautiful.

Next, we drove to see Yorktown, site of the last major battle of the American Revolution. It was hot as Hades that day. We drove the historic driving route in our air conditioned car and got out to walk quickly around the sites before running back to our car. The funniest thing of all was an entry in the Visitor’s Center registry where guests share comments. One person had written, “It is so hot I could cry.” That was it. Nothing about history or the park. We cracked up.

Our trip went next to Williamsburg where we stayed in a Colonial Lodge right beside the historic area. The best part of all was walking the deserted streets at night. Looking through a Tavern window (tip: make dinner reservations in advance), we saw women wearing colonial caps and a man played the fiddle. It felt like a hundred years ago. It was eerie and thrilling.

By day, Williamsburg is a must-see site. It was preserved in time because of a passionate history buff with a big idea and a Rockefeller with loads of money. There are blocks and blocks preserved in the colonial period and reenactors. We were pleased to get our walking tour guide all to ourselves. We strolled at our leisure and learned all the great stories. Did you know Martha Washington was probably a babe? And a rich babe at that. It turns out that many scenes from the AMC series Turn on Washington’s spies are filmed there. And like proper parents, we endeavored to show greater excitement for the real historic sites than the filming sites. I think we pulled that off pretty well.

Gettysburg was our last stop and well worth a full day. We took a bus tour, but walking the hallowed grounds would have been even better. Many Americans died there and fought for their beliefs during the Civil War. The Gettysburg Address was of course delivered there too. The kids will hopefully remember that or at least the apples they fed to the re-enactor’s horses. We can only hope.

With this trip back through the past, I find myself thinking more about home. The house where I grew up was restored by my dad and mom. As kids, we spent our weekends helping sand floors, sheet-rock walls, paint, wallpaper and garden.

As I walked around the old place, I found myself looking for traces of my family. I snapped a picture of an old bathroom heater switch my dad installed to show it to him.

All touches of my late mother’s wallpaper are gone. But she would be pleased at that. Ever a woman of class and style, she would eschew wallpaper now too. She would certainly be proud of the elegance too. I told our host Mrs. King that.

As I toured my mom’s old room though, I found myself whispering her name, “Mom.” Really. I did. I'm not kidding. I guess I was missing her. But she’s not there. She’s elsewhere, someplace better. But not there. My siblings, aren’t there either. They are all well and living elsewhere from California to New York to Georgia. But my mom, it has been a long time.

So from this trek through the past, I think I finally understand the bittersweet truth of why “you can't go home again.”

It's because truly, home is only a memory.

It really never was just a place.

Margee Moore is a marketing professional and mother of two. She is author of the book, Sleeping with the Laundry and you can follow her on the Facebook of the same name.

How I Almost Threw Out the Most Beautiful Part of My Kitchen

2016-09-24T04:02:00.000-07:00

When we purchased our 1870s home, it came with several pieces that were very appropriate to the period of the home. The previous owner Mr. Hoffman who had restored it was a collector and a fan of period pieces. One very distinctive and lovely piece was this Reliable, American Made Stove. This thing is lovely.

However, it was restored to the original condition meaning open flames that were constantly on like a pilot light.

When we were first in the house, we tried to work with it. One Sunday, my daughter and I were cooking up our meals for the week, when I turned my back to it. It went Vroof. I looked back at my daughter.

"Are you alright Mom?" She asked looking at me with large eyes and blinking.

"Yes," I said. "What happened?"

"The flames shot out from the stove but seemed to part away from you."

Well chalk that up to the Old House Diary ghost or my guardian angel I was fine. But the stove had to go.

I did some research on the web and found a place in Michigan that specialized in old stoves. (AntiqueStoves.com) The owner was fantastic. He could date my stove to the 1920s and said some of its parts were from Germany and had the original "swastika" on them which was a symbol that meant love and peace before Hitler took over the symbol.

He valued it at about a couple grand. It would be $3,000 to bring up to current standards, but when that was done its value would be about $18,000.

Sounds nice, but who has $3,000 sitting around. So I was going to sell it.

But after looking around the kitchen, I realized the previous owners had designed the entire kitchen to match this stove. I needed to get clever.

So what we did was we searched for a "drop in" range like the kind you would drop into a counter top. We needed the exact dimensions to fit.

We got pretty close. Our plumber Phil then shut off the gas to all the ovens and units, essentially making it into a counter top.

Phil cut a piece of laminate to fill in the space that didn't fit to the right. He dropped in the range top and it works great. It's now more safe for an active family.

When people stop in to visit, the kitchen always gets a complement for the stove.

Margee Moore is a marketing professional and mother of two. She blogs about family and restoring her 1870s home for Old House Diary and Moxiemom. She is author of the book, Sleeping with the Laundry: Notes from the Mommy Track.

The Power of Gratitude

2016-07-27T04:39:00.001-07:00

Here's a quick lesson in marketing from a cottage industry crafter on the other side of the globe. Earlier this year, I purchased a unique poncho on Etsys from a lady in Turkey.

I had reached out to this Etsys shop owner Bilges to see if she could create her striped poncho in custom colors of the Irish flag for St. Patrick's Day.

We spent time back and forth on the site looking at the colors. We agreed and she hand knit my poncho. It arrived in time for the holiday, directly from Turkey. The global community of crafters that is Etsys never ceases to amaze me, one world indeed. I truly believe commerce and trade is the way to world peace.

So here's the lesson we can take back to our savvy digital marketing world: it is that there is power in authentic gratitude. Along with my poncho, a handwritten card was included in the package.

In the note, she shared her joy in creating the poncho and included a small token from her culture before asking sincerely for a rating which would help her grow her business. Of course I happily helped out by spreading the joy with a 5-star rating.

Sometimes it's the small thoughtful extra touches that build a relationship. In business we can apply this to something as simple as sending a handwritten card at the close of a project. Maybe even a gift basket of cookies or fruit for an office. The reminder here is to pause to say thanks.

Margee Moore is an inbound marketing professional, digital marketing consultant and mother of two teens. She is author of the book Sleeping with the Laundry: Notes from the Mommy Track available on Amazon.

Much Ado About A Do

2016-06-05T16:40:00.001-07:00

The other day I tried on this new fake hair scrunchie that's a long ponytail style.

"You look like Barbie," my daughter said.

OK. I was thinking. Barbie has been an architect, scientist, paleontologist, astronaut, maybe even President. So I'm thinking, OK, compare me with Barbie. That sounds good.

"Yeah," she continued, "Barbie's Mom. You look like Barbie's Mom."

"Umm. Thanks?" I said. I don't think that's quite a complement.

HomeHack Tip 101-103: Everything Old Is New Again

2016-05-21T05:31:00.001-07:00

There's a time and a place for IKEA furniture so don't get me wrong. I like an IKEA sofa as much as the next person. But there are times when you need a stately, high-quality, kick-a** impressive piece of furniture.

As the steward/keeper/number 1 fan of an old home, we've been taking our time to purchase select pieces one by one. If you know me you know this is also because we are very, very frugal too.

TIP 1: So in this week's OldHouseDiary home decor hack, my tip for affordable decorating is to find a small local antique dealer who loves what he or she does. There are sleepy little antique stores everywhere once you start to look.

Near us, we found this great place Every Now and Then.

You are looking for a place has their fingers on the pulse of sales. Dereck seems to know the estate sales and gets new pieces in each month. Keep in mind you don't really want a fancy shop like the ones on King Street in Charleston, where everything is overpriced.

TIP 2: Also look for pieces that can be redone. This little table above was stripped, darkened and amazingly underneath had a beautiful inlay on the top.

TIP 3: Stop by your antique store every now and then. That way you can see what's new and scoop it up as well as keep your eye on the pieces you are watching. This amazing bedroom furniture set was made locally. It is made of mahogany and has mother of pearl inlays as well as brass and walnut inlays too.

We know it was made locally because of the letter in it from 1928 where they are matching the beds to the dresser, back when America and particularly Cincinnati and the Midwest were places where people made stuff. Hopefully, with things like local craft beers on the rise, other locally made items will come back too and I'm hopeful for an American Renaissance. Meanwhile, I'll just keep my eye out for special pieces. Hope these tips are helpful.

Our Lady of Grace: Remembering My Late Aunt Evie Byrnes-Mast

2016-05-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

If we are lucky in this world we are surrounded by women who are kind, inspiring and good friends. If we are truly lucky, we may have a special role model. My late Aunt Evie was that person for me.

She was taken too soon by pancreatic cancer at the age of 81. She was a bright light in my life. Most of all I would say she was a woman of grace. She was a true lady of calmness and kindness. She spread wisdom everywhere and in every conversation. This seemed to be a natural outcropping of being the oldest daughter in her family of 11 children. It’s hard to describe what made my aunt so special, but here are some stories that I hope show ways she lived with grace.

Putting Family First

As my mom’s older sister, my Aunt Ev was there right after my birth. Though my family moved all over the country, my aunt made it a point to visit every year despite her busy career. As a young child, I remember singing, “She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes” for hours before her arrival. And she didn’t disappoint. She greeted us with hugs and excitement.

Family was important to Ev. She was a natural for her job as eldest daughter. After college, Ev got a job working for AT&T and was ready to move to the big city. But a trip home helped her realize that she didn’t know her younger siblings well. She decided instead to move back home to live with her family at a time when people didn’t typically think about moving home.

Giving the Gift of Time

Most of all, my aunt Ev made everyone around her feel special. When my mom had passed away, Ev was the one to be there for my daughter’s birth. She came a week early to get to know my son’s routine. On the day of my daughter’s birth she was the first person besides my husband to greet her.

She and my son arrived at the hospital with a playdough birthday cake they had made together that morning. She was there for my daughter’s birthday every year after that.

Her way of making people feel special was to spend time getting to know each person. When I went with my kids to visit her and my Aunt Ellen one time in Highlands, North Carolina, I watched as they all found sticks, safety pins and strings to create fishing poles. My aunts then took the kids to a pond to fish and feed the ducks. It all felt so familiar. And then I remembered trips with them myself as a child to the riverfront near their family home in New York. Some things stand the test of time.

Living a Strong Belief

My Aunt Ev’s faith was strong and abiding, both in the almighty and the people she loved. As part of my first job, I was in a 10 week training program with a “Pass or Fire” test at the end. I was worried about passing the test. “When you were young,” she told me, “You would put your nose in a book and you would concentrate so much, you could not hear anyone around you. You have great concentration skills. You can do it.” I quit stressing and passed the test. She paid attention to each person in her life.

Her advice and beliefs also shaped my life. As a young person out of college, we were watching the TV in her kitchen and I asked her thoughts about gay marriage or something. “Marg,” she said. “I believe everyone deserves a little happiness.” This shaped my view on so many things in life.

Ev also welcomed me into her Atlanta family. While I lived there, I was often invited to family dinners with her husband Kurt and step kids. I was making the salad one time and left too much water on the lettuce. She patiently showed me how to do it correctly. (Who knew the “Salad Spinner” existed?) She said, “What’s worth doing, is worth doing right.” This also shaped my life, plus I never made a soggy salad again.

Walking with Grace

Ev was a woman of grace. Her words were always kind and thoughtful (even with the soggy salad incident). When I visited her this January, she was struggling after a bout with pneumonia on top of the cancer. She told me a story of how she cried all the way home after a visit with our family and her sister, my mom. She teared up. I asked her why she was crying. She said, “It just feels like such a very long time since we’ve been together.” Well, they are together now.

It seems hard to believe Ev is gone from this world and I’m not sure how to get through it. So, rather than look at the loss, I count myself lucky to have had the time I did with Ev in my life. I have a ring she gave me and I’ll wear it often as a small reminder to strive to walk with grace like her.

Margee Moore is a marketing professional, mother of two and author of Sleeping with the Laundry: Notes from the Mommy Track.

My Awesome (Average) Mom

2016-03-24T03:22:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we compare ourselves to other moms and feel we come up short. But things aren’t always as they seem—even when they appear to be written plain as day.

Last spring, my son Wendell lost his phone at our annual school fundraiser fun day. Another mom found it in the parking lot and knew to look for “mom” to find the phone’s owner. On my son’s phone though I’m saved as “My Awesome Mom” because I programmed it that way and he never changed it. I think it is pretty funny. We arranged to meet the mom in the parking lot and she gave my son his phone.

Here’s the sad part though. I ran into this mom again the other day. “I think of you every day,” she said. “I am so jealous that your son programmed your number in as ‘My Awesome Mom.’ And every day I’m trying to be awesome so my son thinks of me that way too.”

Oh no. I had to correct her. I told her I had put my number in that way. A wave of relief washed over her face and we laughed.

In reality, I’m a pretty average mom. But I do my best. I try to keep the kids fed and teach them how to live as good citizens in the world. Most important of all, I try to keep them young and protect them from learning about things before they have to.

Recently, though, that backfired. My daughter is in the 7^th grade, the year of “The Talk” in health class. I thought we got a big WARNING letter home beforehand, so I had never gotten around to explaining the birds and the bees. Big mistake.

Low and behold, on a recent Friday, they got “The Talk” without warning, complete with videos and everything. To top it off, my daughter had just learned in math class how important it is to ask questions if you don’t understand something. Ugh. You know where this is going.

So yes, in health class, my daughter raised her hand and asked, “What is an erector?” but using the right word. The entire class laughed. She laughed too and passed it off as though she was joking. It was a pretty horrible, really bad day for her.

On the way home, she ran into my neighbor Jenny who asked how her day went. “Not so great,” she said and stopped in Jenny’s for tea. My daughter explained it all to Jenny who said, “It is a beautiful thing between two people who love each other and if your mom doesn’t want to explain it to you, I am happy to fill you in.”

Jenny is my dear friend. We have similar values. I deeply appreciate that she was there to catch my daughter at the end of her day and help out. I was at work and oblivious.

So the next day, my daughter and I got Indian food to have the talk. She had a ton of questions.

“That took 3 minutes,” she said when the questions were all over. “Was that so bad? You could have had that talk with me anytime.” Yes. I’m winning the award for Most Average Mom Ever.

Here’s the icing on the cake of my mom stories. Each year, my husband and I throw a St. Patrick’s Day party. We invite everyone we know because we don’t want anyone to feel left out. We get the beer and wine and ask everyone to bring a snack to share. It keeps it manageable. In school the other day (the same school where the teachers know I neglected to have “The Talk”) my daughter explained to her class how “great” her mom is.

“My mom has a St. Patrick’s Day party every year,” she says. “When she drinks a lot, I get cake for breakfast.” In my defense, I do set out cake for the kids when I’m doing the cleanup at 2:00 a.m. I do this because I know they are going to go find it anyway and that way I can get rid of it and pitch the rest. Makes sense at 2:00 a.m. usually. She continues her story to her entire class.

“And when my mom has a REAL lot to drink I get cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner.” I don’t think that is actually true. It is one of my main jobs as a mom to make sure my kids receive proper nutrition—even on “slow days.”

At the first parent meeting of school every year, our principal says, “We ask you to be skeptical of everything you child says goes on at school. We will return the same courtesy to you when you child tells us what goes on at home.” This always makes me smile. However, I may have to volunteer to be the PTA President or something to salvage my Average Mom reputation.

For all of us, my point is that things aren’t always as they seem. If you’re doing your best, you are doing a good job Mom or Dad. Don’t worry about everyone else.

Margee Moore is a mother of two and a marketing professional. She has not won any awards for parenting but is author of Sleeping with the Laundry: Notes from the Mommy Track.

Heck on Wheels

2016-02-09T04:10:00.000-08:00

My New Car Buying Experience from H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks

A few weekends ago, I suddenly needed a new car. My dream had been to live car-payment-free as long as possible and run my Honda Pilot into the ground, years from now. The dream ended suddenly, when it started to have trouble accelerating. The dealership said it needed a $4,000 transmission. Sadly, the car itself was not worth $2,000. The prognosis was it could be 2 weeks to 2 months before it would go. Driving it home, I knew it would be about two days.

I get it. I’m hard on cars. Case in point, when I was cleaning it out before trading it in. I found a blackened corpse of a banana peel in “the way back.” The last time I remember handing my kids back a banana was 2008. You get the picture.

We decided we shouldn’t to sell it to an individual. A dealer would know what to do with it. Since the transmission was fading fast, we had one weekend to trade in, pick and purchase something new.

We started by making a short list of SUVs with third row seats for practicality, a second list of smaller SUVs for fuel economy and daily commuting. Our top choices included the Toyota Rav4, The Accura RDX, Nissan Rogue and a 2016 Honda Pilot. And then I started a list for style and color. I came across the adorable Jeep Renegade in Orange, a subcompact SUV. It was super cute and super practical, especially if I was a college co-ed with no kids—but regardless I added it to our lists.

On Friday night, for sport we drove a Land Rover. No, they don’t make one in our price range. But they were very polite about it. We also drove a Mercedes. They have used ones in our range. And Chris our associate was fantastically laid back, helpful and cool. But as I said earlier, I’m hard on cars. It does not make any financial sense for me to have a super nice one.

Saturday morning, we drove to a nearby Toyota dealer armed with our “true price” assessments from our bank. All I wanted to do was drive my choices but it took an amazing amount of time to check out the keys and be ready to drive. They had the true pricing but not the colors as it said online. We drove the Rav4 first. Believe me, I wanted to like it for its great price point, dependability and cuteness, but couldn’t. It wasn’t in my top color choices.

My husband wanted us to check out the Acura RDX. We stood around there too. Though it drove well, it looked like 1000 other SUVs on the road. I wasn’t that interested. We asked the dealer to give us an estimate on our trade in. He drove it and came back. He was extra kind to us after that like we were impaired. Very kindly he said, “How does $500 sound.” We cringed. I could now see my Pilot from another’s perspective. I really had driven it into the ground.

Then we drove to the Jeep dealer. After more standing around and talking, he pulled out the Orange Renegade from the back to test drive. I smiled. It was cute and certainly orange. It drove like you’d expect a Jeep to but was soup-ed up with heated steering wheels, Satellite radio and more. It was love. My husband however, did not love it. He felt it might not be as reliable as a Pilot. (I did get 11 years out of it before the transmission gave up the ghost.)

We decided to take a night to think about it. Our friend Charlie came over to drop off Boy Scout popcorn with his boys Louis and Marty.

“I want a Jeep too. It’s on my bucket list,” he said. “I used to draw them all the time as a kid.”
“Did you draw them in the shop?” asked my husband, “because I think that’s their natural habitat.”

On Sunday, further driving of several additional cars yielded a high level of frustration for me. The car buying experience is hell. I’ve done my research, just hand me the keys.

I came home frustrated. I had to make a decision. My husband had Monday off and would negotiate which ever one I decided on.

I opened the websites of all my top choices. And then I opened the Jeep Renegade again. There was a silly commercial and it played the popular “Renegade” song.

“You know everyone in that commercial is under 30,” my daughter said, pointing out that my car was really designed for the young.

My husband too said I’d be “twinsies” with ever other teen in town who had a Jeep.

But the Jeep smiled up at me from the site. It was cute. It was fun.

And it looked like you could strap your canoe, kids and husband to the top if needed.

“Let’s get the Orange Jeep,” I said.

And I love it. You only live once.

Margee Moore is a marketing professional, sucker for orange cars, mother of two and author of Sleeping With the Laundry. You can follow her on Facebook on Sleeping With the Laundry.

History Fans Unite

2016-01-31T11:40:00.001-08:00

It was a few weeks back on a Sunny Sunday when some metal detecting hobbiests knocked on the door.

They are part of one of two clubs in the area that like to metal detect near historic properties to see what historic artifacts they can find.

It seems Wayne, his son and friends prefer this activity over Sunday afternoon football. Looks like a fun father-son thing to do.

They shared their finds, this part of an old harmonica and a boot.

Plus, they found this Indian head coin. It was interesting and one of the joys of having a historic home is that it spurs conversations with others who enjoy history and old homes.

Sometimes the biggest transformation can come from a can of paint

2015-12-19T06:10:00.001-08:00

Here's where we started over 9 months ago. We tested colors on our wall at our St. Pats event.

We decided on Sherwin Williams Relentless Olive with crowdsourcing help from friends. And I'm showing my #SWcolorlove.

Old House fans will not be surprised by the lag time. There is an interesting phenomenon that Old House Lovers inderstand, how you can walk past a project and not see it. For months. Literally. It seems a good coping mechanism. If you could see it it would be overwhelming. Is there a name for this Project-Progress Blindness? Let me know.

Next, my super talented friend Abby who chose all the colors of my beloved orange Victorian told me to check out Krypton, this subtle gray that manifests as blue.

So check out these before and after shots.

Now the focus is on the woodwork and it has an antique feel appropriate to its #OldHouseDiary period.

Blank boring hall with heavy focus on the picture rail.

These pictures don't do it justice. But it is warm and inviting now. It is amazing the difference a can or two of paint can make. Carpet next.then I need my decorator friends to help me furnish affordable from EBTH.com and more. Murals will take 5 years. More Project-Progress Blindness to come.

Budget Decorating Tip: Fake It Till You Replace it Shrubs

2015-12-04T03:13:00.002-08:00

If you are an old house fan, you know sometimes your budget can be tight. There are times when you need to conserve money so you can fix a screened-in porch or the garbage disposal that chose to go on the fritz right around Thanksgiving. Yes, Thanksgiving!

So here's a quick budget decor tip.

I have some boxwood shrubs in planters that needed to be replaced. But budgets were tight.

Boxwood shrubs are only able to survive for a few years in pots, especially when you forget to water them a few times during a hot summer.

With the help of a forest green or dark green can of spray paint, you can turn them into something that can get you through the winter. In the spring, many garden centers, Lowes and Home Depot, have big sales on boxwood and other perennials to lure you in.

Spray painted shrub looks good enough to last till Spring. And it never needs watering.

I was discussing front doors with my friend and co-worker Scott who also lives in an old home. We were trying to determine if our front door was original or later.

Though it has leaded glass in the surrounding panels, it is only one solid beveled panel in the middle. Scott thought it looked to be a 1910ish style.

Add caption

From the little pieces of house history that we have, we know that there was a major renovation in 1917. Many items were updated at that time.

So our guess is this door is probably circa 1917 and not original.

Proper care and feeding of this door includes an annual coat of the min-wax with stain. We paint it on and immediately rub off any excess. It takes a beating from the sun and it is a fun treasure to care for. Our National Historic Register plaque for 1870, the Gideon Palmer House is pictured to the right above. Love it!

Red Lamp Vamp: How I Shopped Victoriously at EBTH

2015-11-22T06:29:00.003-08:00

Red Lamp from EBTH in its new home - Old House Diary

I really enjoy the home decorating site Everything But The House (EBTH.com). I love how it provides a venue to recycle quality items into new homes. I also love seeing other people's houses and how they decorate on the Sale Preview Days. It just makes sense to make recycling easy. Plus, it is one of the most affordable ways to decorate your Old Home with quality antique or vintage items.

EBTH Red Lamps in their original home

So I wouldn't say I've conquered the EBTH site. I've had a few successes and a few misses, but I can tell you about these awesome red lamps and buying lamps in general from Everything But The House.

The Red Lamps at Checkout

Buying Lamps in General

Let's face it. Lamps are expensive. And I hate to say it, but they are the last thing I want to spend money on when decorating a room. Granted I am very frugal. I look for bargains which does not match well with my high-end tastes. At EBTH the hot selling (and high-price-fetching) items seem to be the large furniture items. Lamps seem to get much smaller attention at the sales.

My Red Lamps had previously lived the high life at the Belvedere in North Avondale.

Choose Your Battles

So last summer, we had decorated our guest room of our beloved old house. Our neighbor and friend Jenny had helped us paint it as a side project. In this crazy old house, it was our ONE done room. Well it was almost done. It needed red lamps to pull together the comforter with the tan walls.

Old Lamp New Home

Pick Key Items and Shop Slowly
So I waited. I have a running list of key pieces I shop for such as a big decorative desk, a kitchen bench, a large dining table, large mirrors, bar stools and rugs. When I look at the site, I choose my city. Then put in my key items like desks to see what's available. I look at prices and watch and wait.

Red Lamp pulls it all together

Find Style Patterns

So when you find one item that looks in your style flip to the entire "Sale Location." If you like another person's desk for example you are going to like most of the things in their sale. The Red Lamps came from a swank apartment filled with antiques and one-of-a-kind pieces.

Unique red stove on display at Sale Site

Visit the Previews in Person

Visiting the sale locations is a super fun way to take a free "home tour" of items you can actually buy. It's like combining the best things about a Home Tour with shopping. The Previews are also fun because you are often with like-minded fans of antiques and vintage items, collectors and Old House Fans.

EBTH Photographer was helpful with showing items from next sale that she had photographed that day. Gorgeous rings!

Know Your Limit in Advance

So the best way to shop EBTH is to be on the website at the last minute of closing and put in your highest, most-comfortable bid. In the last minutes items you can get into a bidding war but you have to be there to know if you lost the item. However, items can also go way out of your comfort zone. Know when to stop. I was bidding for a green velvet 1920 Art Deco couch at one sale and it went into the red zone about 3,000-$4,000 range. I had to let it go and was glad I did. Though it was probably well worth the price, it was out of my comfort zone.

Also don't do impulse consolation buys. So when I didn't get the green velvet couch, I bid for this green carpet that was also there but I only partially wanted. Darn it! I won that one. Sadly the green does not go at all.

Bid Automatically

So there is also the ability to place your highest bid in advance and walk away. A part of me wanted to believe that this would be rigged to automatically go to your highest price. But I've tested it a few times and I now believe, it works as advertised. It automatically bids for you but ONLY when you have a competitor. For example, with the red lamps I put in a max bid of $100 for the pair. (A complete steal!!!) They went for $90 and I got the notification in email to pick them up.

Be Willing to ReWork Items

So my daughter wanted a pair of wing back chairs for her room. I would never in a million year find them in a color that was pink enough to suit her tastes. So I bought a pair of good quality ones and had slip covers made for them. Keep in mind recovering a chair can cost up to $500 per chair. Yikes. But slip covers are more like $250.

So my tips in closing are to be willing to wait. Decorate slowly. Know the few items you need next and shop for them slowly. I specifically needed red lamps. I searched just once a week on Friday and when they came up. I got them.

What are your decorating tips or EBTH tips?

November Time Saving Tip

2015-11-19T03:31:00.000-08:00

One good thing about being too busy in October to go for my beloved family outing to the pumpkin patch to get pumpkins is not having to clean up the pumpkin mush off the porch in November.

So, that's my time saving tip for November.

Below are some pictures of the amazing pumpkin display on Elm in Wyoming, Ohio from Halloween night. I call this the hundred-acre pumpkin patch. It's not a hundred acres but it is this family on Elm Ave that carves about 100 pumpkins each year and they are amazingly fantastic.

This year there were 138 pumpkins and the whole family from North Carolina and all over came to town for the weekend to help carve. Neat tradition. Well worth the drive every Halloween night to see it.

Another treat in October was a visit from my Aunt Evie and Uncle Kurt. We had a nice relaxing time and saw both my son's Frisbee game and my daughter's soccer game.

Why the Hole that My 12-Year-Old Drove Into My Garage Is Not a Bad Thing

2015-11-13T03:23:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the brightest people do the dumbest things.

This last weekend, I started my Sunday at a running pace. Getting coffee for the Church Parent’s Meeting had me out of bed early and going at a run. My day was rolling. My daughter got herself from Sunday School to church and I found her in our pew. My husband and son arrived before the service started. Bingo. We were off at a great start on a Sunday.

We left church a little early so my hubby could catch an international flight. On our way home, we saw an injured bird. The kids decided to get a box and walk back to get the bird. Also on the walk home, my daughter and I noticed our neighbor’s porch and had an idea to get them mums while they were out of town as a surprise. They had had a family loss about a year before. It felt like a good project idea that my daughter and I could do together. We sent off my husband to catch his plane to Spain.

We were mentally ready to hop in the car to get mums when I realized, of course, I had left it at church. Also at the same time, cars started to arrive to drop off Homecoming Float building supplies.

We had volunteered to be the 10^th Grade Homecoming Float Building house again for our son’s class. The Chief Mom Kristen arrived with tarps, tents, tables and chairs. I was excited to help set up. Meanwhile, my daughter wanted to go back and get the bird. There was a shoe box in the back seat of the car. I tossed her the keys so she could walk back and get THE BOX…not the car from church.

“I’ll drive it back over,” she said joking.

“Right is gas. Left is the brakes,” I said joking back. She is a super-smart, A+ student. She would NOT need to be told NOT to drive the car, right?

She walked to look for the bird while my son and I helped set up. After a while she came back unable to find the bird. After a while the set-up crew was done and it was mum time. I went back to church to get the car.

After I got home, I pulled into the drive and left it running with the keys in it. Dumb. The kids were playing in the back yard. I ran into the house to get my tea and purse.

Meanwhile my 12-year old A+ daughter came over to the car and, I believe, for a joke, put the car into drive.

She drove it into our hundred-year-old garage.

I ran out and she jumped out of the car crying. She was alright. My son was safe and had been out of the way as well. Phew. I was so relieved that I was not mad at the hole and crumbling bricks.

By now, my husband was probably already in the air. We called our dear family friend from church, George who is very kind and knows everyone in town. He came right over, helped us back it out and had his masonry friend on the phone within minutes.

“Can I get it fixed before Thursday when my husband gets home?” I asked.

“Maybe,” said George. He and my son put 2x4s under the beams to shore it up.

My daughter was a little upset and cried more than I have ever heard her cry. She was very remorseful and called herself dumb. No, I told her. Never call yourself dumb. It was my dumb mistake to joke with you and to leave the car on in the driveway. We are very blessed that she is OK and my son too.

We skipped going to the store. It was just another idea on an already full plate. Good enough is good enough. We did not need to create for ourselves another errand. We spent the afternoon hanging lights that we had from Christmas around the back yard for float building this week. (The more light we have for the teenagers the better.)

Perhaps down the road, this will make us be more cautious as we drive around town. Perhaps it will also keep us from

putting too much on our plate. All in all, there’s probably a good lesson in it somewhere. Perhaps we just had to put a hole in our garage to make us slow down and appreciate life.

Margee Moore is a mother of two, marketing professional and old house fan. She is the author of Sleeping with the Laundry.

The fixed garage planted with some nice selections from Gertz Garden Center in Lockland, Ohio.

Old House Diary: Paint with All the Colors of the Wind or Green

2015-04-06T03:47:00.000-07:00

The time has come to choose a paint color for our front hall of our 1870 house that we purchased about a year ago. The story in a nutshell is the house suffered through a bad divorce and the recession of 2008. It was empty and abandoned for three years. It needed some TLC. We had nothing better to do and here we are.

I have grandiose schemes for the front hall. First of all, this room has never looked right to me. I think it's the dark wood colored upper chair rail or picture rail.

Here's a picture from last Spring Break when we took a week off to start cleaning it to be move in ready. It's just white with dark trim. Doesn't work.

So long ago, when we traveled to Natchez for the Spring Pilgrimage. We stayed at a beautiful mansion Monmouth Plantation. It had a stunning mural in the front hall. The definition of grace and elegance to me. Perhaps it is wallpaper. I'm not sure. Anyway, the home was a wonderful B&B. The mural has stuck with me.

I said my plans were grandiose for a girl from the middle of America. So once you lay eyes on a mural like that, AND then you get the canvas of a front hall needing a little TLC. Well, a mural is my grandiose plan.

It may take me years.

Meanwhile, like many project, we take baby steps. So to get started, we are going to paint the bottom half a dark green of the ground and the top a blue that can someday serve as the base for clouds.

Through much trail and error and an informal vote of people who stopped over for St. Patrick's Day. I've landed on Relentless Olive by Sherwin-Williams, SW 6425. It seems to go best with the Rookwood tiles in the adjacent Music Room.

For the upper sky base color, my friend Abby who is a designer and knows colors suggested Sherwin-Williams Krypton, SW 6247. And she knows her stuff.

Some additional mural photos collected below.

Our mural inspiration comes from this painting by Jim Effler, the artist who paints the Moerlein Beer labels. I think we will do images in this vein along the walls. The colors we chose also pick up this painting as well.

Restoration Gone Wild

2014-06-06T13:36:00.001-07:00

Here's our first edition of "Can this Bed Be Saved?" After purchasing Rosemont, the Palmer House, from foreclosure, we put back plumbing, electricity, got the heat and air running, cleaned out all the abandoned refuse, a whole dumpster full, the time has come to face the beds. They are three years overgrown. But it appears there were plants worth saving. Check out this photo essay.

Here's where we started. It is a large bed in the long front lawn. Once upon a time most homes were separated from the dust of roads by broad lawns. This broad lawn is one of the last in Wyoming, Ohio. Many are filled in with beautiful homes.

There was a hidden wall long lost in overgrowth. It's only a few years old so in good shape.

I thought maybe some if the tall grass was maybe something worth saving till neighbor Gerome stopped over. "Nope," he said, "weeds. Cut it down."

Our son worked long days chopping overgrowth. Kids today! Gotta love them. He's for hire by the way for summer yard work.

End of first weekend, hubby had chopped out root after root. But still lots to go. At 9 pm, on The Monday of Memorial Day, I was frustrated and fired up the riding mower. What can't be saved can be mowed. I ran the mower through the middle till I got stuck. Hubby backed it out. We called it quits till the next weekend

Long story short, we returned part to lawn. Part we landscape fabric-ed and mulched. We planted 5 Knock Out roses and several verbena. So this bed was saved. Fourteen more beds to go.

The joys of loving the National Historic Register home.