A Day Trip To The Shenandoah Monday, Jul 28 2008

Picture above is of downtown Lexington, Va.
They are doing a lot to fix up the town and keep it looking pretty.

Mom and Ariel outside of the Southern Inn Restaurant.
This is the second time we have eaten here. It is SO good!
Ariel had a HUGE turkey sandwich, Dad and Owen each had a beautifully plated meatloaf, Mom had a portabella  mushroom sandwich, and Adri had a very good Greek salad.

The picture above is from Natural Bridge, VA.
They have a “time travel” museum, where you “travel” back to the civil war era to fight the Yankees.
It is there that you summon the dinosaurs from prehistoric times to help confederates fight the Yankees.
Apparently,  the Yankees thought that the dinosaurs would fight for them…but they were wrong.
The whole exhibit (which we didn’t go to see…lol at least not this trip) has large statues of dinos eating Yankee soldiers! Weird…but Adri isn’t going to complain about this sort of violence.  You take any sort of help you can get when fighting the enemy … even dinosaurs.
Click here to read all about it and see pictures.

Natural Bridge.
It is a VERY pretty place to go (we would recommend going in spring or fall).
It has a long trail that leads to lots of interesting things like an Indian village, an underground spring, a cave, etc.

Owen in front of the Natural Bridge.

We (Ariel & Adri) were walking back to the entrance (to find air conditioning), when Ariel almost stepped on a long (probably over 4 foot in length) BLACK SNAKE! It raised up and opened it’s ugly mouth and Ariel screamed and jumped back (almost knocking Adri out of the way) and the snake started slithering away into the forest…
After she screamed and yelled “SNAKE!”, a bunch of men (including Dad and Owen) went rushing past her towards the trees to see this nasty critter.
We’re pretty sure we don’t remember anyone asking Ariel if she was alright.
That is darn  tootin’ (as Grandma would say) rude! How did they know she hadn’t been bitten?
Oh well, she lived to tell the tale.
The picture of the snake is only the tail end of it (we aren’t exaggerating!).

One of the many views from the trails.

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History Of Our House Saturday, Jul 19 2008

We often bake goodies for our neighbors (several are elderly and have lived in this town their whole lives), and in return they have given us what history they know of our house.
Our house was born in 1940.
In our small town, furniture was the main industry for over a century.
One of the early manufacturers was Ramsey Furniture Company.
The Ramsey family lived in a large house that is located on the street behind our house.
The Ramsey family built our house for their daughter and son in law.
They also built an almost identical house for another child directly behind ours.

Apparently, the Ramsey’s son in law (first owner of our house) tragically died in a boating accident at a nearby dam.
When the dam was built (way back in 1948), they flooded over 2800 acres of mountain valley’s. This created a beautiful reservoir reaching depths of almost 1,000 feet. (thanks to wikipedia for this info)
As you can imagine, this completely covered thousands of trees that were left hundreds of feet under the water.

One day, he went boating with friends at this dammed up lake (if that’s the correct dam terminology?).
We don’t know all of the details, but he fell overboard and drowned in the lake.
The really sad part is, they never even found his body.
Our neighbors believe that the reason why he was never found is because the body sunk down and was entangled in tree branches, which remained below the water.
We were shocked when our neighbors told us this sad story.
We feel pretty certain that this is an accurate version of the story because we have heard it from so many locals.
Just a note: Ramsey Furniture was purchased by Bassett Furniture after money problems resulting from the stock market crash in 1929. At least that is what we were told.

About 1950 someone (we don’t know which owner) built a large addition onto the house.
This added two master bed and bath rooms, Adri’s room, and the breakfast room.
The only other thing we know is that somewhere along the line a church used our house for a manse.

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Breakfast Room Redo Saturday, Jul 19 2008

We think our breakfast room is one of the most charming rooms in our house thus far.
The breakfast room is right off of the kitchen and before you get to Grandma’s room.
It is part of the 1950 addition of the house.
First we are going to show you some of the real estate listing pictures from when we bought the house.

Note the gun cabinet in the corner of the breakfast room.
We do not have a  manly gun cabinet of our own, but should Daddy bring one home, it will NOT set foot into our CUTE little breakfast room.

Another listing shot.

No, that is not a fire place.
Unfortunately, there was a lot of water damage on the window sill and the wall under the window.
Dad discovered this when he was removing an ugly 1950’s radiator (the kind that are only half way in the wall and have majorly ugly covers; unlike the cuter 1940’s ones in the old part of the house).

While it doesn’t look so big in the picture, this puppy was MASSIVE.
By far the largest ceiling fan in the whole house (even bigger than the full size ceiling fan in Grandma’s bathroom).
The ceiling fan was in love with the gun cabinet.
It was a lovely ending to the story of our house when they disappeared into the sunset together.

This is the vintage light fixture Dad found at an antique shop, which we used in place of the fan.

TA DA!
We took up old 70’s linoleum, had the floors refinished, peeled off the wallpaper, removed a built in desk, and slapped on a fresh coat of paint.
Note: Mom had Dad hang the picture on the right of the green hutch a little too high.
As for the hutch, Dad built that for us and we LOVE it! It holds so much stuff! Which is nice right now because we busted out the nasty old (slug infested – we kid you not) pantry.

That old hoosier cabinet in the corner is a much beloved family heirloom from Mom’s side of the family.
That thing can hold more stuff than you can shake a stick at!
We keep a lot of our baking pans and cookbooks in it.

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Our Favorite Flowers Wednesday, Jul 16 2008

These are a few of our favorite flowers around our yard.
Be sure to read our very helpful flower purchasing tips at the bottom of the post.

Above is a view of the backyard from the front of the house.

Ariel found this Rose Campion at a local farmer’s market.
It is one of our new favorites!

This is the courtyard.

This was a crusty almost dead plant that we got for next to nothing at Lowes.
It is called Vinca something (Adri can’t remember).

This is an annual that came back!

This is our family’s favorite Dogwood tree on our property.
This is a shot of it blooming in the spring.

We can’t remember the name of these, but they are a lovely trailing annual.

We have Calla Lilies, Day Lilies, and Princess Lilies all around the bird bath.

Closeup of the Princess Lilies. These are more “dead” plants that we got for a song at Lowes.
We think they came back to life nicely!

We can’t remember the name of this perennial.

Another flea market find.

We finally filled the window box on the kitchen window.
More of our “dead” flowers (impatiens).

This critter is a Clear Wing Hummingbird (some call it a moth) that resembles a bee.
They aren’t at all skittish, making it easy to get great photos of them.
He loves this butterfly bush!

We LOVE Moss Rose! It is a trailing annual that is easy to find at places like Lowes.

This is from one of our many Hydrangeas.
Owen gets all the credit for taking these lovely photos!

How to go about buying lots of plants when Dad says he can’t afford to buy a lot of plants:
Go to your local Lowes, wander around the garden center and be shocked at all the high prices.
Next, go to the verrrrry back of the garden center (back where they sell fencing), there you should find a “dead plant cart” (sometimes many of them…if it’s your lucky day…oops we’re Presbyterian – we mean blessed).
You will be surprised that many of the plants only need light pruning and some water.
This next part is crucial, so pay close attention.
Find a Lowe’s worker (male is best; male manager even better).
Ask him sweetly, “how much are those crispy flowers in the way back?”.
Now smile winsomely.
Let him think for a minute. Keep smiling (we don’t mean flirting).
Then he should say (at least it works for us), “Come on back and I’ll make ya’ll a deal”.
Follow him and remain silent while he ponders the new asking price.
Try VERY hard not to squeal with delight as he tells you the price.
Rather do like Ariel and say in a quiet voice, “Aw! You’re so nice!”.
Last time she did this, he reduced the price he originally gave us, by half.
Then wait for him to leave you, so that you can make your selection.
We like to each fill up the largest pulley carts we can find (you know, those huge ones for manly construction projects?!).

Another good tip for buying:

Most people are aware that you can purchase flowers at farmer’s markets, but that can be pricey (remember Daddy has you on a budget).
We have found our dollar goes MUCH farther at flea markets and yard sales.
Dad got us into this kind of flowering shopping, when he brought us home a bunch of .50 cent flowers!
Besides all this, the selection is much more varied because the vendors usually bring in flowers from their own established gardens. The elderly people usually have the best selection and prices.
Happy shopping!

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We’re Glad It Was Owen & Not Us… Monday, Jul 14 2008

We are back after a fun filled week of plumbing the house (well, not us, but Dad, Owen and the plumber).
Thursday through Saturday we had a plumber come out and put all new pvc pipes throughout the house.
Owen drew the short straw and had to be the one to crawl through the nasty crawl space “window” in our basement.  He was helping Dad string electrical wire all the way from the upstairs master bathroom down to the breakfast room and finally to the crawl space beside the basement.
You have to lift up a rusty old glass window to get under the crawl space under the 1950’s addition of the house.

Poor Owen! We have a feeling that he was enjoying every minute of this adventure.
Owen thought that this would be a perfect area to hide a body.
Thankfully, Dad and Owen successfully ran all the wire to the basement. Now Dad can install the jacuzzi tub in the master bath.
In the meantime…

Dad was setting up a obstacle course in Grandma’s bathroom.
Actually, those boards are there to keep the new wall boards from buckling while the adhesive sets.
Since we weren’t able to take out all that ugly pink and blue tile on the walls, we are going to cover it up with a beautiful cream colored wainscoting.

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The Moss Saga Thursday, Jul 10 2008

OK…..we LOVE to tease Owen and try and trick him occasionally. Usually he is way too smart for us.
HOWEVER, a few months ago he tricked himself and all we had to do was just sit back and watch.
Last year, Ariel read an article in a magazine about how to grow moss and take care of it.
One of the tips (from the “Mossologist” in the article…and YES she did call herself that!) is to put buttermilk all over the moss because it nourishes it (Adri thinks this is debatable…but if Ariel wants to do this then…ok).
So in 2007, Ariel tried out this “tip” and it seemed to work pretty well.
This year, Ariel went to town with it! She dumped it ALL OVER our moss covered rock wall in the back yard.
Here is what it looks like after an “bath”.
So we went back inside after Ariel buttermilked the wall.
We weren’t even thinking about moss anymore…just dinner.
All of a sudden, Owen comes BURSTING through the back door yelling “GIRLS! Come look at this! I was in the back a minute ago and the wall looked normal…and then I went back out like 2 seconds ago and it’s covered in BIRD POOP!!!”.
He really did say it just like that.
So we decided to take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity. So we winked at each other and played along for as long as we could without laughing. The best thing is that this wasn’t planned as a joke at all! This was just Ariel “gardening”.
Owen must have thought he was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
What we want to know is what kind of birds could be responsible for THAT?! Eagles? Vultures? Pterodactyl?

Here is some moss after a buttermilk treatment.

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Mabry Mill & The Blue Ridge Parkway Thursday, Jul 10 2008

Above is Mabry Mill. It is on the Blue Ridge Parkway (only about 45 minutes from our house).
They have a restaurant within walking distance of the mill.
The food was very good home style cooking. Our very sweet waitress thought that 20 year old Ariel was about 10 years old. Ariel ordered sweet potato pancakes and our waitress (thinking that Ariel was so much younger) surprised her by shaping the pancakes to look like Mickey Mouse. HAHA Poor old Ariel gets this frequently!

This thingie carried the water to the mill.

This was a pretty view we saw later on down the parkway.

One of only a few covered bridges left in Virginia. This one is in Woolwine, Va.
It’s kind of just in someone’s backyard.

It was so hot that day so Adri and Ariel sat in the van while Owen snapped this way “AWWWW” shot of Mom and Dad.
Thus ends our Blue Ridge excursion.

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Guest Bath Remodel Tuesday, Jul 8 2008

Above is a picture from the real estate listing when we bought the house. Oh my goodness!
We know blue and brown is “in” right now, but um…

When we took up the carpet (the lovely tan one) we found whatever this stuff is. Joy.

Half of the walls in this bathroom were painted blue and the other half sported the 70’s brown-tone butterfly pattern. Unfortunately, no one primed the walls before putting up this paper. It took FOREVER to get it down.  At least it was only 2 walls.

Here it is with some of the wall paper down.
Now this light is interesting.
For one thing it wasn’t centered over the humongous sink vanity; it was in the middle of the wall.

Dad ripped up all the “flooring” and that is the basement you see below. Ew.

This cute door knob (and the door) are the only things that stayed in this bathroom.
OH finally! We could finally have guests come over.
Thankfully, Dad remodeled the guest bath right after we moved in.
Dad put up bead board on the walls with nice new chair rail and baseboards.
After a long search for black tile, we found some really nice ones online.
Notice Mom’s idea: she framed an old paint by number flamingo print from the 1950’s which we bought at a yard sale for 10 cents.
Ooo La La!

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Oompa Loompas Monday, Jul 7 2008

Poor Dad! After numerous (and horrible) bouts of poison ivy Dad bought some gear to tackle our ivy problem.
We have ivy EVERYWHERE at this house. On trees, walls, hills, bushes, etc.
Owen geared up too. We’re not sure what inspired his costume…maybe we don’t want to know.
Dad’s outfit brought to mind but one thing: Oompa Loompas!

Dad gave permission to post THE picture:

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A Trip To The Biltmore Monday, Jul 7 2008

Back in April, Dad took us (Adri & Ariel) to the Biltmore house in Asheville, NC.

The picture above is the view from the back porch.

Ariel couldn’t resist taking a picture of what she hopes her future husband will look like.
Think: Egor.
He even seems to have a musical talent like Ariel.
Ariel is getting mad at Adri (but Adri doesn’t care).

This was the Wisteria covered veranda area.
The Wisteria were HUGE!

This is the Atrium room inside the Biltmore.
We had a very fun trip and would recommend that anyone visit the Biltmore (especially in the Spring when the gardens are in bloom).

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