Something really bothers me about that type of flower. Sure it has outter beauty and is downright *hot* but there is something hollow...vacuous...about it. If you were to cut into that lusty white veneer that seems to draw so many to it, beneath, is little or no substance. There is no intrinsic value to it other than the way it looks. It appeals to the lowest common denominator who'se tongues wag at the sight of rounded white shapes. The result of over-breeding and questionable decision making. And the offspring of orchids like that just perpetuate the problem. I prefer species, specifically Angraecoids.

The letter was written around Christmastime, and I can tell you that those pictures weren't taken in December on the Maumee, a river I know well. Hard to tell if the pics have any correlation to the letter. They are enchanting, for sure. Camping by the river used to be a very common thing here, and people were doing it even when I was a kid. The banks were for all practical purposes used by the public, with no regard to landowners and as long as you stayed close to the water, nobody said anything. Old newspapers here speak of groups and clubs taking off for picnics on river islands and my Uncle twice removed even donated a park to the city by the river for such use. Even until the 1930s, matrons wore clothes similar to some worn by the gals in the pics, but they are obviously older because even the young woman with the baby is dressed in Victorian garb. They look authentic the letter's age to me.

Catching up on this post from yesterday… it just gets progressively funnier. Since we’ve bypassed delicacy, I’m not actually concerned about the *need* for an exhaust fan… And I agree that I don’t expect a guest bath to see much use…just the general strangeness of sitting on the sofa chatting with friends, while some one is in the bathroom two feet away. How often that would be a problem? Probably never… like you said, they can go upstairs. Bellsmom-- I’m impressed with your photoshop skills. That looks really nice!! Thank you! There really isn’t another spot for a powder room. We had considered moving it to the other end of the kitchen, where it could be aligned with the fridge and you wouldn’t see it as a boxed-out area, but then it’s really IN the kitchen. And disrupts the whole layout of the area. We’ve gone back and forth on the backdoor. Bumping it out to square the room would be ideal. But it would require adding a foundation, and also removing the concrete and brick stairs that lead directly down to already existing concrete patio. So it’s not just the door… it’s the other twenty things it affects. I wanted to square the room, and put French doors on the right hand wall, but there is a tree there, and adding steps down to ground level would require removing it. I love seeing it out the window, and was unsure I wanted to take it down. The problem with this project is that we are trying to fix someone else’s poor design rather than doing it right. Which may be only marginally easier than starting from scratch. Thank you so much for sharing all your thoughts!! I will upload a photo when we have some kind of mock up of the wall… hopefully it will give us a better idea of how it might look in reality. Bellsmom’s photo kind of looks too good to be true. And I liked the idea of bookshelves, although the wall would probably be better as a sofa wall, since the room is long and narrow and the sofa depth would be better not sticking into the room.

Well, we're not leaving the lamps--they're packed and in the garage waiting for the movers to come load the truck tomorrow! We have left the garage and basement shelves they requested (which cost at least $900 to replace). We did our pre-close signatures today--closing will probably be Wednesday or Thursday instead of the scheduled Tuesday (issues at their end, not ours). Our agent told us that he just got a call this week from the other buyers who were interested to ask if he thought it would close. They were going to offer about 5% less than we listed it for, and they asked him how much it went for. He told them "close to list" :-) The other houses in our subdivision are still on the market--but they all went way beyond what the comps could possibly support (which I understand because I know what they paid in 2006, but that's not really a factor in what someone will pay in 2017, unfortunately) Once we get settled and unpacked in our rental, we'll start the process of finalizing things for our build! (For those following that, the re-zoning and annexation went fine. The entire board was like "Welcome to <our town>!--and tell your friends!" We didn't expect any issues--taking a half acre plus lot that close in and building a single family residence is exactly what the neighbors would have hoped for. Only one neighbor came to the advertised hearings, where they would have been free to object--and that was just to say hello and introduce herself.)