ROFL at the stripper stage. My friends Dad used to make the chair ironing boards to sell. "Hmm, no Nabors - as in Jim (Gomer Pyle)?" Funny you caught my eye on this one thinking........... How did you know my name? Cause it is Pyle. And No no relation. Hate to even admit it. My Father has a buffalo head in his den. That thing is HUGE. :^( Chris.

We moved in two days ago Kim :) It's taken this long to get the internet working (and it only works on the back side of the house LOL) More work to do I guess. Thank you :) We do love the house and grounds, although the sheer size is intimidating as you think about cleaning it LOL More so as we've moved in somewhat. Probably more so after we have 20 overnight guests next weekend. It was the oldest B&B in the pacific northwest, (35 years) prior it was an apartment building and prior to that a hospital, and then the original owners had it until their deaths. (early 20's) We are lucky that the folks who did the big restoration in the 60's and 70's didn't follow current fashion (painting all of the wood for instance) and they were sensative to the home. In addition, when the bathrooms were added in the last 20 years (another owner who was also sensative to the house) it was done incredibly well, taking a few feet of space from each room, but integrating them well (some B&B's cheap out and put the tubs and sinks in the rooms). They will be easy to upgrade to more victorian features (is that an upgrade backgrade?) There are three buildings on site. One is considered the carriage house (but really is the base of a 3 1/2 story water tower we will eventually rebuild). The other is the original gardners cottage. They take up one lot and the gardens take up the other. Talk about intimidating...too much garden LOL And on top of too much garden...I have 400 house plants (maybe not that but five or six per room). The poor things are doomed in my care. I'm thinking of a sidewalk give away very very soon to save their lives! Poor dears...even my husband feels sorry for them. I tried to convince my mother that they are guest gifts and that guests (her) must take one each time they visit but she hasn't gone for it yet (I sometimes think if she were senile my life would be much easier...) Today we turn the old office off the kitchen (our future family dining room after we remodel the kitchen, but that's a few years off) into a play room for DS. I hope this grand old home likes thomas the train LOL Oh here's a funny....we get about a dozen visits a day asking if we have a vacancy! It was funny but is getting annoying LOL They want tours and won't always take "private home" for an answer LMAO. "Oh dear...no rooms? Well can we just see it?" No go knock on the neighbors house and ask for a tour heh heh Oh let's see...nope not a B&B (I'm not nice enough since DS was born and keeps me up all night) :) And how many bathrooms? Sigh...12 Do you think the B&B potential guests might think that the tour includes a once in a lifetime opportunity to clean a victorian bathroom? I might let them in....

Well, we decided to go look at the house, anyway. I've learned that in two-dimensional pictures, one can fantasize about what may or may not be. But in person, one can truly judge. It's a wonderful house. Terrazo tile and travertine flooring, travertine fireplace, some original cork flooring, interesting ca. 1960 recessed directional lighting, awesome vintage wallpapers. It needs some cleaning, purging, spiffing up, etc. And the 1980s kitchen and master bath would have been best left undone (the cultured marble with columns soaking tub was put in on top of what was a mosaic tile sunken Roman-style tub). But despite its wonderful-ness, and ignoring for a moment the actual location issues, it still wouldn't be an ideal home for us. It has a formal LR/DR that we would likely never use (part of what we love about the current house is that we use all of it). We need storage for musical instruments -- storage that is easily accessible for loading. This house doesn't really have that, as the bedroom we would need to use is far, far from the carport. There also isn't really a place for us to park car #3 and two small trailers that we have. And DH's big saws, etc. that are in our barn/shop would be homeless. It's also just a lot -- A LOT -- of house. I can't imagine trying to keep up with just the dusting, vacuuming and sweeping. I was trying to come up with a comparison to our existing house and thought I would compare the number of "seats" indoors in the houses. That includes chairs (club, desk, DR), sofas (2-3 "seats" each), etc. But not beds, ottomans, etc. Current House: 17 Dream House: 70 Wow. I hope that whoever gets that house understands what it is and treats it with love and respect. It's a lovely house.

I like an "L" shaped work area - one area for active work and one for letting things set, dry, or just sit. I'd love an area high enough to stand at, but that'll have to wait until my son moves out and I take over his room as my own. LOTS of light! I like lights that I can move around - like on swing arms. I have one on each end of my work space and one in the middle that I can swing from side to side. I work in the basement so I have no natural light available. I also like wall storage. I have things hung up all over above my seated eye level. That way when I put tools/supplies away I can't see them when I'm working and they are out of my way. I have lots of shelving for bins of glass and an old sweater cubby turned upright to store sheets of glass and larger pieces.