I've seen a couple bluebirds already, too. Several of my neighbors have BB houses, and I get the benefits! Here where I live is a new development with new smallish trees. I've been here 5 years and the trees have grown and we are seeing more and more birds. House finches and Goldfinches mostly, but in the last week I've had a cardinal, a mocking bird and 4 Red Wing Blackbirds. Bird seed has gotten very expensive. Sue

Yeah...definitely some eye candy there...gonna save some of those pics, that is one my favorite blogs. I'm not to wild about the rooms that some people refer to as "timeless" when it seems like they tried to cram as many things in the room that didn't match or have anything to tie the elements together...maybe I need to get in touch with my schizo side more...LOL. She sure doesn't like MCM though...a shame really as it does have great value. That kitchen with the Swedish table is really beautiful...and give me that Marie Antoinette room any day...breathless!!! Thanks for posting Teacats, truly enjoyable viewing. I have a book called "The Great Lady Decorators" which covers the decor of ladies like Elsie de Wolfe and Nancy Lancaster...it is a great investment...so wonderful to look at, including tons of pictures like the ones on the Cote de Texas site. ...and now back to my not so extravagantly decorated home...LOL

I am so envious of you folks with ReStores! Since this is a very low income area there are a lot of junk shops, I can pop a spare backplate and the small rosette (since it needs a matching key escutcheon that wasn't on that door) into the glove compartment. Unless I'm really stuck, I'd prefer to avoid the architectural salvage guy down where I used to live because he is viciously overpriced - like $100 for a single doorknob that was one of about 50 matching ones, not exactly rare and unusual - and very disorganized. I may take more photos and scan rubbings and send them to some other places that sell old pieces and offer hardware matching. Kim, right this minute we're in the "this sucks this sucks this sucks this sucks i hate this house will someone please shoot me NOW" mode because it's slurping down money like a kid with a frappe - milkshake, that is. Between last week's and this week's disasters we're expected to hit $10k, all "WTF??" expenses, not the expected ones. We were counting on having additional expenses, but we were expecting to have some proceeds from the other house to buffer them. Right now I have a plumber (overpriced franchise plumber, but my regular plumber doesn't have the right equipment) downstairs snaking tree roots out of the sewer line, since we had a huge backup last night. We're also extremely peeved with our home inspector for how many things he completely missed. flyleft, we've already been up in the attic and down cellar to find absolutely nuffin in the "If Walls Could Talk" genre. I found traces of a hideous "country blue" wallpaper in the master bedroom - PO painted right over the electrical outlet plates and stuff so if you take the plates off, around each receptacle is a little border of blue wallpaper. Around a defunct cable outlet (no cable attached to it anymore) I tried soaking and peeling some back. No, it's stuck right on there something fierce. So, when we get to that room we'll sand off all the paint boogers and drips, spackle and feather off the seams, and then either skimcoat and paint or put up wallpaper w/liner. *gasp* DH is much more amenable to wallpaper in this house, since it "fits the house", as long as I choose monochromatic or unfussy patterns like most of Bradbury's "Morris Alternative Fills" line. But that's a ways down the road: we need working sewer, properly working electric, fully working heat, etc. before we get too far into "pretties". (I admit I have spent a little bit on "pretties" though: we got wood blinds for the LR because keeping DH in clothes is extremely difficult ;-) , rods for my cheapie eBay curtains, slipcover for my wonderful new couch which people were fighting over last weekend, and a couple of cheap secondhand furniture pieces. I'm still looking for a mailbox and the mailman is getting a little irritated with us!) We do believe that the large brass chandelier in the dining room is either original or very close to it - it's heavy as all get-out, can tell ya that much. If we take it down it'll be hung up in the attic wrapped in sheets for safekeeping. I did pick up, at a yard sale, two antique pan chandeliers: one looks very much like Rejuvenation's Belmont. The other looks sorta like this. I paid $15 for the pair. KGW had a chandelier restored for a surprisingly low price, I think at JF PeGan; I'm thinking about sending them over and seeing how much a complete restoration would cost. The little two-light would go beautifully in the entry. I'm not sure I like the large one as well, maybe I'll have it restored and sell it (depending on how much the restoration goes of course).

I liked it, houstonmom! oooh, and check out bing too! gorgeous! Here is a link that might be useful: bing, Mt. Rainier national park.