Cindy, Your home is lovely. I love all of your decorations. The lamp on your bathroom counter is sooo cute. I also love the wrapped soap. The ribbon on the Hoosier is the "icing on the cake". What a wonderful idea. I know exactly what you mean about boys re-arranging your decorations. My Grandsons were here for dinner night before last and the 6 year old went in and moved "His" decorations around on my tree. When the 12 year old told him he had better leave my tree alone that I was going to 'get' him, he replied, "They are MY ornaments and I need to move them up on the tree so people can see them better!!" I had to laugh, but now I have to go re-arrange to fill the hole he left!! LOL I wish my house was ready for Christmas. I will probably just decorate my mantel, hang my wreath, and put out the nativity scenes and call it done. (The tree is up already.) I seem to be late for the party on every Holiday this year! Betty

Dilly- Actually the dresser is 1948..So pretty close to the 50's! HA... That is really good information on the brass. I have been lugging this thing for years and its been in my basement at four previous homes. When I get time I will take a close look and see what the story is on that. I like the idea of making it more aged (if possible)depending on what I find. Very good ideas and thank you so much for sharing that knowledge with me... Will let you know what I find. I had an entire white french provenial bedroom suite when I was a child. Canopy bed and all. It was a late 60's thing too. This dresser is a lot slimmmer on the sides and has more curves. Just some neat history on stuff..Its funny how time repeats itself. To give you guys an idea of "how bad" this place was when we bought it. I guess the previous owner locked their animals in here for very LONG extended times. Especially in the finished basement. The cat pee would kill a Marine! LOL...You could crack the door and pass out. We had a "forensic" cleaner come out and lessen the smell by 80%. Then we were able to at least go down and start getting the junk out. Once all the junk was out, he came back and did some more and it was 95% better. We purchased a huge dehumidifier and kept it on full blast for two weeks. A family member is in commercial janitorial and she sent me some stuff to finish cleaning the walls and concrete. Now all is well in the basement. Upstairs was ankle deep in dog hair. Every air vent was clogged and the returns were stuffed full. I don't see how they even breathed in here. Cat poop on the counters on the stove in the stove. We were not sure we could even save the refrigerator. I tackled the stove and DH did the refrig. FOUR HOURS... The grease was in multiple layers and once I started disturbing it the rat poop started coming to the surface...OMG....I almost lost my lunch a few times. We were able to save both of them. The Master Shower was soooooo bad it took us three days and lacquer thinner to remove the dirt. The shower doors even after lacquer thinner and everything under the moon including bleach and pressure washer were unable to be saved. DH will end up tiling the entire shower but we were trying to at least get it where we could live here. We have no vanities or linen closets (cabinet man is hard at work as we speak) So we are unpacked except for that. What little sheetrock that is in here is in great need of paint. The biggest shock was it has a HUGE master closet and not one rod or shelf was ever installed in it! People lived here for four years like this. It was a diamond in the rough and it only took us walking in for one second to realize the potential. People tell us we love punishment! HA! We call it sweat equity... I just can't wait for the painter to get here...He is going to start in Master Bath and go to the MIL room. Then we will get through Thanksgiving and start again.... I can't wait to hang some pictures...... You guys will see the finished products, I promise.... I know I am gonna need a little help here and there..... Ohh yeahhh every door in this house was either scratched down to bear metal or wood. DH has been one painting fool!!! He is "Charlie Daniels" of the spray gun...LOL!!! Took us a week and half just to clean the first story so we could move an air mattress in....Lots of fun when you are moving across three states...Ahhhh yeahhh we nuts!!!!!! Lisa

Thanks to all for your thoughts! I think I'm sold on the wreaths in the windows idea, with a single tree or some other kind of decoration to the left of the double doors on my porch. I am afraid of ladders and the roof, and was hoping someone would have some magic extension pole product I hadn't heard about. darn it! My christmas tree will show through that big front picture window--do I still need wreaths on it? Or should I just do lighted garland somehow? We have aluminum siding so nails or staples are not possible. Do those 3M hooks work on aluminum? How do you all attach wreaths to windows? Again, the bottom floor double hungs will be easy, but I'm much more concerned about the second story double hungs. Also concerned about the wreaths blowing all over the place in the wind. Regarding the porch, should I get a tree or just a small topiary to the left of the doors? I really want to go nuts, at least as much as I can afford to within my budget which is somewhat limited. Regarding the japanese maple--we just had it trimmed (it hadn't been maintained in YEARS) and so it's looking sort of sad right now. It might still work to decorate it with lights ,but it doesn't look now as it did in the picture. I want to also hit the mailbox with some decorations, but not sure what yet. thanks to all for the ideas so far!! Judithva, I adore that house you posted--would love to achieve something close to that look!

I personally would be happy with very little or no Christmas decor - I have tubs and tubs in the basement too. I've pared down but, every year I put out the outdoor lights, setup the tree and take everything out of the built in bookshelf so the Christmas village has a home. I do this for my son because he gets so much pleasure out of it and I know at 11 years old, he'll only be interested in all of this for a few more years. Your six year old's stocking hanging is precious. Enjoy letting them decorate the house - they get so much pleasure out of Christmas at this age - it doesn't have to be overboard, but can still look festive. For the last few years, my son has "decorated" the tree. We have a prelit artificial tree, so all I have to do is set it up and plug it in. I used to get so stressed about where every ornament was and whether the little ones were on top etc. One year he told me - I'll do it Mom, you don't have to worry! I think we was about 9 at the time. So in total frustration with the whole holiday gig I said - sure have at it. Of course only the bottom half of the tree had ornaments, and I controlled myself to the point of only rearranging a few so they were a little more balanced. It was still very pretty, and I wasn't exhausted and stressed at the end, so now he decorates the tree and I do the Christmas Village. Somehow DH gets out of all this Christmas decor setup...hmmm!