I enjoyed reading it. Thanks! You forgot the groundhog day cactus, though...

Nice site, Neil. Things are looking good! I was browsing online the other day, and saw gourds growing on a pergola; interesting idea. Could probably use any other type of climbing vegetable - an edible pergola! Cool! PV

Ladyvixen, we were in our 30's in 1985 when we bought our 1898 house. Looking back, we were very young. Neither my husband nor I had any skills or knowledge at all about how to work on houses. All we knew was that our house was nearly intact, was very inexpensive, and that we loved it. I had always wanted an old house, and had been buying things such as light fixtures, hardware, etc., for years before we bought the house. We bought the house "as is". Fortunately we were both employed and had no children. We had to hire almost everything done, and it needed a lot of work. We did not take a vacation for years. Then came a time of around a year or two that my husband was either unemployed or underemployed. During that time, the house just didn't get worked on. We didn't care that we lived in an unfinished house; in fact, I thought it was beautiful from day one. We have a corner in the dining room where all the little balls the cats play with end up, but you don't notice the slope otherwise. It has taken us over 25 years, and we are almost finished, but still have some work to do. We should have it finished by now, but are in our 60's now and do like to take a vacation now and then. Also we sometimes didn't have work done even when we had the money, because we were tired of the mess of having things torn up. We lived with a practically non-existent kitchen until about 2004. I said all along that this house was my dream house. People would look at me funny, but it was and still is my dream house. Don't let others talk you out of your dream. Make the decision based on what you want and what you think you can handle. If you think you can live with an unfinished house for years, go for it. If you have to have everything finished and perfect, you shouldn't buy an old house. I have the ablility to not even see the unfinished stuff until we get ready to do something about it. I meant this to be an encouragement to you, but reading back on it, maybe this will scare you because it has taken us so long. Don't let that scare you--you can do it faster than we did! I will try to attach some pictures if I can.

Another wonderful look back in time, Seniorgal. I was reminded of my mother, who rose through the ranks at a Providence, RI department store to become personal assistant to the director of personnel. (She wouldn't even be hired today, with only a HS degree and a few college courses. This makes me think that today we are leaving capable people behind!) Are you enjoying the Masterpiece Theater presentation "Mr. Selfridge"? I see so many similarities between Selfridge's and Chicago's Marshall Field's -- where Selfridge began his career. I've yet to see the story include the overhead tubes through which capsules of cash from the customer went to the accounting office, with any 'change' immediately returned. Those fascinated me as a child.