rhizo_1 - if you click on the blue word Gallery. There are 5 pictures. On balance I think it is a crab apple but the id doesn't really matter much since it is so diseased and decrepit. I think it is well past any rejuvenation by you. There are two possible actions. If you are a neat and tidy gardener looking for healthy, perfect specimens you should cut this down and start again. If you like a slightly mossy Lord of the Rings look to your surroundings and are interested in supporting your local wild life leave it and let it decline naturally. Dying trees support a lot of invertebrates which in turn support birds. They also provide nesting holes and bark crevices for many creatures. It's your choice.

I think your husband needs to stop telling his sister things that get back to your MIL. Your business is private and nothing you say or do should be told to your MIL because she obviously takes that information and figures out ways to use it against you. Also, it would be very enlightening for your husband to hear both sides of a story in a way that he cannot refute. Have him listen in on a conversation with his mother but don't let her know he's listening. Then when she calls him to complain about "how you mistreated her again", he'll see that she is exaggerating everything. Men are fixers. I'm not the least bit surprised that your DH wants you and his mom to get along and that he thinks 2 weeks is enough. Men don't typically hold grudges or over-think things like women tend to do and I think he thinks it's been long enough. (I had a problem like this for years with my late MIL and the day DH figured it all out was an amazing day for all of us. lol She went off on him and opened his eyes forever. BUT, in 2 weeks, he was over it and things went back to almost normal. She was his mom and he wasn't going to cut her out of his life forever, even though she deserved it. She also never apologized or admitted fault, but he knew.) So my feeble advise- never talk to MIL again without a witness in the room, or if it's a phone call, have someone else on the other line, listening. Have a little voice recorder in your pocket if your words are constantly twisted around by her, until your husband sees the light. And avoid her as much as possible if the 2 of you are unable to come to an agreement. Let DH take the kids to visit her, but be careful because she may try to use your kids against you and she will bad-mouth you to them in ways that are subtle but effective. Good luck. I don't envy you at all. My MIL is gone now and my life is a lot less stressful. When she was alive, I was so thankful that I didn't have children for her to corrupt, like she did her other grandkids. Because we had no kids, I was able to remove myself from her drama and lies.

One particular treatment that was done in the 18th and 19th c. when it came to paint, was to paint the entire room in the same color, trim and all. The modern interpretation of this would be to do a higher sheen level on the millwork. This could address the issue of the different sizes of doors and such and minimize the horizontal banding effect of a wainscot. * * * * Mount Pleasant, a Georgian house that has slowly been taken back from colonial revival notions of what it looked like to what it Really looked like --based upon physical analysis-- had very Interesting paint treatment: The entire room, including all the heavy Georgian detail, was painted in one color (a rather drab gold if I remember) The cupboards had a bright paint treatment on the interiors, and there was a brownish black band of paint that ran around the lower 6-9" of the perimeter, intersecting EVERYTHING: door jambs, doors, fireplace, etc...a cut line straight across. (Apparently to hide the splash marks from washing the floors and muddy clothing and such)

Wow -- I want to thank everyone who recommended Thymes' Frazier Fir diffuser. This is our first year with an artificial tree and I really missed the smell. Knowing GW, I did a search and found this perfect thread (!); going to the Thymes' website I found a local (I mean a seven minute drive, door to door) charming shop I'd never seen before. It was incredible! And for whatever reason, they sold it to me for $30 (it should've been $60); I protested but they said "no, that's the price." So I bought a few other bibelots to ease my conscience (and it wasn't hard because it was one of those incredible shops where you want to just move in!). Right down the street from this shop a man was offering hay wagon rides, so my four and two year-olds, husband and I all hopped on and had an incredible ride around this sweet and historic downtown. Then we found an outdoor skating rink, so we rented some skates and pulled each other around. On the walk back to our car a man was handing out homemade candy canes from his candy shop. My four year-old loves candy canes! And all of these wonderful things happened to us today because the generous people here on GW shared Thymes Frazier Fir diffuser. So now I have this gorgeous smell, know about this wonderful local shop, and had a wonderful, serendipitous Saturday. Thank you!