Glenda, I'm so glad that you had fun at your reunion! Stan and I went to my 25th and we had a ball. We sat with a big group of my girlfriends and their husbands and the fellows all got along so well that you would have thought that it was their reunion! My 40th is in two years and I'm planning on being there. I always think about the speech that Suzanne Sugarbaker(on Designing Woman)gave at her 15th class reunion...this little bit is from just about the end of the speech, I always think about it when thinking about going to class reunions... "Because when I look around this room tonight, I don't see receding hairlines and the beginnings of pot-bellies and crow's feet. I just see all the beautiful faces of old girlfriends and sweet young boys who used to stand on my front porch and try to kiss me goodnight. And you can remember me any way you'd like, but that's how I'll always remember you."

What good sleuths you are! A Delft vase indeed, Annpan. And Woodnymph, I believe the answer is in the spelling you found - apparently the word is tulipiere rather than tulipier. I wonder if this was a typo in the book, or a spelling variation that no dictionary seems to mention. The pictures on the recommended websites are wild. I don't know how one could miss noticing such an object upon first visit, as the book suggests. From Wikipedia: A tulipiere or tulip-holder is an ornate flower-holder that is usually made of hand-crafted pottery, classically delftware. They are typically constructed to accommodate one single flower stem per spout with a larger common water reservoir base.

Hmmm, let's check that out. Can you post a photo of your whole house? We could try some mock ups to see how it all looks. Think of this: lots of people paint their doors bright colors to make them pop. Their door color doesn't match anything else, yet people have no qualms about that. So maybe a wood door wouldn't look off with a white garage door. And here in colonial country, I can think of many homes with wood doors and white garages.

"What's really sad is that they are your neighbors, and you haven't ever just said hi?" Well, for the first part, they live further down the street, maybe 20-22 houses down to be more precise, so they're not really close neighbours, and for the second part, I work on evening shifts, leaving home at 2 o'clock and I come back usually around 12:45, so when I leave they are still at work and when I come back they're probably sleeping. When they are home in the morning then I'm sleeping. I did however speak with my second door neighbour, who confirmed he really just renovated his upstairs bathroom. Also, It is pretty obvious they did have sewer problems; I have seen plumbers replace their sewer lines from the street to their houses, and lots of drywall, flooring and carpeting went into dumpsters. On two houses, the city even got involved and parts of the street were opened up to perform work down below. So, I might be wrong, but I think it's safe to say there's a 90% chance if I go see them, if they don't tell me to fly off, they will tell me they had sewer problems. Perhaps I could try to get a hold of them during weekends and ask them about the specific reason why they needed the work done, but I thought someone on this forum might already have a clue. I will however ask one or two good plumbers for their opinions.