Off to the "Dutch Country" of Pennsylvania early tommorrow. One of our main stops will be "The Green Dragon" farmer's market and auction in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. On the way to the Lancaster area, we plan to stop in York, PA. The "Historic York, Inc. & Architectual Warehouse" is located in downtown York, PA. They are loaded with lots of goodies that are great for anyone restoring an old home or finding accents for your decorating projects. We are interested in columns or posts that we may use for the construction of the pergola that is slated to go over part of our new patio. We also plan to stop at both "Big Lots" and "Ollies" to search for "cheap" shower curtains and curtain rings that we will use temporarily in our new downstairs bathroom. We have decided to do this until we are ready to spend the large sum that is necessary to purchase the frameless glass shower panels that the shower was designed to have. I found curtains in an Ollies nearby, but the colors that they had available would definitely not work for us. I'm hoping to find either clear, white, or off white and would be satisfied with just a liners. The shower enclosure will need one curtain that will be stationary and one that will open/close.

Along the way, there are quite a few consignment shops that I have visited in the past. One or two that are exceptional, but I don't think that shopping for clothing is as large a priority on this trip as in the past. Friday yard sales may slow our progress and throughout this area of Pennsylvania, the garden centers offer wonderful bedding plants, hanging baskets, etc. and we intend to check several locations as we travel.

Colorful Plant Choices

We would like to get to "The Green Dragon" in the early afternoon in order to attend their indoor auction. In years past, we have been able to buy great plants that people have divided from their own personal gardens and brought to auction. We've gotten great iris specimens and quite a few other perennials at prices far below garden center costs. In the past, we have also been able to buy large quantities of "fresh picked" strawberries at this time of the year. The other choices of food items from Amish and Mennonite farmer vendors is outstanding.

In the early evening, we plan to drop down to the Lancaster outlets. Instead of returning home, we will visit my parents, nearby in Maryland, for the night and return home on Saturday. Updates on our trip and any successful finds will follow in future posts.

Landscaping Progresses

Single Gardenia Blossom From New Perennial Shrub

This spring we are in the process of major re-landscaping projects in our backyard. The construction of the new addition to our house played havoc with the condition of our yard. Because our kids have grown, we removed an above ground pool at the rear of our yard as well as the decking, which was in great shape, but was useless without the pool. This spring we have built four raised garden beds for vegetables and some annual flowers. We are laying brick paths around them with the old paving brick that we are recycling from one of our former patios. A rock garden that had bordered one side of the pool has become overgrown with lots of ivy and weeds and it will take quite a lot of work and time to reclaim the area.

Beginning last weekend we are working on the area immediately surrounding the new patio outside of our new sunroom. The new addition changed the elevation a lot and we have had to disperse lots and lots of soil. We have just created one terrace on the small hill that rises from the patio up to main yard. We have also recycled limestone boulders and stepping stones to create steps to navigate the hill.

As a beginning, we have planted two "soft-touch" holly "mounding" shrubs, two perennial gardenia shrubs, and three perennial blue salvia on the first terrace.


Close-up of Soft Touch Holly Foliage

Example of Soft Touch Holly Bush

Sample of Perennial Blue Salvia

The gardenia is one of my favorite flowers and I hope that I have better luck with these outdoor specimens than I have had with the indoor plant. Future updates to follow.....

Gardinia Shrub in Bloom

Small Bathroom Expansion

Chandelier For New Bathroom

A dilemna that has been facing us is how to best expand our former powder room on the first floor into a full bathroom. Living in and remodeling an old house has a multitude of challenges. A short history might explain the evolution of our house.

The town of Charles Town was incorporated in 1786, with its plans developed by Charles Washington, brother of George. The original portion of our house was a small brick building that may have been an overseer's or groomsman's cottage for the house on a lot next to us that dates pre-1800 (this was the house of George Washington's attorney/property manager). The original foundation for this part of our home is dated to approximately 1790 or so. In 1889, a Jefferson County merchant built a large Victorian house which was attached to the side of the original smaller brick building. Sometime, soon after this time, almost as an after-thought, "indoor" bathrooms were then added to the back side of these buildings. Why it was done this way remains a mystery to us. After we purchased the house, we eventually divided a larger bedroom to create a master bathroom connected to our bedroom, since the "walk" to the original upstairs bathroom, at the back of the house, could be quite inconvenient as well as cold during the winter months. Because of these irregular additions, when we first moved into the house there were five doors from the outside into the house.

Recently, when we added a large addition to our old home we decided to expand our first floor bath. Originally this "powder room" was an add-on to the Victorian house that had been added onto the small original building. It was connected to a small, closet size laundry niche which was originally one of the earlier entrances to the house from the backyard. The problem for expanding and remodeling this space is that all of the walls of this bathroom are brick because at one time or the other they were all outside walls. And when I say brick, I mean thick courses of brick. Adding space to the powder room could only be achieved (without major financial pain and design nightmares) by knocking out the plaster wall between the powder room and the very small laundry area to make a small full bathroom.

Taking the space limitations into consideration, we decided on a walk-in shower, eventually with frameless glass surround, vanity and toilet. A decision was made to completely tile two of the walls and paint the others, making it a little easier to change out wall accents in the future.

Over the last year, I have searched for a vanity to use in this room. Even though we are able to order items at cost, I was unhappy to find how "over-priced" most of these pieces can be. Wholesale costs for real wood vanities very often started at $900.00 and up and particle board pieces very often started at $300.00 and up. In such a small space, I could not justify paying that kind of money and decided to start a search for a piece of vintage/used furniture that we could adapt as a vanity. This was not as easy as it sounds, because the size of our space limited us as to what pieces would fit. We also decided that we would go with a vessel sink so that we could use as much of the storage space that a furniture piece would afford us.

About a month ago, I bought a "newer vintage" painted chest with coordinating oval mirror at an auction. Soon after, we bought a white porcelain vessel sink. Looking for a faucet became a challenge. We didn't want to wait weeks or months for a special order vessel sink faucet to arrive. Finally, we found a faucet on which we compromised because it was more contemporary than we wished it to be and it didn't match the fixtures that we already had for our shower....but it will do for now!

My husband is now in the process of adapting the chest and the plumbing (which he had installed for a more typical vanity configuration) so that the sink and faucet can be installed. Instead of having an expensive cut (the top of the chest is scalloped) of granite, etc., we are applying many coats of polyurethane to the vanity top. We hope to save 2/3 of the top two drawers and all of the bottom drawer in the chest for bathroom storage. Since this bathroom is just steps away from our new mud/laundry room, I will keep the less attractive cleaning supplies stored there.


Adapting Chest Into Vanity

The shower doors will come later....the cost of the frameless glass doors is very high, even at wholesale! The shower may be used as it is since it is surrounded by tile...we might temporarily install a curved shower rod for curtains until we decide to put out the money for the glass.

I've included some photos of fixtures that we are using as well as an "in process" photo of the vanity project. I will update our project in future posts.


Vessel Sink and Faucet

Shower Fixtures With Rain Shower Faucet

If it ever stops raining today, I intend to put bedding plants into some of our decorative outdoor planters. I know that we always need the rain, but after two weeks, it is getting very frustrating when we have so much outdoor landscaping work to accomplish!

St. Augustine Wedding Week Highlights

Trinity Episcopal Parish

Cinderella's Castle In Daytime

Cinderella's Castle At Night

Our Daughter with Chip & Dale

Mickey's Train Station With Holiday Lights

Outside Our Beach House

Our Daughter and "Grandchild" Issy

View To The Beach

A few more photos to document our week in Florida following our family wedding. Our beach house was located at Vilano Beach, just across the intercoastal waterway from St. Augustine.

Return To Blogging

Trinity Episcopal Wedding Ceremony

Coming Out Of Church

Wedding Cake

Reception at the Casa Monica during the

Nights of Lights

White, Black, Pink, Gold
Candy Bar

After many months away, I have made the decision to return to blogging. My absence was brought on by months of wedding preparations followed by normal life stresses. I have periodically followed other blogs' postings, but have never seemed to find the time to post myself.

Our son was married on November, 2008 in St. Augustine, Florida. We spent over a week in the area. The wedding and related events went off beautifully. During the week following the wedding, we traveled to Disney World for a whirlwind day and a half. Nine years prior to this, my husband, daughter and I had been in Disney World. During our week there, each of us had bouts with viruses and we missed time on our tickets. At our departure we were told that our tickets would never expire. We promised our daughter that we would return (she loves Disney World) in the future, and she had reminded us of that for 9 years. So... since we were so close to Orlando at the time of the wedding, we decided to return and find out if our tickets would still be valid. Our nephew had never been to Disney World, therefore my brother and sister-in-law decided to come with us.

Upon check-in, we were pleasantly surprised to find that our "multi-park" tickets were still valid and each of the three of us had one full day left to spend in the parks. That was a very exciting financial discovery! What was quite eery, was that they could scan our "cards" and know exactly when and where we had visited the various parks on our visit 9 years prior! A little bit like
"big brother," but reassuring for security purposes. Even at 19, our daughter was delighted to be back at the parks. We spent most of our time in the Magic Kingdom, but flew to Epcot and Hollywood Studio sites for a few highlights. Our nephew was thrilled with his visit and decided to stay in the Magic Kingdom throughout the day. Even though my husband and I were marking our 7th trip to Disney World we found the experience still very enjoyable and look forward to taking grandchildren in the future!

Our son and daughter-in-law have been living with us while they prepared to take the Florida Bar exam. At the beginning of April, they were thrilled to find that they both passed the bar and are now in the process of job applications. Our daughter will be completing her sophomore year in college in less than two weeks and we will travel to South Carolina to bring her home.

Over the last several months, I have attended a few auctions and was able to find several items for our continuing job of completing our house addition, renovations and decorating.

We have almost finished our expanded downstairs bathroom. The new walk-in shower is ready for use, but still waiting for the frameless shower doors. The doors are extremely expensive, even wholesale, so we will use the shower as is (because tile surrounds the area) until we are ready to commit that amount of money to that project. I was also disappointed at how expensive even "lower end" vanities were going to cost...again, even wholesale. Particle board started at about $400 and up (retail) and real wood started at $1,000 and up (wholesale) and this was only for a 36" vanity. I decided to go with a vessel sink and went on the hunt, for months, to find a piece of furniture to adapt for use as a vanity. I finally found a newer "vintage" chest, with matching mirror, at a local auction. The chest has three drawers, at least one of which I will lose for plumbing. It is painted black with some gold floral accents. The mirror is oval and quite large and matches in color, etc. Finding an affordable faucet was more of a challange, especially since I didn't want to wait 5 weeks on more to order wholesale. Compromised on the design and we are beginning to install everything this weekend. Hope to post some photos in the near future.

We had our first yard sale for the season last weekend, but this weekend the rain forecast caused us to postpone the next yard sale. We will be having more than ever this year because we have so much to de-clutter from home and left-over inventory from our gift store to "unload." We have considered a local flea market for some of our store stock, but that is so much work to pack, transport, and re-store from week to week. We have leased our former "brick and mortar" store location and have a lot stored that we would like to liquidate that I will not be using in our "online" stores.