Good Night

Just got in from a little "midnight mowing" and it's time to tuck in. I love to mow after dinner until it gets almost too dark to see anything. See you tomorrow afternoon or later...it's going to be a busy day.

1917 Architectural Design for a $12,500 House

This is my favorite house plan ever! Scanned from one of my 1st edition architectural books. In the early part of the previous century the white pine council published bi-monthly booklets called The White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs ~ A Bi-Monthly Publication Suggesting the Architectural Uses of White Pine and its Availability Today as a Structural Wood. At the end of the year they were hard bound. I have hard bound firsts of volumes 2, 3, and 4. They must be very rare because I have never been able to locate the first volume. I do have a complete set of the modern reprints but nothing compares to the originals!

The house pictured above is one of the winners of a contest called: The Second Annual White Pine Architectural Competition for a House to Cost Twelve Thousand Five Hundred Dollars. It was judged at the Greenbrier in White Sulpher Springs, West Virginia on May 17 & 18, 1917. My guy did not win any of the top prizes (1st ~ 4th) but he is the 5th mention for Design No. 194. I wonder if he became famous in his area? Let me know if you have heard of Benj. Schreyer, New York, N.Y. Don't you wonder if this home was ever built and if it is still standing? There are two enclosed porches on the first floor and two sleeping porches on the second floor. Oh, for a sleeping porch! The plot plan is lovely too.  I did not scan the detail sheet showing the fireplace side of the dining room, the front entrance, a couple of cornices, the north and west elevations. and the cross section.

Hopefully this design will inspire one of my readers and this home will be built again.

UPDATE: I have noticed a lot of interest in this post. I reblogged about this house with full sets of plans HERE.

OCD episode at the clothesline.

It is official ~ I definitely have OCD. I put up a clothesline between two trees behind my garage recently and am loving it. There is nothing like climbing into bed on the first night you have clean sheets that were line dried. They smell like sunshine! I may never use my dryer again! But I have real issues with the basket full of wet clothes! I have to hang like things together which makes for a lot of digging through the pile. Why can't I just pick up an article and hang it up; then hang whatever is as the top of the pile beside it in a random sort of way? But not me...if I hang up one towel I have to look for all the other towels I just washed until they are all together. Same thing with the pillow cases, etc. As far as I know there is no clothesline police. Does anyone else have this problem. Or is it just me?

99 cent gas in Morristown, NJ on 8/3

Now this is post worth reading if you live anywhere near Morristown, NJ. I was reading The Morristown Daily Record online just now and noticed an article about a church that is having a Gas Giveaway and offering really cheap gas (99 cents per gallon) on Sunday, August 3rd at the Exxon station on Morris Street in Morristown across the street from the train station. Make sure your tank is empty three weeks from today! My last gas purchase was cash only @ $3.99 per gallon. See you in line at the gas pump!!! You heard it here first! Afterwards you might want to go to The Morristown Farmer's Market behind Headquarters Plaza. Sounds like a plan!

Lady's Mantle with Dewdrops

I love the way the dewdrops collect around the edges of my lady's mantle. I added the postage stamp border with a great free on-line photo editor called Picnik. I am off to recycling. Enjoy your Saturday.

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Design on an old cement pot.

I made the mistake of planting a boxwood in this great old cement pot and it is beginning to explode. I am afraid it will crumble to pieces if I try to repot the shrub. What a shame. I love the design and the way it has weathered over my 30+ years of ownership. Boo Hoo!

Bees are few & far between!

I have a lot of clover on my 2-acre property. I love it. Not many people have it these days since it is considered a broad-leaf weed. Who decided that things with a broad leaf don't belong in a lawn? Do children get to look for 4-leaf clovers these days? That was practically a rite of passage in my childhood.

The landscapers love those "weed and feed" products. Homeowners should take a stand and stop these applications! Or start taking care of their own lawns. I turned mine over to a landscaper last year and it broke my heart. They used those weed whackers around all the trees and injured the bark. I am doing it alone this year (as I have always done in the past) and have never been happier. I don't have a string trimmer...I use the old fashioned kind that you have to squeeze by hand. I once read that the best thing for a property is the footprints of its owner. Words I shall live by! I try to mow in stages so that the few remaining honey bees will stay around. This colony collapse disorder is a huge problem.

Enjoy your day! Over and out.

Meet Tabitha

She is the best cat in the world. I got her for my mother in December of 2006 from St. Huberts Giralda, the local animal shelter. It was founded in 1939 by Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge. I think she loved animals more than people because that's who got the greatest portion of her considerable estate. We looked at 3 previous locations that were having cat adoptions that day but just couldn't find the right one. We should have gone to St. Huberts first but didn't...can't remember why. We got our dog Webster there. Anyway, we looked at almost every available cat and put them all back. I kept avoiding this one because the note on her cage said she had "hairball" trouble. And they had named her BEACHBALL because of her shape. We were given a private room to test out the felines and when one of the workers brought this cat into the room she immediately picked us to be her family. She nestled herself in and started purring. We took her home and have never looked back. Hairballs don't seem to be a problem either. She gets plenty of outdoor exercise on the long walks we take together and she's lost her beachball shape. The new name Tabitha suits her.