The Guest Room

IT'S GONE !!

The last vestige of our 1970s horror decor -also known as "Temple Gothic"- has gone the way of the dodo. It has taken us 23 years, but we did it.

Before I continue with the background of our quarter century decorating saga on Viewcrest Circle, check out the colors of the title above. You've got the closest my electron palette can come to the wallpaper colors. There was Granny Smith apple green shag carpet (that left a long time ago), stripes of large (at least 6" across) daisey-type flocked flowers of green and blue with golden centers. Between these stripes were vertical blue flocked stripes with small white flocked polka dots on a pearlized white background. Having 2 outside walls, and inadequate heating, the flocking on these walls became cold, damp, and vaguely slimy to the touch in winter weather. EEWOOOOOO!! (approximation of squeamish exclamation) The window valance was matched to the wallpaper, and it had a green ball fringe.

The room temperature problem was fixed by diverting a heat duct, but the decor remained. Since it was always a dedicated guestroom, and rarely occupied for more than a week at a time by anyone; we decided there were other areas of the house which needed our attentions first--

For Instance---

Silver foil paper with large pink rosebuds in our bedroom, which was set off nicely by the fuschia crushed velvet drapes, swag type bordello lamps, and a 16' wall of gold accented smoked glass mirrors (a la cocktail lounge). There was also tri-color pink shag carpet. Bright red shag covered the rest of the top floor, with the living room containing more smoked glass and a black lava rock fireplace which filled an entire wall. The kitchen was, of course, avocado green and harvest gold. There were large Henri Rousseau type sunflowers (fortunately, no lions) smiling at us from the walls, the surface of the paper being a plastic resembling patent leather. Brushed Aluminum light fixtures finished off the kitchen . American flag shades of red and blue in a small geometric design completed John's den. That did it for the entire upper level except for the hall and bath, which were a gold foil which had oxydized to have a greenish tint. Well, actually there were other areas of smoked glass scattered around that have been gone so long I nearly forgot about them.

That out to give you a pretty good idea. The other 2 levels were like unto it, with the second level done largely in apple green shag, and the 3rd level in dark blue.

When we looked at this house, I told the realtor a very emphatic "ABSOLUTELY NOT" The realtor- like any good realtor (or used car salesman) would- said "What's wrong with it?" I told him that every single room of its 4500 some odd (very odd) square feet would have to be redecorated. To which he relpied-"Oh, that stuff is merely cosmetics." RIGHT! We're talkin' major plastic surgery here, NOT just Cover Girl from the grocery store! Check out Mags' blogsite http://madnesseveryday.blogspot.com/ about the Humane Society worker who foisted Teryx off on their unsuspecting household. These two men are definitely spirit cousins.

Why did we buy it?? It fit our needs sizewise, had a dynamite view, and our kids had requested a hot tub and a basketball hoop, which it had. It had a flat, east facing driveway (easier for snowblowing); and it did NOT have 2 acres of grass to cut with a walk-behind lawnmower, which we had been dealing with in Virginia for the past 10 years. Also, we did not want to make another 2000 mile trip from Virginia to start the search all over again. It has been a comfortable house with very few surprises, and now it is completely decorated AND IN GOOD TASTE!

Most of our un- and re- decorating took place before digital cameras, which means the real horror show pictures exist only in prints. Someday I will scan a few to give the world a view of our house as it was.

Here, for your beholding, however, is the chronicle of the guestroom project.

Please do come and visit. We promise you won't have nightmare floral flashbacks for the next 6 months.

It never occurred to me that pink could be a threatening color. But there it is. Under the flowered flocked paper, there dwelt an uglier color paint. We call it "Gredelian pink."





Here is some more of it. Too bad I had already sent the flowered, ball fringed valance packing off to Goodwill --though like Maria's clothes in "The Sound of Music", I doubt that even the poor will want it.

Now, here you have the entirely tasteful

GREENLEE REVISION Light jonquil walls with wisteria trim; valance and bedspread of like colors; and jonquil pleated cell blinds.

Whoda thunk that after 23 years, the revision would only take 2 days.

WOW !!

In fact:

ZOWIE!!

SMOKE AND ROCKETS, COMMANDER!!

(For those of you old enough to have tuned in to "Space Cadet" on the Saturday morning radio times of your childhood)

WE'LL LEAVE THE LIGHT ON FOR YOU!

SIGNS OF SPRING

They really are everywhere. It takes a bit of rooting around-- and a lot of patience. But there you have it, columbine returning from the dead and tulips that even the mule deer haven't found yet. Deer love tulips, and they hasten to eat them right off , bud and all. They like a lot of other things too, but many of those things don't have the blossom right there along with the first leaves. For instance, deer regularly crop off the day lilies, but since day lilies don't bloom until July, they don't get the blossoms. The leaves grow back, and by the time they bloom, most of the deer have retreated up into the woods for the summer. Tulips are pretty risky business though. It's time to get out with the deer netting.

Rose canes are turning green and are beginning to sprout tiny red leaf buds

Forsythia are thinking hard about it

Pussywillows are actually doing it

The first snow drop shows a shy little petal

....... (it doesn't really grow sideways)



















The Forget-Me Nots are ready to go

THE NANDINA

A very special heritage plant for us. Our first nandina were suckers dug from Fred and Helen Trew's plants when we bought our first and mostly unlandscaped house in Charlottesville in 1976. They invited us to civilize our yard- which had very recently been a field- by digging extras of anything at their house. Later, we gave suckers to Grenelle and Peter Delany to landscape their new house. On a visit in 2005, I asked Grenelle if I might take home some of the nandina suckers she was digging out. We laughed at how they had come full circle.

Nandina do not readily grow here, though they do in Oregon. In the east, Charlottesville is just about at their northern limit. Furthermore, the Rockies have alkaline soil, which a lot of things don't like. These plants have been ceaslessly hovered over and protected with love. They are in an eastward facing spot and are protected on 3 sides. In previous winters they have lost most of their leaves and had to begin all over again. They have always been game to hang in there though. This winter, they kept all their leaves (they are not supposed to be deciduous) in spite of weeks sitting under a 3 foot pile of ice from the snowblower. They are happily bouncing in the breezes ready to make new leaves. Perhaps -if it would not be too much to hope for- this will be the year of a few of those most beautiful red berries.

Here are a few sweetwoodruff and a bulb or two for you, St Francis. Thank you for bringing us through!

SPRINGTIME IN THE ROCKIES

Behold our front yard. It has all the charm of a glacial moraine.

Springtime in the Rockies may be the stuff of romantic song and legend .......BUT those songwriters are living in the subjunctive. Think about it- 4 or 5 months to build up a couple hundred inches of snow in the mountains. Then.... it begins to melt, soak in, and run off. Face it, this is a recipe for dangerously swollen streams and mudslides.

And Viewcrest Circle- usually a gardenspot- looks like a West Virginia coal mining town.

That's where we are right now, There are, however harbingers of better days to come.....

Robins everywhere. .And even though the chokecherries aren't fermented, they're still crazy about them. Perhaps it's because they are good Utah robins.

And there are more signs about if you look closely. Stay tuned as the camera creeps around looking for signs of life.