Centers And Squares
Archive for the 'Everything Else' Category
Trick or Treating on Melville Ave Dorchester – Boston Globe Article
Trick or Treating on Melville Ave Dorchester – Boston Globe Article The Boston Globe had a front page article today about Halloween trick or treating in Dorchester on Melville Avenue.
Melville Avenue is a lovely street – lined with handsome Victorians on spacious lots. The Codman Square House Tour, which sadly was discontinued several years ago, always featured houses on Melville Ave and nearby so I’ve been in many of them.
Turns out that this Victorian neighborhood is also a destination spot for Boston trick or treaters.
One homeowner “plans to give out some 2,000 Reese’s peanut butter cups, packets of M & Ms and Milk Duds, and lollipops.” 2,000!! I’m lucky to get 30 trick or treaters and am consumed by envy.
Another resident remembers that “one year, 50 children formed a line outside their front doors, patiently waiting their turn for treats”.
Read more about this Halloween extravaganza in the Boston Globe article about Melville Ave, Dorchester trick or treating.
Pie In The Sky – Community Servings Fundraiser
Pie In the Sky - Community Servings Benefit
Pie In The Sky – Community Servings Fundraiser It’s that time of year again – time for pie.
Each year the Community Servings fundraiser, Pie In the Sky, sells Thanksgiving pies donated by Greater Boston restaurants, bakers and caterers.
Each pie sold helps to provide a week’s worth of meals delivered to home bound folks struggling with AIDS, cancer or MS.
Many people choose to support Community Servings by buying all of their Thanksgiving pies from Pie In The Sky.
Pies are distributed on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Our Coldwell Banker office at 171 Huron Ave in Cambridge is a pick-up location. It’s a festive day each year as people come by to pick up their apple, pecan, pumpkin or sweet potato pies that are piled in our conference room.
Pies are $25 or you can buy a “raffle pie” for $75 and get a gift wrapped apple pie and an entry in the raffle for special prizes. There are some super raffle prizes including a Boston Sports Package with game tickets; a Harvard Square package with tickets to a show, dinner at the Casablanca and a hotel room; and a Bose sound system.
Pie orders should be placed by November 20th.
Click here to Buy A Pie – or two or three!
Save The Pink Bathroom – Website Wednesday
Mine's Blue - But Pink Is Good Too
Save The Pink Bathroom – Website Wednesday Vintage bathrooms – of the 1940s to 1960s vintage that is – quite often are blue or pink. Completely blue or completely pink.
My house came with the blue version – blue floor, blue ceramic tile, blue tub, toilet and sink. Every accessory was blue too – shower curtain, scale, cup, etc.
Turned out the toilet was a goner when I moved in. The plumber looked worried, “I don’t think I can get a toilet that color”. I confess to replying “No problem!”. I was not yet an appreciator of the vintage colored bath.
It’s the pink bathrooms though that really seem to freak out homebuyers. Guys, in particular, typically can’t seem to get their head around the all-pink decor.
One of my favorite websites, Save the Pink Bathrooms, is just what you need to make that mental shift and see your pink – or blue – vintage bath as a feature, not a defect.
Save the Pink Bathrooms is an offshoot of Pam Kueber’s fabulous blog Retro Renovation and many of the links will lead you there (be careful – you may find yourself reading for a long time – it’s addictive).
So don’t run from that house or condo with a pink bathroom – embrace it. Play up its vintage fabulousness – or decorate it with complementary wallpaper (yes – wallpaper – it can be the perfect contrast to the colored tile) and accessories. Vintage baths from this era were installed when quality materials were the norm and many of them have a lot of years left.
Save the Pink Bathrooms! And the blue ones too!
At Home by Bill Bryson
At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson
At Home by Bill Bryson It didn’t take me long after reading the Boston Globe‘s review of Bill Bryson’s newest book to head on over to Porter Square Books to pick up a copy.
The book is irrestible to me – about one of my favorite subjects, written by one of my favorite authors.
In At Home: A Short History of Private Life Bill Bryson delves deeply (it really isn’t “short” – it’s a hefty 497 pages) into the history of each room in his Victorian house in chapters that include The Cellar, The Bedroom, The Stairs, The Nursery, and many more. The topics in At Home are actually far ranging as Bryson’s plan was to write “a history of the world without leaving home”. I’ll have to report back on just what that entails since I haven’t yet finished – ok – started – the book.
Books about the idea of home – it’s history and evolution, what we think about it, what people thought about it in the past, etc. – line my shelves. I’m delighted to get Bill Bryson’s take on it.
Bryson’s been one of my favorites since I first read The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America years ago. Bryson wrote about America as he retraced the vacation trips of his childhood. It’s laugh-till-you-cry-funny. There are a number of Bryson books in my collection but another favorite is A Walk In the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail.
If you haven’t been introduced to Bill Bryson’s books you’re in for a treat.
At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson is published by Doubleday and available at your local bookstore.
Antique Boot Scrapers
Antique Boot Scrapers at the Emerson House
Antique Boot Scrapers One of my favorite things to find outside an older house is a vintage bootscraper.
Many a New England front porch or granite threshold has a wrought iron or cast iron boot scraper or two.
Older boot scrapers were simply designed like the pair at right at the Emerson House in Concord.
Victorian versions are more ornate and eventually figural versions such as a Scotty Dog or Dachshund were produced.
But give me the simple lines of an early bootscraper outside an old New England house.
More House Parts We Love
Book Lovers Photoblog – Website Wednesday
Books As Art - Round Bookcase
Book Lovers Photoblog Book filled rooms are one of my all time favorite things. I counted once – there are 33 bookcases in my house – and the “excess” piled everywhere. If you’re a booklover you’ll want to check out Book Lovers Never Go To Bed Alone. It’s a mesmerizing collection of photos of books, libraries, bookstores, and book filled rooms.
More Website Wednesday
Cambridge Gardening Company
Cambridge Garden on Harvard Street
We passed this exquisite garden on Harvard Street in Cambridge during our weekly tour of new listings today. It’s a glorious living advertisement for Cambridge gardening company, Talbot’s Creative Gardening. Check out their website for info about who they are and what they do. What they do is magical if this garden is any indication.
Found Magazine – Website Wednesday
Child's Drawing of a House - Found in My Driveway
Found Magazine – Website Wednesday I found this drawing in my driveway and it reminded me of one of my favorite websites – Found – the website for Found Magazine.
The drawing is the classic child’s version of a house – a square with a triangle on top. In real life it’s a very appealing house silhouette. I had to chuckle when I looked closely at the drawing – figures in the age of McMansions that a kid would draw a two-story house – mine never had an upper floor.
The Found website highlights things people find that give us a glimpse into other people’s lives – notes, letters, doodles, grocery lists… The best are truly hilarious.
I first heard Found’s founder, Davy Rothbart, on NPR years ago. The story of his first find is on the website – a rant left on his windshield, clearly meant for someone else. That note led to collecting more found notes, etc. from friends and eventually snowballed into a magazine, books, a website, and readings around the country.
Website Wednesday
Copyright © 2008 - 2010 Centers And Squares Agent Login Design by Real Estate Tomato Powered by Tomato Real Estate Blogs
