Updates

Posting from my phone, seems like that’s all I have time for these days! So excuse the brevity, typos and poor iPhone photos .

Okay, I know I said I’d update this blog at least once a week, and clearly I have failed on that count. We have been devoting nearly all of our free time to preparing the house for our new arrival in just an estimated 10 weeks!

New bathroom:

Some new and old windows:

Plus tons of painting, patching, stripping, electrical and miscellaneous sprucing up.

And of course, when you start opening up walls you inevitably discover more projects. Turns out our simple electrical job is not so simple and the house needs significant re-wiring!

But we are incredibly lucky to have such wonderful families who have devoted a sizable amount of assistance and sweat equity in this journey! I really don’t know where we’d be without them. SOL for sure! So perhaps I’ll run out of time before I have a chance to DIY a pinterest-worthy nursery. But you learn there are more important things. It really takes a village, and we are so lucky that this baby will be welcomed into his or hers with so much love.

So that is where I’ve been. When I have a chance to breathe, I’ll post about our bathroom, refurbishing the windows, and all our other adventures. Stay tuned!

Fitness routines when there is no routine

Finding an fitness routine that I can stick with is seriously my biggest challenge to working regular exercise into my life.  It is something that is important to me, and I know everyone says “if you REALLY valued exercise you’d find a way to prioritize it.”  Well I agree with that statement.  But just when I feel like I’ve found a good groove, something in my life changes and I’ve got to start all over from scratch.

When I was training for my first and only triathlon, I had a, um, flexible schedule and could easily make time for a trip to the pool or an afternoon run.  Then I started a new job (a week before the race!), moved to a new town and since then have had a much harder time figuring out a routine.

I’ve written about how I’ve tried lunch hour gym time — great when you can work it in, but I found that my days were just too unpredictable to consistently get to the gym during the day.

I’ve also written about run commuting, which I thought would be a good option, but for whatever reason I couldn’t stick with it.  First it was too hot.  Then it was too dark.  I don’t think I live in a dangerous area, but I will say that part of my problem is i don’t feel 100% comfortable running alone after dark around here, and that really limits the number of hours I can carve out for a run!

Then I tried running in the mornings before work.  And it was GREAT.  I thought I’d finally found a routine I could keep up for the long-term.  I’d leave for work a little early, run around the mall, and shower at my work gym.  Throughout August and September, the mornings were the PERFECT temperature for a run.  The scenery was inspiring.  I could never stop myself from pausing to snap photos of the monuments at sunrise.  Such an invigorating start to the workday!

I was making such good progress, getting faster and adding distance.  I was so proud of myself!  I started making tentative goals to sign up for a 10k sometime this year.  But then — the story of my exercise life — circumstances changed on me.  Beautiful August and September turned to October.  It got dark.  And cold.  And I got pregnant.

I bought myself a nice pair of running tights, bundled up, and bravely tried my best to become one of those women who kept on running all 9 months.  But at about 8 weeks, morning sickness and fatigue set in, and apparently my body just really needed to sleep 12-14 hours a day during that time.  One morning, during a brief interlude of feeling normal again, I tried going to the gym, only to discover that gyms and pregnancy do NOT mix.  TOO MANY SMELLS!  Oh my god, all the women with their scented lotions and the man with the horrible BO on the treadmill next to me, I was practically homicidal.  Never.  Again.  Then a few days later my morning sickness came back with a vengeance and I wondered if I had pushed myself too hard.

So I let my gym membership lapse and took it easy until I was sure I was out of the woods, about 14-15 weeks in for me.  I tried to pick up running again, with a really easy 2 mile jog/walk routine, but the next day I was unusually sore and decided not to chance it again.  So I’ve given up running for now, and since I no longer go to the gym I’ve had to get creative about staying active.  Here is my routine now:

Walking.  Lots of walking. 

Between a morning dog walk and the walking I do just getting to and from work/metro, I figure I get in about 40 minutes of walking daily.  I take a route that takes me up some big hills to get my heart rate up, and if for some reason my morning is too frenzied I try to get out for a 20 minute walk during my lunch break.  I know it’s not good for me to be sitting all day anyway.  The biggest challenge has been staying motivated when the weather is ugly, as we seem to have had a number of nasty 35° and rainy days this winter.

Prenatal yoga

I have done yoga extremely sporadically since I took it consistently in college, but I have finally found a prenatal yoga class that I LOVE, that is affordable, and is convenient.  It is seriously my saving grace each week for relieving all the random aches and pains that crop up during pregnancy, and taking the time out to relax and meditate helps with any fears and anxieties that come with the territory.
Prenatal yoga is definitely different than a regular yoga class — much more a focus on stretching, relaxation and opening poses rather than athleticism.  We do a few challenging asanas each week — squatting for two minutes is REALLY HARD, okay! — so there is some emphasis on building strength and stamina, but mostly I leave feeling light, relaxed and limber.
Having an arsenal of yoga asanas has been really helpful as my pregnancy has progressed  and I am starting to get more uncomfortable after long periods of sitting or sleeping.  Stretching and a few poses every night before bed has become a must in order to assure a somewhat sound night of sleep!

Fitness DVDs and TV

I’ve always been one that has needed to get out of my house to really motivate myself, but as mentioned above, the lack of gym membership and daylight to run outside has limited my options!  On top of that, I know that once the baby is here I’ll have precious little time to exercise, and seeing as there are no gyms nearby with childcare, better that I start figuring out a contingency plan now.
Working out at home in short bursts has turned out to be a good solution.  I just needed to find the right programs.
First I tried some of the workouts I could find on Hulu since I was already paying for a subscription.  But it was a pain sitting through the commercials so that never really stuck.

I bought this prenatal yoga DVD in my first trimester before I started classes.  It is okay.  It wastes a little too much time with intros and segues and I get kind of bored by it.  But if I can’t make it to a yoga class, this DVD is a decent substitute.

Then I somehow stumbled across this bar method pregnancy workout DVD.  This one has been my favorite.  It cuts right to the chase.  It is broken into about 15-20 minute segments for each body part (arms, thighs, butt, and abs) that are easily selected if you don’t have the full 45 minutes to devote to a workout that day.  It moves at a quick pace and is broken up with recovery and stretching in between each set, so the 45 minutes go by surprisingly quickly!    I will have to check out a studio or their other “regular” DVDs in the future.

So those are the things that have worked for me thus far.  But with all the constant changes I’m going through lately, perhaps I’ll have to adjust my routine again.  What I’m learning is that flexibility is key, so doing away with the gym is probably a good plan for the long term.  I may not make that 10K goal any time soon, but I know that just being active for about 30 minutes a day is the most important thing, so I’ll live with my modified workouts for now.

How do you keep up a consistent fitness routine?  What types of workouts have been most effective for you?  Have you found any DVDs or at-home routines that you love?

-R

Run commuting?

 

I live an annoying 2 miles from the closest metro stop.  And about 5 miles from my office.  A little too far to walk, but close enough to make the 30-50 minute trek via bus and rail seem agonizing.  I mean, many people run that distance regularly!

So the thought occurred to me recently — why not run it?  But how could that be possible — how could you lug your lunch, clothes and all the other crap I accumulate during the day on a jog home?  Has anyone actually ever tried this?

Well, of COURSE someone has, in this day and age when everyone likens themselves as some sort of Lance Armstrong.  In fact, a little googling revealed a whole community of run commuters with lots of advice on planning routes, carrying your things and tidying up at the office.  This was seeming more and more possible.  Instead of delaying my already long-ish commute home by some time at the gym, why wouldn’t I just kill two birds with one stone, and possibly beat the bus home at the same time?

So one Monday morning I decided to give it a try.  I packed my things in my little backpack that has a waist strap and is lightweight.  I brought a sandwich for lunch instead of something that would require a heavy glass container.  I wasn’t ready to run the whole distance, so I took the metro to my nearest stop and planned to run the two miles home from there.

Well had I paid closer attention to the weather, I would have known that a heat wave decided to spike into the upper 90s that day.  And that the route I had planned out was almost 100% in the bright sun.  Having spent most of year so far on the treadmill, I was not acclimated to running in that kind of heat. With a backpack.  Needless to say, I spent a lot of that 2 miles walking!  And it was a while before I wanted to try it again.

This past Monday I noticed that the high was to be a balmy 89 degrees (94 heat index) and decided to give it a go again.  This time, I mapped out a shadier route and kept it up for about one mile, until I hit a busy intersection and had to stop.  And that stop about did me in.  You know that feeling when you stop running in the summer, and you can just feel the heat radiating off your skin now that there is no longer air moving past you?  Ugh.  I ran for probably most of that remaining mile, but had to start mixing more walking in.  Especially up hills!

But even with the walking, I got home earlier than I would have on the bus.  And that is assuming the bus was on time with no delays.  As it cools off, I am sure it would be a faster commute, but then I’ll also have to consider the waning light in the evenings.

Do you have any creative ideas for commuting? Do you bike, walk or run as part of your commute?  How do you tackle problems such as transporting your gear, cleaning up, and extreme weather or darkness?

-R

The truth about sunscreen

Happy summer solstice!  Mother nature seems to be celebrating with 100° heat and high humidity.  But the arrival of summer begs another discussion:  staying safe in the sun.

 

I grew up spending my summer days on the water and in the pool.  Days  of swim team, fishing, crabbing, boating, or just jumping off the pier were always capped by a week at the beach in August.  In other words:  sunburns were a rite of passage.  I looked forward to the golden tan that developed by the first day of school.  Sunscreen was always an afterthought.

Which makes this fact even scarier:    just one severe sunburn in childhood doubles your chances for melanoma.  These days, I no longer willingly and knowingly allow myself to be exposed to known carcinogens.  A sunburn is just not something to be taken lightly.  Not gonna lie, my vanity also comes into play:  we all can picture what middle age looks like on someone who had a little to much fun in the sun in his or her youth.  Hence, I have become super anal retentive about being protected whenever I’m in the sun.

Not all sunscreens are created equal, however.  There is startlingly little control and regulation over what sunscreens are permitted to advertise and promote in terms of their effectiveness.  There is little quality control over ingredients that may actually exacerbate skin damage.  While conventional sunscreens may prevent you from burning, thus giving peace of mind, they are not all equally effective against cancer.  This is an instance where our regulatory and industry controls have failed, and it is up to the consumer to do the research and protect themselves.

Luckily, the Environmental Working Group publishes a sunscreen guide every year, testing hundreds of sunscreens and reiterating these basic facts:

-UVB rays cause sunburn and cancer.  UVA rays cause cancer but not sunburn.  Many sunscreens are advertised as “Broad Spectrum” or otherwise protective against UVA rays … but very few actually are.  The rules are astonishingly lax.  Cross-reference the guide to ensure that yours is.

-Many sunscreens contain harmful ingredients.  Vitamin A, or retinyl palmitate, is an ingredient in about 25% of sunscreen.  Vitamin A actually increases the skin’s absorption of UV rays.  How does this make any sense????  Oxybenzone, an ingredient found in about 50% of available water resistant sunscreens, penetrates the skin, causing allergic reactions and is a potential hormone disruptor.  Mineral sunblock frequently contains nanoparticles.  Most FDA-approved UV blockers react with sunlight to cause free radical damage to the skin, even as it is protective against UV rays.  Other ingredients are known toxins and known to penetrate the skin.  It seems that choosing the best sunscreen is choosing between the lesser of two evils.  According to EWG, there are effective and safer UV blockers used in Europe that have yet to win FDA approval.

-Bigger is not better.  SPF of 30 should be sufficient protection, and SPF over 50 is false advertising — there is no evidence that these provide significantly better protection.  Don’t believe the hype.  Growing up, I was always told that SPF 15 was adequate, but it depends on how easily you burn, and for many people it is not enough for extended periods of time.

Confused?  Yeah, me too.  There is no “perfect” sunscreen available in the U.S. today.  Luckily the EWG has some helpful advice:

-Mineral blockers, for all their faults, are the best.  Nanoparticles, free radical damage, and pasty white skin aside, mineral sunscreens are the best thing available on the market today.  This is what I use, and while the thick white creme that doesn’t blend so easily took some getting used to, I am happy with them now.

-Sunscreen is not the best defense.  Stay in the shade.  Wear protective clothing, hats and sunglasses.  Minimize your time in direct sunlight in the middle of the day.  Don’t assume that you’re good to go just because you’ve coated your skin in sunscreen.

-Educate yourself.  Check out EWG’s guide and see how your sunscreen is ranked.   You might be surprised!

Summer is such a magical time of year — don’t let a bad sunburn ruin it.  Stay safe out there!

Stay cool!

-R

Kitchen REVEAL!

Okay, that title is a joke, in case it isn’t obvious.  This is definitely not HGTV!

In fact I’ve been putting off writing this post because there are so many little projects and loose ends that still need to be tied.  Some drywall needs patching.  Electrical work.  Transition pieces and shoe molding.  But a funny thing happens in the process of renovating a house:  you get to about 99% done, are satisfied with the results, and suddenly it’s a new season and there are new things to worry about.  Like yard work.  Or studying for the bar exam.  Or avoiding the heat.  Or replacing the front door that your dog walker broke.  You know, those things.  So finishing that last 1% may have to wait until it’s cool enough to feel like working hard again.  But I wrote enough about my kitchen reno over the winter that I don’t want to leave you hanging!

Before…

Foolishly, I did not take any before photos prior to demolition.  The ones below are from the listing.  Suffice it to say that it was BAD.  We thought we might be able to live with it.  Just take off the cabinet doors, spruce up the paint, etc…but once we got in there we realized it was just one giant, disgusting mess.  The laminate countertops and vinyl floors were peeling off.  I could not unscrew the cabinet doors due to the 17 layers of paint, but luckily they were easy enough to pry off with a crow bar thanks to the poor condition of the wood.  There was so much wasted space.  And the pièce de résistance:  the most dreary foam drop ceiling and fluorescent light you have ever seen had been installed over what turned out to be a charming plaster ceiling with an exposed beam. It was HORRIBLE and just a few updates here and there eventually turned into a complete gut job..down to the studs.

After!

Cabinets, sink and countertop are from Ikea and were installed with the help of a contractor.

Drop ceiling was removed and we installed drywall with the help of some family members who know what they are doing.

The backsplash, open shelving and marmoleum floors were all also DIY and would not have been possible without the help of some wonderful and more construction-savvy friends and family!

The backsplash is made of glass subway tiles.  My kitchenaid was obviously the inspiration for the color . The countertop is a solid wood butcher block.  The floor is marmoleum and described in further detail here.

The countertops, cabinets, sink and freestanding counter unit were all from Ikea.  While I would have loved quality, solid wood cabinets and what not, it was not in the budget and we also want to keep open the option of an even more extensive kitchen renovation by bumping it out into the laundry/utility room (see above).  Ikea seemed to have the best balance between price and quality and was also the most eco-friendly compared to others of similar cost — formaldehyde free (which is important for particleboard/MDF products!), low-VOC, and they make efforts to source their wood from sustainable suppliers.  I also prefer Ikea’s design aesthetic — I was pretty set on the idea of a farmhouse sink, and they sell one for less than $200, a price that is pretty incomparable to any other farmhouse sink I could find sold at other big box retailers!

Storage in a small kitchen can be an issue but I’ve tried to embrace the idea of having more things exposed — after all, a kitchen is meant to be used!  It also forces you to edit down your kitchen wares to what you really need and keep things clean!  The open shelving was purely a budget decision, but I like how it looks, and it has worked well for us so far. You can find instructions for a pegboard wall organizer à la Julia Child here.

Well there is obviously a lot of work left to do but I wanted to post an update here.  Maybe soon I’ll have a new front door to report on too!

-R

Mastering the art of the mid-day workout

I don’t mean to imply by that title that I have come anywhere close to “mastering” this art.  And it is an art.  I’ve always squeezed in workouts on my way home from work, but for a variety of reasons lately that has been a challenge.  But I’ve always been in the camp that if you prioritize your health and your body, you’ll find a way rather than make excuses.  So I’m trying to find a way.  With varying degrees of success on any given week.

I’m lucky to have a gym with showers right in my building, and to work in a rather picturesque part of DC.  So in theory, a lunch hour jog should be perfectly feasible!  But we all know how easy it is to remain at our desks and get lured into more and more work.

But I read again recently how dangerous sitting is for long periods of time.  And when I do manage to get a run in, I am so much more productive the rest of the afternoon.  So it really is worth it to take the time for yourself — as hard as it can be to take those steps out the door, I’ve never regretted a workout.

So I try. And here is what I’ve learned along the way:

Pack ahead.  Because let’s be honest:  there is no way in hell I am going to spend my precious few minutes as I’m rushing out the door in the morning to gather my gym clothes.  And if I did, I’d surely forget a crucial element.  You certainly do not want to return from your run, all sweaty and gross, and realize you forgot your shower flip flops.  Ugh.
Pack your bag the night before and leave it by the door.

Arrive prepared.  Heading to the gym locker room when you’ve got a single hour for your workout is like the transitions in a triathlon:  you try and shave off as many seconds as you can.  Outfit permitting, I will put my socks/sports bra/etc on in the morning and carry my normal workday ones to change into in my gym bag.  I mean, it can take a long time to have to change your socks twice!
It’s also honestly a little weird to be changing in a locker room when at any moment you could run into one of your colleagues.  So I try to minimize my time there…

Have a plan.  I know how far I can run down the mall before I have to turn around.  I’ve timed it perfectly so that at the end of my 5 minute cool-down, I am walking through the door of the gym.

Transition #2.  One of my longtime hesitations about working out before or during work was:  how do I do my hair and makeup?  Do I really have to lug the entire contents of my bathroom drawers with me to work?  The thought of blowdrying my hair in the gym locker room was kind of a deal breaker for me.
So guess what?  I don’t.  I jump in the shower, rinse off quickly, but avoid my hair.  And it’s fine.  Nothing that a little dry shampoo can’t handle.  If you have long hair, you can pull it back too and no one will know the difference.
Sweat, unlike makeup, is water soluble so all it takes is a quick rinse in the shower with water to clean up — just make sure you have removed your makeup beforehand.   I don’t wear much makeup on days I head to the gym — just foundation and eyeliner, really, and quickly wipe it off as soon I get there.  When I finish my workout, all it takes is just another quick re-dusting of foundation and I’m good to go.

Now, if someone has any advice for how to still make it to the gym when your boss unexpectedly drops a pile of work on your desk just as you were heading out and the rest of your afternoon is filled with meetings?  I’m all ears…

-R

The sacred and the mundane

There is so much comfort in the familiar — in the same sights and smells that come back each season and provide a sense of renewal and yet fond reminiscence — a reminder that time is, in many ways, cyclical, not linear.
For me, here on the east coast of the US, this is what the spring means to me — thawing soil, lily of the valley, fresh-cut grass, new mulch, and yes, even the pleasantly unpleasant smell of those awful, invasive bradford pears that give the appearance of a fresh snowfall in March.  In the summer?  Fresh basil and Old Bay, tomato vines and charcoal grills.  In fall the familiar is harder to pinpoint — rotting leaves, crisper air, the hay bales at the pumpkin patch.  In winter it is the omnipresent smell of wood burning fireplaces, Christmas trees, clean, damp air.

And yet, in chatting with a friend who works for the travel industry, it occurred to me that some things I cherish the most are cherished precisely because they are exotic.  Perhaps one of my very favorite flowers is one that you’d never see here at all.  It is just something that reminds me of happy, youthful, relaxed and incredibly memorable trips I’ve taken to warmer climes.  So it got me thinking — what are some sensory experiences that take you back to somewhere NOT familiar — a place that is special to you even if you’ve only been once or twice, because of the fond memories it holds?

I have been fortunate in my life to have had work trips and educational experiences that have taken me to some of my favorite places on earth — but this is not just about checking foreign countries off your bucket list.  It is also about discovering the exceptional in the mundane.  Some of the items on my list are not really that exotic — I just think of them that way given the context in which I experience them.
So while I could go on and on about my favorite native Maryland flowers, foods and experiences, here are some things I love because they remind me of elsewhere in space and time:

Bougainvillea
The aforementioned favorite flower.  Quite simply:  you know you are in paradise once you see the bougainvillea growing.  On my patio of the house in South Africa I lived in for a semester.  Lining the retaining walls of southern France where I spent a summer in college.  Growing nearly wild and uncontained in Costa Rica and Vietnam.  It’s copious fuchsia flowers are hard to miss.  They seem to be always in bloom, like the perpetual summer that is the tropics, a place where you never have to worry about packing away your flip flops.

Photo from wikimedia commons

Garlic+Ginger
These two aromatics, when combined, will forever remind me of the cold 10 days I spent in China.  You’d be hard pressed to find a menu item that did not include the two.  It is on every person’s breath.

Cafe au lait
I was never a coffee drinker before I spent a summer in a French immersion program in Aix-en-Provence.  But France will change you like that.

Rosé wine
I’m not talking about any of that sweet zinfandel crap.  I mean the dry, Provençale rosé the southern French drink all summer long.  You can buy it here, imported, but some how it’s not quite the same.  When I cracked open a bottle I brought back myself, I was immediately transported back to Provence.  I haven’t found one here in the US that brings that same sensation.

Wild Blueberries
One of my (guilty?) pleasures is buying specifically the wild frozen blueberries to add to my morning oatmeal.  Because they remind me of the amazing week I spent in Acadia National Park, where you can grab blueberries by the handful on the side of the road in August.  I had never seen anything like it.

Sweet tea
I prefer my iced tea unsweetened, but when in Rome (AKA the south)…you do as the southerners do, and drink sweet tea, in spite of the inevitable sugar overload.

Champagne
One of the more disturbing trends I have noticed encroaching into weddings throughout the US is the serious lack of sparkling wine flowing all night.  Champagne may not be everyone’s usual drink of choice, but it is what you imbibe when you are celebrating something.  When you drink it, it reminds you of those happy, celebratory times.  But it goes beyond that:  weddings, new year’s eve, life transitions:  champagne is what we drink when we want to mark the optimism of a new beginning.  It signifies not only joy, but shared hope and anticipation.  Life will not always be easy and fun, but it’s important to take time to stop and celebrate on those occasions, when, if only for a moment, everything you see on the horizon is going to be perfect.  Life needs more champagne, not less.

Fondant
Everyone says that this icing tastes terrible, that it is just for decoration.  But I love it, probably for the same reason I love champagne.  I did not have it on my own wedding cake, a decision I have come to regret.

Pomp & Circumstance
Because I needed an audio cue to add to this list.  Graduation season is upon us and I count myself among those who will be enduring another long-ass graduation ceremony this year (LOL, sorry honey!).  But no matter who it is, even I, an avowed graduation-hater, gets a little choked up when this song starts playing.  Partly because it brings back fond memories of my days in high school band.  But in all seriousness, completing a degree is a significant achievement, no matter how long it takes or what number it is, and I’d venture to say that hearing this song allows us all to relive that unique combination of relief and accomplishment we once felt about that onerous final paper being done and done once again.

Cannoli
I know, I am probably one of 100 million people who would list this as well, but any time I am in a little Italy, whether NYC, Baltimore…I must get myself some cannoli.

What are some things you love precisely because of the rarity with which you experience them?  Nutella?  The smell of Jasmine?  UNsweetened iced tea?  Leave a comment!

Streetcar suburbs, bungalows, and the American craftsman movement: a brief history

In spite of all the HGTV I watch, to be honest, I didn’t know much about what a bungalow is until I decided to buy one. And of course, once I did learn about them it just gives me another reason to feel smug about my decision to live in a uh, “up and coming” neighborhood instead of the cushy 1990s-era suburbs where I grew up .

Bungalows perhaps exemplify the Arts and Crafts movement, which began in Britain as a rejection of both over-wrought, ornate Victorian styles, as well as, according to Wikipedia, “the Industrial Revolution, with its disregard for the individual worker and degradation of the dignity of human labor.”  Craftsman design seeks to emphasize clean, simple lines and handmade craftsmanship over the mass-produced.

William Morris, Artist, Utopian Socialist, and Father of the Arts and Crafts Movement (photo from Wikimedia commons)

Throughout the United States, the original suburbs began to pop up on the outskirts of major cities as streetcar lines were built — Mount Rainier is one such “streetcar suburb.”  In the early 20th century, you could purchase a little plot of land in these early developments, select and build your own home from the Sears catalogue, and live out the American dream.

Bungalows were designed to be accessible to your average American worker.  They are small but efficient — definitely no “bonus rooms” or wasted space here.  Designed “for the people,” bungalows introduced certain design elements that would never have been found in Victorian-era homes — for example, the eat-in kitchen, for families to gather while meals were prepared, since servants were not doing the work.

A typical craftsman bungalow in Seattle (Photo from wikimedia commons)

Once the automobile achieved its prominent spot in society and streetcars were dismantled, these close-in communities began to decline alongside their urban counterparts in the shadow of the more distant suburbs and exurbs we know and love (or love to hate) today.  As developers, rather than homeowners, began designing people’s homes for them, neo-eclectic homes, with little creativity but lots of square footage and prominent garages, of course, began to dominate architectural styles.  But these days, with McMansions falling out of favor and ever longer commutes, the historic streetcar suburbs may make a resurgence.

Yeah, what the heck is this? (photo from wikimedia commons)

Old homes may be a hassle, but in the long run, it has been found that restoring the existing housing stock is greener and more efficient than continual expansion of new construction.  I take comfort in the fact that while my house may need some modernization and cosmetic updates, it has been standing for 90 years, and was built with the loving hands of its owners rather than some developer who is solely concerned with the bottom line.  In other words, it’s got good bones.

It’s not something I ever knew about before, but these days I cannot drive through a city or neighborhood without trying to figure out what architectural style the homes are.  Funny how homeownership will do that to you!

-R