Carolina Gardening: Come sit on the porch a spell, 1 by spartacusaby

spartacusaby wrote:
Ms_Carolina, that's a gorgeous pink dogwood; they're the state flower, aren't they? We moved here from VA, and in VA it was the white dogwood.

If your experience with home improvement has been anything like ours, we should exchange war stories. We still have old beamed ceilings and quite a few beadboard walls: I'd never seen beadboard before, and love it. But this great old sturdy, well-built house had been sadly neglected and abused; we're still turning up surprises that are rarely pleasant. And then there's the subject of colors: the exterior was a brown with enough gray to just look filthy and dingy. And inside, someone in the past had really loved intense colors. The entire downstairs was an intense, vivid yellow: can you say hot? The bedrooms were truly weird: for example, the master was the exact red of dried blood, the teenager's bedroom and loft brilliant royal blue, and the upstairs bath olive green. Should see if I can find a "before" photo or two to post. The kitchen had an old, obsolete, unvented propane "wood stove" that must have been used for primary heat: there was so much smoke on the walls and ceiling that it took 11 coats of paint to cover it. It's been an adventure, and the subject of contractors is a whole other chapter. So glad it's mostly finished, and I can concentrate on the garden/landscaping: much much more fun!