Warning: This is going to be a long rambling story, because writing this out helps me analyze, and I am not always sure *exactly* how I feel. I will probably continue to edit for clarity, based on your feedback. So here goes:
- I always seem to open a can of worms when I allow myself a (usually highly caffeinated) rant. I’ve also *allowed* the rant a few other times, when discussing Resist the Greige Nation, for example.
- On the other hand, I have a mantra about reader comments: “No one should be made to feel bad for their decisions”… and I do not like and will usually editcertain words like h***, u***, h******, and d****. <– My edits are usually comprised of adding the asterisks, blanking out the letters.
- Hmmm: Do my prohibitions about negative reader comments become hypocritical when I launch a rant? In the same vein, then, is it “okay” or “wrong” for me to edit comments that include the irksome h***, etc. words?
- Whenever I launch a rant, I think I may also be leaving the impression that I oppose remodeling… that not keeping what’s original is *wrong.* Clarification is due.
So in this story, I’m gonna try to outline my thinking about and approach to these points, with the caveat — make your own decisions — it’s your house!
1. Yes, this blog is pro-preservation.
When I first started this blog, I consciously made the decision to stay away from politics and social commentary. I’ve tiptoed in only occasionally, I *think*. For example, there were lots of bad social things going on from 1946 onward. I don’t try to illuminate or opine on them, that’s for other blogs. This blog is, fundamentally, about researching and reporting on resources to help you renovate your home in period-appropriate style — delivering products and ideas to help owners of midcentury houses get their jobs done more easily — in a marketing world that doesn’t make it easy, because our journey is not with the mainstream.
In the same vein, I kind of consciously made the decision that I would try to stay away from the politics of renovation and remodeling a house. Although in this area, I am sure I have been less successful.
In general, I have tried not to *preach* that you should keep what you have, versus gut remodel it for something new. I *think* I understand it’s more effective to *show* rather than to *tell*, so I show photos of how our homes and interiors were originally designed… so you can see how it was done… I show photos of how other readers are renovating… all, so that you can make your own decisions. I try not to tell you what you should do.
But do I *believe* that a homeowner should try to preserve what they have rather than gut it?
Yes — as a first approach to your new/old home — yes, I do. And, I am very sure my beliefs comes through in what I write. There is no such thing as objective journalism. So, even though I say I don’t want to tell you what to do, of course, I am going to bend that way in what I write about and how I write about it.
Even so, like I said, I try not to preach. Instead, I try to “show”. For example, if a reader sends me photos of their renovation to consider for the blog, and they gutted what I believe was a perfectly nice looking original room and replaced it with something kind of … 2012 … well, then, I don’t post it. I figure, “They don’t understand the focus of this blog.” The focus is: Renovating in period-appropriate style.
Why do I believe that preservation is a wise first route? Let me count the ways:
- (1) Don’t kid yourself, every room in your house is, and looks *dated*. Dated to the date when what was added was “hot.” There may be some truly timeless rooms out there, but golly, they are hard to find.
- (2) If you are gonna renovate for longterm value, you might as well *date* your interiors to the *date* of the house, because at least when people say it’s *dated* it will be *dated* historically appropriately. One day it may even be desirable as an “authentic period restoration” — and there are usually markets for authentic.
- (3) This is especially true about kitchens and bathrooms — which cost a lot of money to renovate. Heck, do whatever you want with your furniture, but anything expensive affixed to the wall, think long and hard before plunking down that credit card for today’s latest fashion, unless you plan on putting the house up for sale the day your renovation is complete. Even then, flipping is risky business.
- (4) Midcentury homes are historically interesting, beautiful and increasingly desirable. Over the past five years, I have heard more and more and more examples of folks wanting time capsules in great shape. Why rip out what is going to be desirable?
- (5) Much of what was built in midcentury America was better made that what’s available today. If it has lasted 50 years already and is still in good shape today, I’ll bet that it has many more decades of utility ahead, if it continues to be well maintained.
- (6) How much of your money do you really want to spend on renovating your house? Maybe you would rather save for retirement instead? It may be fun to be young and poor, but it’s not fun to be old and poor.
- (7) If everyone in the world lived like we do in America, we would need four Earths to supply the materials.
- (8) Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you were a perfectly nice vintage bathroom or kitchen and still had lots of life left in you, would you want to be gutted with an evil glee sledgehammer? Okay, so now I am getting kind of silly with my list. You get the point. But kinda bottom line: Default = Leave the stuff alone, make sure it’s safe and environmentally friendly. Bank your savings; debt is very stressful. Respect the old — and the life-energy of the people who built the old. (Could they really all have been wrong in how they designed these homes? Are we really that much smarter about design? I don’t see any evidence that’s so.) Love the House You’re In.
2. At the same time, this blog is not anti-remodel.
When Kate wrote about her decision to gut-remodel her bathroom, one commenter noted that she sounded almost apologetic. Actually — it was me who, in the edit process, asked Kate to beef up the story to ensure she showed gratitude for the old bathroom and the service that it had provided. This is something that grew on me and my focus over time. One thing that I *think* I have learned in the five years of doing the blog, is that in postwar America, people were immensely grateful to be able to build and buy the houses we are now in. I won’t belabor the point, but most Americans had diddly squat until after World War II. Like, a huge percentage did not have indoor plumbing. So my takeaway is: Who are we to think the bathrooms or kitchens or knotty pine living rooms that they so gratefully built and raised their families in are *fill in the blank with a mean-minded adjective”? Really. I never knew anyone who went out of their way to design an u*** room — the folks who installed these rooms thought that their new/now old (bathroom, kitchen, etc.) was beautiful. And in the day it probably was! Au courant! But, au courant changes… Usually because marketers want to dis-satisfy us with what we have…. They want us to rip out what they sold us 50 years or 30 years or 10 years ago…. and buy their new and improved look…. which becomes *dated* soon enough…. and the ridiculous cycle starts all over again. Be cognizant of the manipulation — and you can break the cycle in your own life and spend less time and less money chasing the fleeting fashion dream.
Did you know that gratitude is the #1 attribute of happy people? Be grateful for that bathroom, even if — and maybe especially if — you decide it is time to remodel.
But am against gut remodeling? NO. I gut remodeled my three bathrooms and my kitchen. I don’t want to go into great detail to defend my decision — because we don’t need to defend our decisions. Suffice to say, I think I was true to my beliefs on this one — I always compliment the 1970s kitchen that we replaced — it was really nicely done given the styles then — really! And, I really liked the multicolor bathrooms and would surely have kept them if they had been in better shape. In each case — with both the kitchen and the bathrooms — I surely did not like having to spend all that money to gut remodel, and the whole process was very stressful.
On Kate’s story, Brian T. asked this question:
Pam has started her list of things that are definitely valuable to a Retro Renovator. How about a list of things that no one needs to feel guilty about tossing, even though they’re “vintage”? Item #1: Plastic tile! I just got rid of it in a bathroom I gutted — there was no question of trying to work with it. It seem like “mauve” might make the list for some reason, along with “things that smell” and “things that will never look clean.” Pam, you’ve instilled a sort of moral code about “thou shalt not assume pink bathrooms are too dated to live with”; can you start up a list of “thou shalt not beat thyself up for throwing out ____”?
The Retro Renovator’s Creed:
Thou shalt not beat thyself up for throwing out… features (yes, original bathrooms and kitchens, included) that you have lived with for a while, sought to understand (rather than just h*** in a knee-jerk way), decide just aren’t for you, and which you can afford to change without adding to the family into debt in a way that will stress you out. (Test: If you only paid cash, and you had saved up all the money, would you really use all the cash for this project?)
>If it’s broken beyond repair… or if repairing it would cost more than buying a comparable new replacement… do what you gotta do.>If technology has improved and a new product available today delivers important or useful new benefits — and especially if they relate to safety or energy and the environment… sure, swap it out.>
If you need to reconfigure the space to accommodate your needs and to lively happily there… yes, of course, make the house your own.>This is your house — make it the place you love. But: Let the old stuff go with respect for the service it has provided the generations before — no evil-glee sledgehammering. Remember, that bathroom/kitchen/etc. was someone’s pride and joy once — they raised their families there — they loved that room. Respect their decisions, don’t deride them. See: The Golden Rule. Most everyone I talk today bemoans the “loss of civility” in discourse today; let’s take the high road and be civil about how we treat and talk about the rooms that came before us.
>
Send still-functional materials to the Re-Store, if you really think someone else will want them.
>And of course, prioritize renovations that address identified safety and environmental issues — and when you renovate, engage properly licensed professionals and Renovate Safe.
My blog is my happy place. Hateful angry words distress me. They are usually not required — really: *Hate* a room color? I have said before, Let’s save our hate and the call-to-action it engenders for [fill in the blank, choose social/political issues that you really care about] that lead to real human suffering (rather than the suffering that comes from having to bathe in a pastel-colored bathroom, for example). So I don’t allow these words in comments on the blog: Hate, Ugly, Hideous, Dated. Please try not to use them, I will edit the word with asterisks. Most regular readers know my feelings and approach to this — and they’ve told me they appreciate it… that it is part of what has made this a supportive community. On a regular basis, this whole h***, etc. issue is not a very big issue on the blog. It usually comes up only when I start the rant. Then others jump right in to play. I totally understand. So, in a goodly number of cases, I’ll take the pin!
So: What if you don’t really like something on the blog and want to offer a critical comment? (1) If it’s simply a product that I have posted, say, something from the Crate & Barrel website, hey, no problem, say why you don’t like it and why and offer an alternative. Be nice about it, of course. BUT (2), if it’s a reader’s home, well, you know the answer already. This is a supportive site. Find something to like and comment on that and move on. Honestly, this is not much of an issue on this site, I can only think of two or three times I did not approve a nasty comment, and they were from passers-by, not regulars. I am writing this only to be complete.
What if you have “advice” for a reader and their room? A “rule” I read on this recently: Don’t offer advice unless someone has agreed you may offer it. As in, a made-up example: Mary has shared a shot of her living room so that we can see her Heywood Wakefield collection. There is no talk of wall color. You think you have a great idea. Before just spitting it out, you need to ask, “Wow, that room is really beautiful. May I offer you some ideas about a wall color that might make that whole Heywood Wakefield set pop even more?” If Mary responds saying, “Sure, I’d love to hear!,” you are good to go. But maybe she will say, “We just painted the room this color last week, and we are really happy with it.” Which means oopsy, shut yer trap. Or maybe she won’t answer at all. Which means…. yup, shut yer trap. Bottom line: If you ask permission to give advice, and the recipient says yes, the recipient is more … receptive. This is the civil way to do it. Mea culpa: On Kate’s post about her bathroom room layout, she didn’t ask for my help — and I didn’t ask permission. Yet, I jumped right in to offer advice. This was not the “right” way to do it. She gets mega props for responding with grace. (Next time, I will have her make her closing point in the blog post, “What do you think of my layout, readers?” haha)
Hey, the other thing I want to bring up is how we talk about other homeowners who choose current decorating styles. On this point, I also want to encourage civility… and I may start editing comments accordingly. Yes, folks continue to put in granite countertops etc. etc. etc. in droves. This does not make them bad people. I think about how to talk about this a lot, and here is what I have come up with:
I think that a lot of folks have only limited interest in decorating. They will buy what’s current. And move on. And that’s okay. They have other passions, other interests… whereas we are nutso passionate and highly visual and way way way into decor.
HEY: The folks who built and furnished our groovy mid mods also were most likely only interested in their decor up to a point. THEY bought what was CURRENT, too. I even have vintage marketing material — training for a steel kitchen cabinets salesman — instructing him that the first job he had, during a customer consultation, was to “dis-satisfy her with her kitchen.” This was like 1948! 50 or 60 years later, we are left with their desire for “the latest and greatest.”
I guess what I’m saying is: So, let’s be sure we are civil, too, about all other folks and their decorating choices. This means that even I will need to stop dropping “Save the Pink Bathroom” bombs on other blogs that continue to show decimated pink bathrooms, I’m pretty sure it’s not winning any converts, just annoying folks who are trying to do their best. I will revert to the approach I started out with: Show don’t tell. Does that make sense?
4. Is it hypocritical of me to rant, given the policies I’ve just outlined?
Yes, guilty. It’s easier to catch a bear with honey. Or is it, bees to honey? Whenever I rant — which I usually try to focus on marketeers, certainly not individuals — I always get lots of positive feedback from readers. Go, Pam, go! But I also almost always end up offending a few (maybe more), too — because this ain’t a real conversation where you can really explain yourself and talk things through, it’s writing, and sometimes it comes out …. wrong…. or harsher than you mean it to. I don’t want to offend. I want to make this a place where people feel good about and encouraged in their decisions to make a home they love — usually in a way that’s “the road less traveled”. So I recommit to trying to moderate my rants in the future. I think I can still make my points: By showing, not telling, and when I must opine — with civility.
Lynne says
I totally agree with the statement that no one sets out to make an unattractive room. They decorated the room the way they liked it. Case in point, when we bought our 1955 ranch. The older couple (70’s ish) were still living in it. Right before we closed, the couple took us around and filled us in on the heating, and a/c and the booklets and warranties, that sort of thing. The lady and I were in the kitchen. Now, lets just say, WE found the kitchen….unfortunate. But the owner told me how she remembered her grandmothers kitchen was green, and how she kept trying to find a green to match, and the floor was so much like she remembered her grandmothers to be, etc. That woman loved that kitchen, she thought it was beautiful, and clearly it gave her warm memories of her childhood. I listened, and made all of the proper comments, while knowing all the while that I was going to UNdo everything she had done. There was NO WAY I could have functioned in that kitchen on a daily basis. We did a lot of work, but not a gut. Did we go at it like maniacs? No, we kept saying, oh, poor P**** , I feel so bad, she really liked this…
Now, one day someone else is going to come into MY kitchen and think it “unfortunate”. I think it all just comes down to a matter of respect.
pam kueber says
Yes. Yes. Yes. Would you say her original kitchen (or whatever) is u*** to that nice woman’s face? Of course not. Was the kitchen u***? Not to her, it seems. So: Then let’s not toss these kinds of value judgments around on the internet! Very bad karma, very uncivil. I love this story, Lynne — it’s PERFECT.
Wendy M. says
I just want to say thank you for this post- I would guess it took you a long time to write and it obviously comes from the heart. I really appreciate the upbeat manner of nearly all your posts. I credit you and your blog with helping me “see the light” when it comes to preserving and appreciating mid-century style. I think it’s okay to be upset when someone is gleefully destroying something you love and appreciate. It shows you are really passionate about what you are doing!
I agree with the previous comments that mention a somewhat fluid style of decorating which incorporates elements from the decades before and after the home was built. I grew up around very eclectic styles (especially when it came to furniture). My grandparents had some things that were brand-new and somethings that had been in the family for 100 years (and their house was built somewhere in between.) I love mid-century design and want to honor the style of my home, but I don’t want to feel like my house is frozen in time, either. I want to be in surroundings that make me feel happy and comfortable. My house may never be featured in a magazine, but I like being here. I appreciate that your creed includes the part about not feeling bad about our decisions.
Thanks for all that you do!
Carolyn M says
Thank you for the encouraging words about renovating in period-style. My husband and I have recently purchased a 1957 tri-level that unfortunately was gutted in an attempt to flip, foreclosed and sat vacant for the better part of the past 5 years. I have dreamed about what the kitchen looked like as well as the bathrooms. The only remnant of the original we have left is the brown tile floor in a half bath and matching brown ceramic tp holder, original slate floor in the entryway and random light fixtures. It’s funny when folks found out that we were remodeling they all rushed to show us their recent projects. More often than not, it was the standard board of fare at “insert your choice of DIY big box store” design. All nicely done and I’m sure it wasn’t cheap. When I tell people that we are trying to stay true the era of the home, they look at me with a blank stare. Your blog has provided us with an invaluable resource for images from time capsule homes, new/old products and everything else. Thank you for all your efforts!
Jason says
Pam – the thought and time you put into this; much of which is geared towards being respectful of others who do not share your own opinions, etc. just shows how wonderful and loving a vision and community you have built here. You have much to be proud of. Some people may think it’s none of your beeswax, but they could be like me and redo a few things in their 1956 house and then even though they liked retro anyway after finding your site realize they could have done it even more so retro and been even more happy. An example being my Wilsonart HD laminate – I think I would have gotten boomerangs if I had known about your site and them even though I would have never done granite anyway since I find it wasteful and I had said they didn’t do that in the 50s! Or the light fixture and medicine cabinet I put in my yellow and black tile bathroom, even thought it’s fine I could have found even more authentic 1956ish stuff – even though I truly love 50s stuff that is why I wanted the house and tried to pick things that were going to go ok. I just didn’t know how to find true true look at the time unless it was right in front of me at the store. Some things are still like I remember in my Mommom’s house, some not – so now with your site if they aren’t still in the store like that I know avenues to seek them out.
So, there are some who may as you say want to go with the current thing and not take our suggestions or ideas, but as we respect them they will also respect our advise and be glad we have an interest in their home most times and often be amazed that such things can be found because they didn’t know. Less often people will just be unhappy someone doesn’t like their granite choice.
Be grateful – I agree is a great message along with bank your savings people and be happy in retirement!!
I’m grateful for Retro Renovation – definately!
Jason says
PS I’m as many years away from retirement as I am old, but I’m glad to have some money in the bank even if my house is needing this or that! RR is a place where people don’t think I’m cheap for not putting a 30k super store kitchen on an equity line – I love that too!
Kristi says
This was a good read, and very well thought out. As someone who is about to start a remodel on a midcentury modern home that is not in the best condition, I have to say that part of the frustration in doing so comes from everyone having an opinion about what you should and should not do with your space. We purchased this, our first “real” home as a foreclosure, with money that we saved, and we are lucky enough to have been able to get it cheaply enough that we can make it habitable without going into any kind of debt. It is a beautiful, well made home in an amazing neighborhood with an amazing yard and we are super happy and grateful to have it. Obviously, the person who originally built it in 1954 (and lived there till 1986, according to tax records) loved it and took great pride in it, and we look forward to honoring the spirit of this person by keeping as many of the well made details as possible. However, from the mid 80s till we took it over, it was not maintained very well and some shoddy work has been done inside. Things like the original groovy faux Travertine linoleum being covered with 70s brown stuff and so much glue that it isn’t possible to save the original stuff.
Stuff we love and are keeping: the phone nook! (holy cow, it makes me happy for no real reason at all) The gorgeous pine floors, which are buried under very worn and dirty carpet right now. The handful of intact overhead period lights, some of which look like flowers. As much of the knotty pine paneling as we can save (bad rewiring sometime in the 80s was patched up with plain plywood squares, and some of the paneling is damaged, we don’t know yet how much can be salvaged). The black and white tiled bathroom with lovely hex tile black and white floor. (someone did the walls in 80s wall paper. I suspect that underneath that they are aqua and this is the color that they will be again when I’m done, as I have to strip both floor and ceiling to deal with some mold issues.)
Stuff we will be getting rid of: the beautiful pull-chain light over the bathroom sink, as it no longer fits electrical code in our city and cannot be rewired to do so. The rusted medicine cabinet. The original Hudee ring sink in the kitchen (I have tried to save it, I love it so much. Unfortunately, it is badly chipped and rusted inside and has been covered in many layers of white spray paint to hide the rust. Luckily, our local ReStore had a suitable replacement sink.) The kitchen counter (because it is rotten underneath the formica) Eventually, the bulky built in vanity in the black and white bathroom, which I hope to replace with the sort of sink on legs that was originally in there (I can see the marks from it on the tile) IF I can find one at a Restore or somewhere within my price range. And the lime green downstairs bath. Because even though it is functional, the grout is terribly stained, the shower is impractical for us, and it just reminds me of an autopsy suite. I would like to try to salvage some of the green tile to make a kitchen backsplash, but depending on how it is stuck to the wall I might not be able to save it at all.
Every step of the process, from the first time we viewed the house before we put our bid in, someone has been there with an opinion. Our Realtor, for example, could not believe that I would keep the original cabinets. The word “gut” was tossed around in the kitchen. I on the other hand could not believe that anyone would contemplate getting rid of sturdy solid handmade wood cabinets and replacing them with prefab plywood anything. People have told me I’m insane to keep all the tile in the upstairs bath because it’s “hard to clean”. And while I respect your and other’s opinions on keeping knotty pine the way it is, I’m going to have to paint over mine…years of cooking grease have impregnated it with a smell that hits you before you open the door, and I’m afraid that nothing short of a layer of Kilz will kill it. One of the three electricians who bid on our necessary rewire actually said to me “I can’t believe you’re keeping that ugly old wood!”
While we want to be conscientious in our remodel, donating as much as possible, using salvage as much as possible, we are also looking at this as the place where WE will live and be happy (hopefully) for many years. Not everything will be time capsule style simply because it’s not always our style. I’m putting in butcher block countertops, for example, because they are cheap, fit our lifestyle, and I like how they look. Formica might be more appropriate for the kitchen, but the kind we can afford is not as durable as we need it to be. And the toilet in the upstairs bath was so cracked and crazed that it could not be reused or donated, it had to be removed, and I sledgehammered that bad boy in the front yard so that the trash man would take it (had to fit in the can) and I have to admit that it was fun for my inner child to do so.
I don’t think you should gut and remodel just because, and I certainly don’t see the allure of some of the cheaply made expensive stuff that sells at home centers when older stuff is so much more durable and has so much more character. (But you should have heard my father when I told him we bought a USED toilet). However, I also think it is possible to respect the spirit of a home and the families that came before yours while still respecting what you like and what you want to look at every single day for many years to come. Sorry to write a novel here, just processing some of the things that we have been thinking about while we begin this important phase of our lives together. 🙂
pam kueber says
I love what you wrote, Kristi! Me too about “processing some of the things we have been thinking about”! It sounds like your home has found the perfect owners!! Take lots of before, during and after pics for me, okay? And be sure to consult with properly licensed professionals as you dig into those many layers so that you really know what you are dealing with and can Renovate Safe! xoxo
Kristi says
Haha…will do Pam. Our lead paint test came back negative, so that’s a start…and our electrician (not the one who made the nasty comment about the paneling) specializes in old houses. He’s even using a carpenter to remove the paneling for the kitchen rewire and put it back up again without damaging it further.
Elaine says
One of my friends just did an awesome job cleaning up rooms of knotty pine in her new to her house. It was filthy. She found that Totally Awesome degreaser from the Dollar General worked beautifully though still a lot of work. I will look up exactly what she said she dd and bring it back here if you are interested.
Kristi says
YES…thank you, that would be amazing! I love the way it looks (reminds me of the house my papaw built himself, with knotty pine all over every wall) but it smells sooooo BAD right now. I’d be very interested in hearing about your friend’s process.
lynda says
I don’t love everyone’s style or their homes. But I love others who love their homes and love their own style. I think you have to appreciate the very long hours spent on improving and caring for the homes even if they are not your own taste. That is why “Love the House You are in” is such a perfect saying. Now those that neglect homes, that is what upsets me. I always think they must have reasons they don’t care. (too busy, sick, financial, etc.) I help if I can, if not, I move on.
IMissLiberty says
You suggest for the creed, “engage properly licensed professionals.” Because I am into politics (purely self-defensively), I suggest revising your creed to, “engage only properly skilled professionals.”
A license is something sold to consumers by politicians as “for your protection,” but what it really is, is a barrier to entry into the profession to protect those already in it, usually influenced heavily by a political trade organization, or a competing one, as when associations for MD’s try to stop DC’s or midwives from practicing. License systems are designed to give bureaucrats control over our behavior at our expense and should not be confused with a guarantee of quality (I had one contractor use a stolen license number).
Also, I think you want to leave open the possibility of “do-it-yourself.”
You might want to add, “get multiple estimates,” and “check references.”
Elaine says
I agree. I use and old school handyman who can do ANYTHING. But we both have to work on safety issues. The licensed pro is supposed to take care of that part for us.
kcmerchant says
Pam, Thank you for all you do to provide this source of contact between people who appreciate all things retro. Your rant gave us a peek into how much you do to maintain the fun & helpfulness that are your goals.
Your rant reminds me to head Mom’s warning, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” That’s a retro value to go with all our retro lives. Have a happy day everyone!
BungalowBILL says
I admire when people are able to keep what is original to their home, but there is a point when you have to realize the time we’re in. I’d love to live in a 1720’s stone farm house, but I really don’t want to be cooking my dinner in the fireplace every night.
But they way I look at it, if there weren’t people ripping things out, selling their old furniture and remodeling their homes, there would be nothing for us to hunt for, save, covet and re-use. As long as there is a bunch of us to pick up the pieces, I don’t mind a few of them tossing them down ( so long as I get there first!).
Elaine says
Agreed, as long as they don’t just smash them and toss them in the dumpster.
Rebecca Gonzalez says
I really enjoy your blog. Okay, you have an opinion and a point of view. You are certainly guilty as charged. But that is why we are reading it. I agree that keeping things positive is the right way to go and encouraging this community to be positive is certainly more productive than critical. BUT I enjoy your strong opinions and an occasional rant. And guess what? Sometimes I don’t totally agree however, I like to be made to THINK. I wish you had started writing 15 years ago when we bought our mid-century home. A couple of really stupid things that I did wouldn’t have happened. Now I have to eventually save my pennies and straighten them out. **sigh**. Your point of view shapes this entire Retro World. It is the world you created. I respect and admire it and learn from it. So, thank you and rant away. You get at least one every once in a while. Lowes kind of deserved it.
Rebecca Gonzalez says
Oops, I used the s***** word.
pam kueber says
Oh, that’s nice of you to say, Rebecca. Usually my rants are written pretty fast. Like, I REACT. I think if I do them in the future, I need to write then sleep on them then tone them down a little. But okay, I will still … rant … in the future. But with more honey. Hey, this reminds me, the name “Pamela” means “all honey” in Latin or Old English or something. hahahah now that’s a good one.