Pretty in Pink

 The title does not truly represent our feeling about the color. We have heard over the years that a particular man who lived in the house many years ago went into the barn and used all the colors he had and mixed them together. Pink was the color that evolved. You've heard over and over the expression "location, location, location!"

That is what convinced us to buy the house. There was no heat on the second floor and no closets. This was not unusual for older homes and our new home was over 100 years old. We had land, a barn and a gas grill off the back of the house. We were thrilled. The first thing we did was to have a fireplace built.

We had gone to Sturbridge Village on our honeymoon and had a picture of the fireplace we liked best. It had a beehive oven in it and a five foot opening. Great to look at but not very economical. We worked on the lawn which consisted of very little grass and alot of hay. We were probably mowing about an acre the first year. The previous owners had a rose garden off the back and to this day the garden is still there but no longer has roses because the trees have grown too much to let enough sunlight through. Year by year we added more and more gardens. I started out with a large vegetable garden. It is alot of work.

When fall rolled around I was busy making jellies, tomato sauce, tomato juice, grape juice and even ketchup. It was fun when I was younger but as the years went by, I settled for a much smaller garden. I don't can vegetables anymore but still enjoy the fresh produce that can be picked on a daily basis. We changed the color of the house the first summer we were there. It was painted yellow which blended in perfectly with the pine trees, hickories and maples. Fall was beautiful and we were expecting the fireplace to be completed. How naive we were. We had huge gaps in the back of our house when winter came and gas bills were high, even back then. We were stuffing everything and anything into the gaps to keep warm. I have found that whenever we attempted to have any work done, that nine times out of ten the process was a nightmare. But we never stopped trying to improve things around the house, indoors and outdoors. My husband got to work on the kitchen which consisted of two or three metal cabinets and a porcelain sink. We haven't found too many treasures over the years but during the remodeling of the kitchen there was one interesting find.