My husband loves his little truck. He purchased it brand new in 2001, and has enjoyed it ever  since. He takes good care of it, too.

Imagine our surprise when a well-known Ford dealership here in Hampton Roads told us that they refused to even give a bid on repairing the vehicle. Their reason - Hubby’s truck had more than 75,000 miles. The service writer explained that they don’t do major mechanical work on vehicles with more than 75,000 miles.

That tells me a LOT about what they think of their Ford products.

When a Ford product hits 75,000 miles, apparently that’s the end of its usable life, and we’re supposed to just park it on the street and call for the tow truck to haul it off to the junk yard.

My Toyota Camry sits in the garage as I’m writing this, with 165,900 miles. Last time I had it serviced, the mechanic explained, “I’d be surprised if you don’t get 225,000 miles out of this car. It’s in excellent condition.”

So there we have a tale of two cars, with similar care and similar attention, and yet one will last for years, and the other - according to a representative of Ford Motor Company (which is what a dealership is), it’s not worthy of major repairs after 75,000 miles.

And people wonder why the Japanese have cleaned our clock in the automotive industry?

Please leave a comment for Rose, or you can email her directly at thorntonrose@hotmail.com.

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When I first found the old photos of my great, great Aunt Addie, I immediately assumed that she had it all.

She was a stunningly beautiful woman, and in 1896, she married a very wealthy older gent and moved into Lake Mills’ finest mansion.

You know what they say about “assuming” things? If you assume, you’ll end up making an “ass of u & me.”

A short time later, I learned that Addie’s life did not end well. In 1901, five years after marrying Enoch Fargo, she was dead, and her death was not caused by diphtheria (as is stated on her death certificate). According to Mary Wilson’s book (History of Lake Mills), Addie’s own husband shot her dead, and within seven months, he was re-married to Maddie Harbeck, who (coincidentally?) had been living in the Fargo Mansion with Addie and Enoch.

If Addie hadn’t been so beautiful, so elegant and so glamorous, would she (like her sister, my great-grandmother) have lived to a ripe old age?

My great-grandmother lived to be 99 years old. She wasn’t as beautiful or glamorous as her baby sister, Addie.

It does give one pause.

To learn more about Addie, click here.

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According to a story my father used to tell, this bedroom set was an exhibition piece, given to my father in 1933 or 34, when he was 13 or 14 years old, and he recalled that it was an antique back then!  Recently, a local antiques dealer inspected the set, and told me the bed dates back to the late 1800s, probably mid 1890s.

All the wood is inlaid, and the furniture was refinished in the 1980s. It is truly, as many have said, a museum quality piece, made with sold Mahogany, detailed inlay, and replete with hand-carved accents.

And now, due to my father’s passing, it is to be sold.  If you’re interested in this item, please leave a comment below and it’ll be forwarded to Edward Fuller (Raleigh, NC) who will respond to your inquiry. This beautiful bedroom suite is currently being stored in Portsmouth, Virginia.

If you’re interested in these pieces, please leave a comment below, and your message will be forward to Edward Fuller.

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This little ad for the Chicago and Alton rail line promises that they’re always on time. Look closely at the photo (below) and you’ll see that a woman appears to be sitting with the train’s engineer. Is *that* why this particular rail line is always on time?

Probably so.

To buy Rose’s book, click here.

To see more great old ads, click here.

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Continued from Part 1.

Beautiful women, such as my daughter, don’t need help in attracting men. As proved by my experiment, they can post a head-shot and write a meaningless profile and within moments, hoards of eligible bachelors will magically appear, sniffing around their virtual yard and begging for a date.

But Mother was right. Beauty does have a price. And sometimes, beauty exacts a price from men, too. Like 20 years of alimony payments.

Many of these newly-divorced men liked to tell an obviously well-rehearsed and emotional story about how much they despised the mother of their children. Speaking as a woman who’s read four billion self-improvement books, I can not imagine sharing this type of story on a first date, where you’re (supposedly) investing your best energies in hiding your personal psychoses and neuroses and bad habits.

“My first wife is such an unbelievable witch,” these middle-aged men would often tell me (and that’s “witch” with a capital B).

“She’s depressed and she’s depressing and she’s lazy and she’s crazy as a loon. And she sleeps half the day and she drinks like a fish and smokes like a chimney and swears like a sailor and she’s a lousy mother, too. And she likes to eat cheezy fizz right out of the can. She’s really disgusting.”

On and on they’d go, telling me how utterly awful their ex-wife was. When they’d exhausted themselves, I’d look ‘em right in the eye and ask a single, simple question:

“What attracted you to her in the first place?”

Their answer was always, and I mean always, the same. Sometimes they used different words, but the meaning and import never changed.

“She was so beautiful,” they’d tell me with their eyes glazing over. “She was a real knock-out.”

The more troubled men would often continue with, “When I walked into a room with her on my arm, all the men would turn and stare. They were so damn jealous, their eyeballs would pop out of their head. Man, she was gorgeous.”

In Between Men, Eve Sedgwick says that men are often more interested in having a relationship with other men, rather than having a relationship with a woman. She says that a man’s sense of self-worth is fueled and fed by the envious gaze of other males. Women become pawns in a game, and Sedgwick says their purpose - in the eyes of men - is to cement the “bonds of men with [other] men.”

To read another excerpt, click here.

To learn more about Rose’s new book on internet dating, click here.

Schadenfreude. Who’s ever heard of it?

It’s a German word that means delighting in the misfortune of others. I had never heard of this word until I was doing some research for my book The Ugly Woman’s Guide to Internet Dating: What I Learned From 70 First Dates. Before this, I’d heard it described as “The Crab Theory.”

Put one crab in a five-gallon bucket and Mr. Crab will do everything in his power to scale its smooth wall and crawl out of that bucket. Put two or more crabs in a bucket and when one starts to climb up, the others will grab him and pull him back down into the bucket. Unfortunately, humans sometime exhibit the same tendencies as crabs.

In my own life, I’ve struggled mightily with envy, and I’m sorry to say that too many times, I had a decided leaning toward the crab/schadenfreude side.

And then one day, I read a story in the Christian Science Sentinel about a woman who’d spent a lifetime cultivating the habit of gratitude. She said that her mother had taught her to feel sincerely joyous and grateful for the good things that happened in other people’s lives, and to take it as a personal promise from God that, if it happened for them, it could happen for her, too.

The Buddhist have a word for this: Mudita. It’s the practice of finding joy in other people’s success and happiness.

The fact is, we’re all cracked pots and fallible and prone to foibles and missteps and mistakes and even lapses in good judgment. Who among us hasn’t lost our temper and said something we deeply regret? Who among us hasn’t surrendered to temptation when we could have done better? My point is, maybe the real need is to stop staring so hard at other people’s sins and take a better look at our own shortcomings and work on improving those.

Maybe we need to stop cultivating the habit of schadenfreude and work on mudita.

A few days ago I was hiking through the woods around Pilot Mountain State Park and thank goodness I had my camera with me.  Look what I saw!

Its the Niveus Ursus Americanus Waynus. This specimen seemed mature, well-fed and surprisingly tame. He approached our cameras with little or no trepidation.

Look closely at the above photo and you’ll see a spot of blue walking toward the camera.

Despite their natural tendency to stay away from flash photography, this Niveus Ursus Americanus Waynus continued walking our way.

Last week, I spent countless hours bundling up the children and getting them ready for their new homes. Shipping books is a lot of work and time-intensive, and standing in line at the Milan Station (Norfolk Post Office on 38th Street) is a foretaste of hell, but…

It sure is fun to think about this book - Montgomery Ward’s Mail-Order Homes - leaving home to be enjoyed by others. Dale Patrick Wolicki and I spent five years researching and writing this book, and it’s new research on a new topic. As I’ve told my husband and my friend Dale many times, this book will still be in use as a reference work many years after we’re all gone from this earth.

If you’d like to learn more about Wardway Homes, click here.

If you’d like to give your friends and relatives the perfect Christmas present, click here.

And if you’d like to support your local library by donating a copy of Wardway Homes, click here.

In just a few days, my newest book (co-authored with Dale Wolicki) will roll off the presses. Montgomery Ward’s Mail-Order Homes will be my 7th book. Writing is tough. This most recent work represents five years of steady effort. Kit homes are something about which I’m passionate. Good thing, because the financial benefits of writing aren’t that great.

In 2003, Illinois sponsored a gala event to honor the state’s authors. It was a black-tie affair with an elegant meal served on fine china edged with gold leaf. Only 50 authors were invited to attend and thanks to my book (The Houses That Sears Built), I was one of them. It was quite an honor.

There were three speakers at the formal dinner, all of whom (unlike me)  had hit the big time with their literary works. The first speaker spoke at length about the contributions of his beloved wife.

“Without her,” he told the audience as he gazed lovingly at his gorgeous wife, “I could never have accomplished this.”

I squirmed in my chair a bit. I’d already noticed that everyone had entered the spacious hall in pairs. And I thought about how the event organizer had pleaded with me to find someone to bring along. Now I understood.

The next speaker was a woman who followed the first author’s lead, and also waxed eloquent about her husband’s specific advice and honest encouragement and how she could never have done it without him.

Third speaker. Same talk, different body. And that’s when I excused myself and went into the bathroom. I don’t like crying in public. Leaning over the glistening white sink and staring into the oversized mirror, I told myself, “When I write the book that hits the big time, and someone asks me how I did it, I am never going to say that I could not have done this without a romantic partner in my life.”

I know the speakers’ comments were innocuous and well-intended, but to the lone unattached, one-partner-shy-of-a-full-pair woman in the audience, it was a neon-sign that flashed, “Writers are without hope unless they’re in love.” My dating life and my romantic life were already in the ash heap. Was it really necessary to throw my dreams of a magnificent career onto the smoldering ruins too?

That was seven years ago. Now, I’m re-married and yes, the new husband has been an incredible blessing in my writing career. But if my newest book on Wardway Homes hits the big time, I get invited to address a large audience, I don’t think I’ll say that I never could have done it without him.

I’m just not willing to believe that there’s always a romantic partner behind every successful woman.

Conscious worth satisfies the hungry heart, and nothing else can. - Mary Baker Eddy

In the 1995 remake of the movie A Little Princess, there’s a scene where Miss Minchin, the black-hearted school marm, is confronted by Sara (the little princess). With an astonishing measure of boldness, Sara tells Miss Minchin that she is a princess and that all girls are princesses regardless of their station in life, their physical appearance, their intelligence or even their age. With innocent eyes, Sara stares into Miss Minchin’s hardscrabble face and asks her, “Didn’t your father ever tell you that? Didn’t he?”

Judging by the look in Miss Minchin’s eyes, she never heard those words or even that sentiment expressed by dear old Dad. And judging by the current epidemic of low self-esteem among women, I’d venture to guess that most of today’s fathers follow the parenting model of Miss Minchin’s dad, rather than Sara’s.

Which brings me to the first of four basic theories regarding beauty and self-esteem.

First, there’s The Little Princess Theory of Beauty. You are miles ahead of most of us if you were raised on a steady diet of compliments and kind words. Bonus points for hearing these compliments and kind words from a man with an important position in your life. You might have a third eye centered on your upper forehead with one massive, circuitous eyebrow over all three of your lovely gray eyes, but the fact is, if your father (or a suitable alternate) told you that you were beautiful, you’re going to act, feel and behave like someone who is beautiful.

The self-confidence that has its roots in childhood is like the tap-root of an old, established tree, which in time, has grown down to the water table. Such a tree will not be adversely affected by the summer’s heat or prolonged drought or the other storms of life. Self-confidence that’s nurtured and developed in the early years is a powerful, enduring quality that lives on, completely independent of the mean-spirited opinion of others.

If I were queen of the world (and it shouldn’t be long now), I’d tell all the fathers of the world this one thing: “You possess the ability to make your daughter - your little girl - feel good and confident about herself and you wield a powerful influence over her ability to attract a desirable partner. Further, the man that she selects as her life partner - good, bad or horrific - will be determined largely by your words and actions. You’re teaching her what kind of man she should select, accept, or settle for. You have the potential to make her adult life perfectly lovely or unspeakably hellish. Open your eyes and your heart before you open your mouth and think about the far-reaching implications of your word choices.”

I have met many women whom the world might define as “less than beautiful” and yet they possess the surety and self-esteem of a beauty-queen. After talking with them, I invariably learn that they had a father (or father-figure) who conscientiously made an effort to develop and grow their sense of self-worth. Conversely, I’ve met women who were drop-dead gorgeous and yet they imagined themselves to be quite unattractive. Those women often had a sad story to tell about a father who degraded them or belittled them and/or called them ugly names.

If throughout childhood, you were frequently surrounded by a cloud of negative, ugly comments about your physicality, that’s very hard to overcome in adult life.

In The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf writes that women’s magazines make their money by selling women on the idea that they’re suffering from a disease of “terminal ugliness,” and that this opens the to sell billions of dollars of “cures.”

Too many women already believe that they’re afflicted with this “disease.” The painful throes and agonized wails imposed by this disease can be heard in the ladies’ dressing room of any clothing store in America. Next time you try on a blouse or a dress, stop for a moment and listen to the cacophony of criticism that women unleash on themselves as they’re squeezing into clothes in adjoining stalls. Their self-inflicted vitriol and disparagement will make your blood run cold.

“I’m such a fat pig,” they snarl out loud at their mirrored image, or “If I don’t lose 20 pounds, I swear I’m gonna kill myself.”

In a perfect world, all girls would grow up hearing and eventually believing that they are little princesses. Throughout their formative years, their self-confidence would be tenderly cultivated and nurtured and developed. However, none of us live in a perfect world and most of us don’t have that deep taproot of self-worth. And that’s the reason for The Bootstrap Theory.

It’s also named the Eleanor Roosevelt No-one-can-make-you-feel-ugly-without-your-consent Theory. (You can see why it’s easier to call this The Bootstrap Theory.)

So your father was a louse and your uncles weren’t much better and no one ever told you that you were a little princess. The Bootstrap Theory states that if a woman lacks self-esteem, she should go right to work on this particular short-coming and pull herself up by her own bootstraps.  This theory holds that improving one’s sense of self-worth is entirely an inside job and something that you must do for yourself and by yourself. According to this theory, there are a myriad of ways to raise self-esteem, such as affirmations or meditation, or perhaps accomplishment and success, or achieving long-awaited goals.

As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

This notion is expressed in different ways, such as “No one is going to love you until you’re able to love yourself.” Or its derivative, “You’ve got to be the first one who sees your own beauty. Then, and only then, will the world be able to see it.”

There are some elements of truth to The Bootstrap Theory but it also has many, many flaws. No woman is an island. We are swayed by the opinions of others and that’s especially true in those places where we’re already feeling unsure and insecure.

Fortunately one of my heroes, Virginia Woolf, agrees with me on this one. In a Room of One’s Own (originally an address given to college students), she writes, “Moreover, it is all very well for you, who have got yourselves to college and enjoy sitting rooms of your own to say that genius should disregard such opinions, that genius should be above caring what is said of it. Unfortunately, it is precisely the men and women of genius who mind most what is said of them…Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.”

The “opinion of others” is tough enough, but the opinions of our so-called loved ones cut especially close to the heart. In the secret sanctuary of our soul, we assign each person a value and a cherished place in our world. Their words - directly proportionate to their assigned value - wield ever more power. For a sensitive soul, it’s tough enough to shake off the criticism from an ignorant stranger, but dismissing the sharply worded critique of a loved one is darned near impossible.

Sears Homes were kit homes that were sold right out of the pages of the Sears Roebuck catalog in the early 1900s. More than 370 designs of kit homes were offered - everything ranging from Arts and Crafts bungalows to foursquares to Colonial Revivals. These homes came in 30,000-piece kits and were shipped to all 48 states. Sears promised that a man of average abilities could have these homes assembled in about 90 days.

Today, the only way to find these kit homes is literally one by one.  And that’s what I do. When I decided that Sears Homes would be my career, I endeavored to memorize each of those 370 designs of Sears Homes. Now I can drive the streets of small town America and find the Sears Homes - one by one.

Not surprisingly, the Midwest has an amazing collection of Sears Homes in particular and kit homes in general. Below are a few pictures of the kit homes I’ve found during my travels in the Midwest.

In addition to Sears, there were other companies that sold kit homes, including Aladdin, Gordon Van Tine, Montgomery Ward, Harris Brothers and more.

To see Rose on Youtube, click here.

To learn more about Sears Homes, click here.

To buy a book on Sears Homes, click here.

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Below is a perfect little Crescent in Bloomington, Illinois. Every detail is perfect!

To learn more about Sears Homes, click here.

To see more pictures of Sears Homes, click here.

Sears Homes were the most popular kit homes and were sold right out of the pages of the Sears Roebuck catalog in the early 1900s. More than 370 designs of kit homes were offered - everything ranging from Arts and Crafts bungalows to foursquares to Colonial Revivals. These homes came in 30,000-piece kits and were shipped to all 48 states. Sears promised that a man of average abilities could have these homes assembled in about 90 days.

Today, the only way to find these kit homes is literally one by one.  And that’s what I do. When I decided that Sears Homes would be my career, I endeavored to memorize each of those 370 designs of Sears Homes. Now I can drive the streets of small town America and find the Sears Homes - one by one.

In addition to Sears, there were other companies that sold kit homes, including Aladdin, Gordon Van Tine, Montgomery Ward, Harris Brothers and more.

Here are a few of the kit homes I’ve found in the Lynchburg and Roanoke area.

(Special thanks to Dale Patrick Wolicki for accompanying me on the trip to Roanoke, Bedford and Lynchburg to help with the treasure hunt!)

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To look at more pictures of Virginia’s Sears Homes, click here:

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were traveling and visited Shenandoah, Virginia. It’s a beautiful little town with a large railroad presence so naturally, I went hunting for Sears Homes. Found a handful of unremarkable Sears Homes but then I found this Sears Maytown.

This is not an unusual Sears Home but this was one the prettiest examples of a Sears Maytown that I ever saw. And it was set in one of the prettiest towns that I ever visited. It’s a real beauty.

To read more about Sears Homes, click here.

To read more about Sears Homes, click here.

Yesterday, my husband and I did a field trip to Richmond to look for Sears Homes. I knew there were several in Colonial Heights and only three in Petersburg, but I’d never really scouted out Richmond - until July 5th 2010.

People often ask me how I find these houses. The answer: Lots of practice. Years ago, I specifically worked on memorizing hundreds of housing designs offered by Sears, Aladdin (another kit home company), Montgomery Ward, Gordon Van Tine and more. Now I can drive the streets and find the houses that match these early 20th Century designs. It’s a whole lot of fun.

Here were my best finds from our search in Richmond.  All these houses were found within the city limits of Richmond, Virginia. If you know of any kit homes in Richmond, please send me the address.

BTW, if you like what you see, please email this link to a friend.

Read about The Sears Homes in Hampton Roads here.

My daughter recently found this ad posted on Craig’s List under apartments for rent. The ad offered a two-bedroom apartment that was about $500 below market rent and seemed “too good to be true.” And it was.

The full ad asked the reader to send in rent and security deposit with rental application adding this caveat:

“Please make sure this questions are fill correctly because the best way you answer with your comment will impress me the more to accept your applications.”

The rest was written in a way that makes it clear that English was not their first language:

I must confess that I am very very new in this landlord business..However, My name is Fred Derf, I own the house located at (1000 Happyness Lane, Norfolk, VA).Due to my job as a missionary I spent less time in the States so I could not get a hold on any Realtor to handle this rent issue, although it was when I knew how long we are going to stay in Africa that I decided to rent out the house and i will be here for (3-4 years).. However,the initial plan was to sale out the apt.which I tried, but some times the agents inflates the prize and it takes longer to sell i am telling you this in case if you find the house on another web site,that is the old advert. because of this reason and more we need a responsible person (With good credit) that can take very good care of it as we are not after the money , but want it to beclean and for you to take of it as if it were yours The rent is $600 and $600 for Security Deposit For this 2BR/2BAth/ 1800 sq. ft. Air Conditioner Dishwasher  Walk-in Closet  Refrigerator  Vaulted Ceilings Washer/Dryer  Cable etc…

What a scam.

This evening, I was standing at the neighborhood ice Cream Truck, buying four ice cream sandwiches for me and mine, when an unkempt little girl suddenly appeared by my side. She stood right beside me, dreaming out loud about which ice cream treat she’d buy - if only she had one dollar. The end of her impressive monologue was punctuated with a deep sigh.

My first response was to buy a fifth ice cream sandwich for her, but I hesitated. What if she was diabetic? What if she had lactose intolerance? What if she had some allergy that brought on anaphylactic shock if she ate strawberry/vanilla/chocolate flavored ice cream?

Standing there, beside the ice cream truck, I glimpsed into the future and saw an angry woman berating me for feeding her little girl something that made her deathly ill, and suing me for every dollar I had, and inflicting financial ruin on me and my husband, all because I engaged in a random act of kindness. Thanks to our sue-happy, litigious society and the fear it has bred in all of our hearts and souls, I didn’t buy the little girl an ice cream sandwich.

Think my response was too much? Reading this will change your mind.

A few days ago, I posted about Norfolk and Western’s #1134, an old steam locomotive that’s recently been “cosmetically restored” and moved to downtown Portsmouth.

According to the The Lost Engines of Roanoke website, the old steam locomotive was rescued from the Virginia Scrap Iron and Metal Yard in Roanoke, Virginia where it had been dying a slow-death by rust and kudzu for the last 60 years.

Thanks to Richard Jenkins and his skilled photography, we have some photos of #1134 when she languished in the scrap yard, waiting for death to come. Richard Jenkins is the owner of the “Lost Engines of Roanoke Website.” If you love old steam trains and have a few hours to kill, I heartily recommend his site. http://lostengines.railfan.net/nw1134.shtml

This beautiful old steam engine was pulled from the weeds and restored and moved to a fledgling train museum in downtown Portsmouth. See this post for more information.

Photos below are used with permission from Richard Jenkins (copyright 2008).  Photos are copyright protected and may not be reprinted or republished without permission.

Here’s a current picture of #1134 today, as she sits on the rails again in downtown Portsmouth.

When I hear about the millions of gallons of oil spewing from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig, I wince (as do most Americans, I’m sure). When I hear that this enormous flood of oil is headed for America’s shorelines, it makes me want to cry.

Several times in the last six years, I’ve toddled down to Corolla, North Carolina in the off-season to spend a few days at the seashore. It’s quiet, serene and too beautiful for words (hence, the photos below!).

My dear friend Margee allows me to stay in her beautiful summer place in Corolla, soaking in the magical ambiance of a brightly decorated and airy vacation home and taking in the delightful aroma of those salty sea breezes.

I’ve done some of my very best writing by the seaside. In fact two of my books (including The Ugly Woman’s Guide to Internet Dating) were composed (in part) by the sea.  My muse is nature, and there are few things as inspiring as the quiet, beautiful beaches of North Carolina’s outer banks. I hope and pray that America’s shining seas and beautiful seashores survive BP’s horrific oil spills.

One of my favorite Sears kit homes is the Sears Dover. This little neo-Tudor is adorable, thoughtfully designed, well-laid out, relatively spacious and just as cute as a button. On the back of the house is a large shed dormer, creating plenty of room on the second floor for an additional two bedrooms and a full bath, giving the house a total of four bedrooms, two baths, large living room, dining room and kitchen.

For the late 1920s/early 30s, that was a good-size house.

Here’s a cutie-pie in Champaign, Illinois. This particular catalog page does not show price, but generally the Dover sold for under $3000. Pretty good deal.

This photo (and the one below) was taken in late February 2010, when I visited my daughter and her family.

To learn more about Sears Homes, click here.

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Pictured below is another beautiful Sears Home, The Americus. This house is in Urbana, Illinois. So I guess we’d call it, a fine little Sears House on an Urbana budget?

To see more pictures of Sears Homes, click here.

When I was in the Chicago area this Spring, I spent a few days with my friend Rebecca Hunter. After tooling around town looking at lots and lots of Sears Homes, we sat down in her beautiful dining room and made a list of the Sears Homes that neither one of us had ever seen.

It’s been my experience that the 60 most popular Sears Homes represented about 90% of their sales. Over and over again, we see the same designs, the Mitchells and Lynnhavens and Gladstones and Craftons and Argyles, etc. Sears offered 370 designs of Sears Homes, and of those 370 designs, there are 108 designs that neither Rebecca nor I have ever seen. This is quite remarkable, as the two of us have seen something approaching 10,000 Sears Homes. That’s a lot of Sears Homes.

Dale Wolicki says that it’s likely that some of these designs were never sold or built. In other words, they never went beyond being pictures in a catalog. He’s probably right.

For those Sears Homes aficionados, here is the list of Sears Homes that neither Rebecca or I have ever seen:

Adams

Adeline

Alden

Almo

Amhert

Amhurst

Amsterdam

Arcadia

Atlanta

Bayside

Branford

Bristol

Cambria

Canton

Carlton

Chesterfield

Chicora

Cleveland

Coateshead

Colebrook

Corning

Corrington

Croydon

Dartmouth

Durham

Estes

Fairfield

Fulton

Gainsboro

Glen View

Hamptshire

Harmony

Harmony

Hopeland

Kenfield

Laurel

Lenox

Letona

Lorne

Malden

Marquette

Melrose

Milford

Millerton

Model # 141

Model #104

Model #107

Model #116

Model #122

Model #130

Model #134

Model #136

Model #139

Model #143

Model #157

Model #158

Model #159

Model #165

Model #166

Model #175

Model #176

Model #177

Model #182

Model #183

Model #191

Model #195

Model #198

Model #199

Model #202

Model #204

Model #216

Model #228

Model #241

Model #264P159a

Model #264P206

Model #264P207

Model #264P243

Model #264P252

Model #36

Model #59

Model #64

Model #70

Model #C2001

Nantucket

Natoma

Nipigon

Norwich

Oxford

Pennsgrove

Portsmouth

Seagrove

Sheffield

Sherwood

Silverdale

Spaulding

Springwood

Stone Ridge

Sunny Dell

Tarryton

Torrington

Trenton

Valley

Vanita

Verndale

Vinemont

Wareham

Warren

Webster

Below are some photos of Sears Homes from my recent trip to Illinois:

Every now and then, I wake up out of a dead sleep and think, “Oh my gosh, what have I done?  I can’t paint a fine old house pink!” But then when I come back to consciousness I realize that I really, really like the color pink and when all is said and done, this house will look wonderful. The pink is very pale and now that 30% of the house is painted, it really does look wonderful.

Years ago, my dear friend Rebecca said, “Who says that red and pink don’t match? Who says that I can’t wear certain colors with other colors? And I realized that I’m old enough to decide what colors I do like, and what colors I don’t like and to decide what colors look good with what colors.”

Seems like a simple thing, but that little statement really made an impact.

Who said I can’t paint my 1925 Colonial Revival pink with black shutters? I am old enough to decide if I want a pink house, and I do! And every day, my old house looks better and better.

I think it’s smiling. 

In 1995, I took a job as a freelance writer to help pay the bills. In 1999, I took a steady job as a writer and editor to help pay the bills. In 2002, I wrote a book on Sears Homes and worked hard to promote and sell that book. Within two weeks of that book’s publication, my marriage ended and I really needed to sell some books to help pay the bills.

From 2002 to 2010, I wrote and published another five books and wrote dozens of articles, too. You see, I really needed to make some money to help pay the bills.

Today, after much effort and consternation and fingernail nibbling, I finished writing my 7th book, tentatively titled, “The Sears Homes of Illinois.” I’m very pleased with the end result and hope and pray that my editor will be similarly pleased. Hopefully, he’ll never find out my dirty little secret.

I’m not a real writer.

I have an image that writing comes easy to real writers. When you’re a real writer, words flow effortlessly from your literary mind to your clean, pretty paper. None of this agonizing over each and every word. None of this reaching for the thesaurus because you can not recall THE perfect word that will work in that empty space in that already goofy-sounding sentence.

I write books about old houses, and I find that type of writing excruciatingly difficult. I can’t imagine trying to write a fictional account of something. I take historical facts and real-life experience and distill it down to a few thousand words. That sounds so simple and easy. But it’s not. For me.

And yet today, as I wrote the final chapter of The Sears Homes of Illinois, I had one of those delightful moments of inspiration and the words flowed and the words worked and I ended up writing five paragraphs in five hours and those five paragraphs represented some of the best writing I have ever done. When my husband came home, I made him sit down and pay attention while I read him those five paragraphs. He agreed that it was some of my best writing.

I love what Elizabeth Gilbert (a real writer) said about the creative process:  “If the divine, cockeyed genius assigned to your case decides to be glimpsed for just one moment, then ole. If not, dance anyhow. Have the sheer determination and stubbornness to keep showing up do your part anyhow.”

In my 15-year career as a writer, creating articles and books has always felt like an enormous and laborious effort, but Ms. Gilbert is right. Having the “sheer determination and stubbornness to keep showing up” represents at least 85% of the battle.

Today I was in court, watching my 70th first date do his thing. It was really only a hearing, but it went on for three hours and it was quite interesting. Mr. 70th First Date (aka my husband) is a lawyer and today, after many days of preparation, was his day in court.

He objected to several things that were said by the adversarial counsel, and that was my favorite part of the experience. He sounded so authoritative and competent and well-versed in the law, and it was fun to watch him jump up out of his chair and say, “I object.”

Just like Perry Mason.

He was all dressed up in his “going to court” clothes, which also happens to be the black suit he wore to our wedding 3.5 years ago. Standing before the judge looking all lawyerly and smart, my mind drifted a bit and I thought about all those guys I dated through the years and all those guys that ditched me through the years.

Thank heavens they ditched me. I was a lost soul after my divorce and didn’t have the emotional wherewithal to see that I deserved better than those not-so-nice guys that I was drawn to. Took me five years, but my self-esteem eventually became healthy again.

There are some days - like today - that I still wonder how I scored such a smart, honest, interesting and well-educated guy.  (And there are some days that I wonder why on earth I married someone who is so tough to live with!) But today was one of the good days. It was a lot of fun to watch him at work and watch him perform under pressure.

And he looks so darn cute in that black suit.

I’ve not written here for some time because I’ve been enveloped and overwhelmed with busyness here at  my own home in Norfolk, Virginia. We’re fixing up the old house and one of the projects is painting the exterior.

I’m painting it pink. Not pepto-bismol pink, but more of a subtle shade of soft pink. It’s such a subtle pink that in direct sunlight, you’d think it was white. However, it’s pink. And what a pretty color pink it is. When the painting is done (which is no small chore), it’s my intention to install functional, vintage wood shutters on the front of house. And I’ll paint those shutters high gloss black.

It’s going to be a real beauty when I’m all done. I just hope I’ll all done before I hit retirement age.

PS. The paint job, started in mid-April, was completed in mid-August. And it’s beautiful!  Click here to see final photos.

This weekend, the hubby and I traveled to Stanley, Virginia (in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley) and saw this gorgeous Sears Milton. It’s one of Sears finest homes, and other than this Milton in the Virginia mountains, I’ve never ever seen another Milton - anywhere or anytime.

It’s a real beauty. And the good news is, it’s a Bed and Breakfast. Hopefully this summer I’ll have a chance to travel back to Stanley and spend a night or two inside the Sears Milton on West Main Street.

For more information on the Milton House Inn, click here.