Old Town Home
Old Town Home is a blog dedicated to chronicling the successes and failures of an Historic Old Town Alexandria couple as they live in the charming historic district while attempting to completely renovate and appropriately restore an 1880s Victorian row house...almost entirely on their own.
A Look Back at Our Favorite Posts - Part 1
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- Published on Wednesday, 01 May 2013
Authors: Alex
Last week we celebrated our official two year anniversary of blogging. Boy, how the time flies! We commemorated the day with a post outlining a few blogging tips that we've picked up over the past 24 months. Tip number ten on our list of blogging do's and don'ts was a basic concept that many bloggers don't consider when they get to a...
Toolbox Tuesday: The Right Masonry Tools for the Repointing Job
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- Published on Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Authors: Alex
Recently I wrote several posts detailing the process we've taken to repoint a portion of our 19th century masonry. From proper mortar selection to the whole learning process associated with making good looking mortar joints, it was a laborious task with a bit of a learning curve, but one made possible by ensuring I had the right tools...
Open Housing: A Turn of the 19th Century Lee Street Charmer
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- Published on Monday, 29 April 2013
Authors: Alex
Over the winter we tend to go through a bit of withdrawal when it comes to our Open Housing addiction. During the colder months the market tends to soften some and far fewer homes show up on the weekly open house listings. However, when spring arrives, so too do the homes for sale in Old Town.
As has been the annual pattern, while the...
10 Blogging Tips for Our 2nd Blogiversary
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- Published on Thursday, 25 April 2013
Authors: Alex
Wow! Can you believe it? Two years! Yes, that's right, this week marks our two year anniversary of when we started Old Town Home. To be quite honest, it's a little bit shocking that it's gone by so quickly. I still remember the night Wendy and I were sitting out in our backyard and getting our first blog post live, nervous with...
A Cheerful Frame of Mind: Honoring Vacation Memories
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- Published on Wednesday, 24 April 2013
Authors: Wendy
It's official. We're "those" people. You know, the ones who leave their Christmas decorations up for months into the new year. I'm shaking my head in embarrassment. Thankfully we had last Friday's neighborhood party on the books, which forced us to tackle those nagging and often overlooked issues -- like decorations of Christmas past...
Even a Monsoon Can't Stop Our Par-Tay
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- Published on Tuesday, 23 April 2013
Authors: Wendy
If you stopped by last week, you probably saw that we were frantically preparing our home and yard for a neighborhood party, scheduled for last Friday night. While our frenzied efforts paid off, unfortunately I may have doomed our party from the get-go, jinxing the weather simply by using the words "Garden Party" on the invitation....
Go Meece Lightnin'
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- Published on Friday, 19 April 2013
Authors: Alex
When living in an urban environment, we've found there are a few things you simply learn to live with. The constant elevated noise level, tight living proximity, tons of foot traffic, more trash than you'd prefer, and the occasional vermin or insect issues.
When living in an urban environment, we've found there are a few things you...
Planting a Lettuce Garden
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- Published on Thursday, 18 April 2013
Authors: Wendy
I guess it's "Garden Week" here at Old Town Home, as our saga of the backyard transformation continues. Yesterday we covered our little urban square foot garden turned informal veggie/fruit/herb planting area and our process of cleaning up our yard for the year.
One of the keys to this year's garden is the understanding and...
Another Go at Our Organic Garden
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- Published on Wednesday, 17 April 2013
Authors: Wendy
Two years ago we decided we wanted to test the greenness of our black thumbs by trying our hand at creating an organic square foot garden. Given our small lot and urban landscape, this required us to claim a bit of space from our tiny brick backyard and build a modestly sized raised bed.
It was by no means a difficult...
Spring Cleaning: The Straight and Narrow
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- Published on Tuesday, 16 April 2013
Authors: Wendy
Before we delve into today's post, I want to mention something that is surely weighing on a lot of people's minds. After the horrible events in Boston that occurred yesterday, we'd like to extend our heartfelt sympathy and thoughts to the the marathon runners and spectators, especially those that were injured. We'd also like to...
