Wallpaper and Bridesmaids Dresses

Recently, my wife, Carla, and I attended a 25th-wedding-anniversary party. The still-happy couple had posted photos from their late-1988 wedding. As Carla and I gazed at the shots of the bridal party now a quarter-century old, the "bride" sidled up to us and said, "The pattern on those bridesmaid gowns looks like furniture upholstery on steroids." Then she walked away. "Well," Carla said in a hush. "It was the eighties, after all."

Bridesmaids dresses are like wallpaper. Decades later you may still be in love, but chances are the shiny Victorian red-and-gold striped pattern you put up in your living room will come to feel more like prison stripes...especially if you want to sell your house. Take home-seller Caryn Kadel. She and her husband have owned their Buckingham Township house for 20 years, and for 18 of those years, this is the paper that adorned the kitchen and nook.


"It was dark and busy," says Caryn. "I loved it."







But the love ended. 




 "Honestly, I wanted to take it down five years ago, but when we started seeing the single cosmetic comment that was negative on the feedback, that was enough. Our realtor recommended Odell Painting."

After we removed the paper, we applied a warm but neutral color. Now the house appeals more to prospective buyers and the Kadels couldn't be happier.

"Odell Painting met all of my expectations. I was impressed with their professionalism, friendliness, timeliness, flexibility, follow-up and especially their work!" Caryn says.

So when what went up needs to come down - because your tastes have "moved on" or your family is moving out - give Odell Painting a call.

Batless in Bucks County

There we were, second story on a ladder leaning against a 150-year-old farmhouse. Just starting this full-exterior job, our first task was to remove the shutters. Now, this being daytime, and this being rural PA and home to the brown bat, we were hoping to see lots of them. And if not the bats themselves, then at least the guano, and lots of it. (If you, like my wife from New York City, don’t know what guano is, it’s poop.) But, as we expected, the shutters were all but bare. One by one, off came they came – close to 40 – and only two bats were rousted from sleep. The thing is, you either find lots of bats on a house…or none because the environment isn’t right for them – the spacing between shutter and structure might be too great, for instance. But still too early for hibernation, I was saddened to see evidence of the deadly white nose syndrome, which has nearly wiped out our little brown bat population, some estimates citing 98 percent of our most common flying mammal! According to some of my bat pals (experts in the “field”), while thousands of our local bats used to hibernate in the Durham Mine (the second largest hibernaculum in the U.S.), there were only a handful this past spring when they returned.

We also have three migratory species here in PA: reds, silver-haireds and hoarys, which go south; although reds might stick around and hibernate in leaf litter. But the march, or rather, flight back of the little brown bat will be very slow, with not enough bats to easily find each other and reproduce, which puts our crops – and us – in danger, as bats eat harmful insects.

Anyway, when I decided to write this blog, my former-city-dwelling wife – who had a bad bat “experience” when she was a kid – shuddered. “I was attacked by one,” she said. To which my bat friend replied, “They don’t attack people, but may come into contact with hair if an insect has landed on your head.” “Ich,” she said, and shuddered again. “And what kind of picture will you post? They look like vampires.”

Well, this isn't the most flattering angle. Most of these types of bat pictures of are them in flight, I explained, when their mouths are open in what’s called echolocating (using their sonar to “see”), but in repose, they are actually quite cute. See.

 And they love to be petted.

And they purr? "Like a cat?" my wife, who is a cat-lover, asked. Yep. And frankly, I think bats are way cuter than say...

So keep good thoughts about our little brown bats. And hope they get some better PR when they make their return.