One of the highlights of the local holiday season is Stan Hywet’s annual Deck The Halls celebration, which is one of Ohio’s largest and most spectacular holiday traditions. The celebration runs from December 14-23 and December 26-30.

A million lights ensure that the holiday season always remains merry and bright.

The former Seiberling estate is illuminated inside and out with over ONE MILLION lights and this year, the historic Manor House is decorated and inspired by the theme of  Postcards from the Past. DAZZLE is a fantastic outdoor light show choreographed to three new songs this year and Gingerbread Land, the popular play garden has also been “dressed up” for the holiday season as well.

As always, the Great Hall is decked out in its holiday finest.

This year, the celebration is bigger and better than ever, and includes:

•Nightly tree lighting at 5:30pm. After Christmas, look for the Gingerbread Man.

•Live music in the Music Room, courtesy of area choirs and musicians.

•Self-guided tours of the Manor House included in ticket purchase.

•Freshly baked gingerbread cookies, savory warm pretzels, cocoa, hot cider, beer and wine for purchase in the Courtyard.

•Enjoy all of the above treats at the cozy warming fire in the Courtyard.

•Visit with Santa and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the Corral in the Courtyard.

•Take a family photo at two featured photo spots—perfect for that family holiday picture.

•Marvel at our new animated Gingerbread Bakeshop Window in the Courtyard.

•The tropical Corbin Conservatory is beautifully decorated for Christmas with a 20ft poinsettia tree.

•Shop for unique holiday gifts in Molly’s Shop.

•Enjoy light fare or a sweet treat in Molly’s Café after your tour.

For more information, go to: www.stanhywet.org

As Christmas approaches this year, I’m rather happy that I have managed to keep ahead of the holiday decorating. When the children were small, I usually started breaking out Christmas trees, lights, nutcrackers and all the other holiday gimcracks on the day after Thanksgiving, in the hope that I could get the balance of it done by the end of that weekend. As they have grown up (and one has left home) my efforts have gradually slipped into early-December; while there are some traditional decorations that must go up every year, there are always a few that have been forgotten or fallen out of favor.

The Nutcracker Army stands at attention. I think the cats find them intimidating.

One year, we had four full-size Christmas trees in the house—the primary tree in the bay window in the front room, the traditional “children's tree” (covered with Disney, Muppet, Looney Tunes etc.) in the family room, a basic "lights-and-balls” tree in the sun porch, and a large old tree passed down from my in-laws, which was erected in the basement one year and covered with tinsel, white lights and a host of those old-fashioned, blown-glass German-style bulbs. That was not long after we moved into the house; we had the basement partially fixed-up for kids to play in, and we invited all my aunts, uncles and cousins over. Note: My mother was from a family of twelve, and I have at least 64 first-cousins, so you may understand when I tell you we only did this once.

The foyer, with it's nutcrackers and much-abused floor.

Currently we had been hosting my three older brothers and their families for Christmas on a rotating basis every three years—now my nephews and nieces are beginning to join the entertaining queue, since it has become more of a challenge for my aging siblings and the younger generations are eager to pick up the slack. This is an “off” year for us, but we do plan on doing some entertaining over the holidays, and our daughter will also be coming home from Manhattan Christmas week.

The Captain of the Guard needs a candy dish.

As I write this, I have the main tree in the front room finished and most all the interior decorations are out, including the small army of nutcrackers that inhabit the foyer every December. Last on the list is the “children's tree” which we will finish up by this weekend. The exterior of the house is ready too; since we have lived in two-story homes, I always avoided string-lights and gone with colored outdoor flood lights, which my father always seemed to prefer, too. My wife always chides me that I am taking the easy way out, but I find the end result rather pleasing. We also add some red candle-lights in the upstairs windows along with wreaths and faux pine garland on the front door, coach lights and fences on either side of the house, to finish things off. Some past years I had tossed in some string lights in the shrubs out front, or on the small dogwood outside our front door, but I lacked the motivation to undertake this chore in 2017.

Thankfully, our cats have not seriously disrupted our holiday decorating schemes. Our black cat has occasionally managed to insert herself into the family room tree and stretch out across some of the lower interior branches, where her yellow eyes can sometimes be seen glaring at us from deep within. The tree is, however, quite sturdy, and up till now this has not been an issue; but as she continues to grow older and fatter, I resolve to take more notice.

The tree in the front window. Safe for now.

The very young cat that I rescued from the arborvitae in the backyard around Labor Day has been thoroughly assimilated into our household, and while she initially took great interest in knocking off some small bells and a couple of ornaments from the tree in the front room (and thoroughly disheveling the tree skirt) her interest has lagged somewhat over the last week, and I have been happy to find no new shiny things on the carpet or under the coffee table.

One issue that I did note was the condition of the oak floor in the foyer, which usually gets some tending to prior to the deployment of the Nutcracker Army. Last year, the floor got a solid going-over, as our old tomcat, Percy, had inflicted numerous small scratches at the foot of the stairs, where he scrambles to make the turn and head up to the second floor. Some cleaning, touch-up with a color-matched marker and a coat of sealant had it looking almost as good as new.

You may ask why we do not just have him de-clawed; he went to the veterinarian about a year ago since it was clear he was not feeling well. We asked to have him de-clawed, whereupon they told my wife that would be too stressful for him. As an alternative, they removed all of his teeth, which I imagined would be a great deal more stressful, but they insisted his dental work was in poor shape and causing him significant discomfort. Who was I to question?

Percy and his adopted little sister, Itty Bitty, behaving themselves.

Which brings me back to the floor—sorry for the digression—which has come under further attack now that the young cat and Percy regularly chase each other up and down the stairs. I was aghast as I held my face above the floor with marker in hand, trying to hide the scratches and gouges they had inflicted upon it. About a half-hour later, I was satisfied, and the wood looked much better. For now, there is little trace of the cats’ mischief, other than when I walk into the foyer and see the carpet runners skewed at various angles or pushed up against the wall.

What the foyer looks like when the cats are not behaving themselves.

Over the coming days, perhaps I will post a few of those beauty vignettes that I see on so many home and design blogs. Then again, I may doze off in a fat chair, with a book on my lap and a glass of ale by my side, and forget to do so. We shall see.

Nothing like a fresh coat of white paint.

As I noted in my previous post, I regret not getting more done this summer around the house. What did get done focused mostly on the backyard and pool area; while my efforts to get the front lawn back in order bore some fruit, it was not until September that I was really able to get to work on the front of the house.

As I noted in previous posts, I have been working to restore the fence that flanks both sides of the house. I was finally able to complete the restoration of the large post at the west side, and then continued sanding and repainting all the fence pickets in-between. As of this writing, I have completed three of the eight 8-foot sections of fencing. With the sides facing the front of the house, I applied a very high-quality latex, working it in with a brush; I may use my new paint sprayer for the rest, to save time.

Just need to define this flower bed a little more...

I think I have re-painted this fence maybe twice in 25 years; this was by far the most complete wire-brush-and-sanding job that I have ever done, so hopefully it will last for a while. The treated cross beams are fine; a few of the cedar pickets (especially where they have been in contact with the ground) have seen some rot. This will be hidden by a treated 1” x 4” that I am adding at the bottom, which will not only look better buy hold back some of the soil and mulch I am adding in front.


Thus, I gave the flower beds (which reside in front of these fences) a thorough weeding and tilling—since it seems grass grows better in a flower bed than it does in the yard—and they had also been invaded by assorted weeds and vinca vines that had creeped in.

Yeah - that's what I'm talkin' about.

This also gave me an opportunity to consider a much-needed update to my planting scheme. When we first built the house, the trees in front were not so large, and the flower beds there got a lot more sunlight throughout the day. As a result, the tall tiger-lillies we inherited form my mother-in-law’s garden did wonderfully, combined with a nice purple spiderwort and a few small daylilies.

Time has taken its toll, however. Only two of the sections get sufficient sunlight these days, and the tiger lilies have more recently suffered from some kind of blight, which renders the bottom of the stalks and leaves yellow and brown. It may be a lack of oxygen or a similar issue, since they had never been divided. Remembering the wonderful old hollyhocks we had at the back of our old house, I am planning on replacing the tiger lilies with those—a more “English-looking” garden flower. I’ll leave the spiderwort in front of these and may also include a few four-o-clocks, which we also had at our old house. On the west side, something else will be called for, since the big oak tree out front (a beautiful specimen, with a trunk straight enough for a ship’s mast) casts that side of the yard in shade/semi-shade much of the day. I’m thinking maybe planting some foxglove on this side, and perhaps something else that can tolerate the light conditions.

These three beds are each approximately 8 feet wide and 3 feet deep. Till now, I had simply edged them with a spade, but to keep out the weeds I am considering a raised border of some sort. My first inclination is to use timber; I’m leaning toward using 2” x 8” with the bottom 2” buried. This will leave about 6” above ground, but then I am also planning to route the boards with joint grooves to give it a stone/masonry look—then staining it a beige/gray to match the house foundation color. I need to work in a couple inches of improved soil, compost and leaf mulch as well, so the raised border will help hold it in.

If I can just get all this remaining work done before the snow falls, I guess I’ll be satisfied. There’s more on my to-do list, but it’s possible that those parts-and-pieces will have to be built over the winter and installed in the spring. Even that will be a challenge, since I have a basement upgrade to get back to…

Sadly, this summer ended up being far less productive than I had hoped. Reviewing my “to-do” list of items that needed addressing, it seems I have only been able to complete a few of them. Now there is only the hope that the coming Fall may serve to be a more productive season as far as the house is concerned.

No, this is not the reason for my lack of productivity. A nice addition to my tiki bar, thanks to the good people at Windsor & Eton Brewery.

A large part of this was due to our trip to the UK in mid-May; between holiday planning and the weather upon our return, this set me back about 3-4 weeks in terms of my usual summer work schedule. In recent years, we’ve been able to open the pool during the first week of May, with another week or two after that to handle annual chores like cleaning the patios, doing touch-up painting on the decks and some outdoor furniture—which all has to be hauled out of storage—tidying up the perennial beds, setting up our tiki bar on the back deck and bringing all the seasonal decorative items out of the garage, shed and basement. This is then followed by planting of tropical-looking annuals in beds and in pots all around the pool.

New this year was an effort to grow more grass in the backyard bare spots (initially, this appeared to be successful, but a hot, dry July and August rendered these efforts fruitless) and I also wanted to test some of that specially formulated spray paint on our plastic outdoor furniture, which was in serious need of restoration. Our four white chaises were seriously stained and dirty—totally beyond cleaning—and I also wanted to paint a few other items (a cooler and a trash bin) a dark brown. It’s also important to note that all of this work was limited to the backyard, which is where we spend most of our time during the summer. Other than fertilizing, raking and mowing, planting a few annuals in the porch planters and setting some pots out on either side of the steps, little happens in the front of the house until the backyard is totally in order.

As it turned out, June was spent by the time this work was all completed; after another week of enjoying the fruits of my labor, I took the first weekend in July to head up to Michigan for some camping, sightseeing and volunteer activity. Two weeks later, my daughter visited from New York for a weekend, and four weeks after that my wife and I went to visit her again. Obviously, no work got done during those periods. Take away another weekend or so with cool or wet weather, and here I am now considering when to close the pool and start packing everything up for the winter. Sigh.

This is how the "She-Shed" turned out.  The space behind the curtain on the left is still needed for storage.

So what did get done? Aside from regular yearly maintenance, I was able to:

1) Rebuild, reinforce and re-paint a large bench I had built for the pool area some years ago.

2) I successfully re-painted all four of our plastic chaise lounges, in addition to a large cooler/cabinet and a trash bin. This turned out wonderfully; all the items look brand new.

3) I was able to finish staining the back of the backyard swing I moved about a year ago, and fully restored the carved wooden sign on it (dated 1997) that says Mom’s Swing.

4) Got a coat of paint on the small oriental bridge in the garden.

5) Repaired, added decorative trim and repainted a small open book case that sits next to the tiki bar on the deck. This serves as a summer home to decorative items like tiki mugs, candles, photos and other exotic knick-knacks.

6) Painted the inside of our backyard shed so that my wife could use most of it as a “She-Shed” during the summer season. The inside walls (and the roof framing)  is painted a light seafoam green; I had put in a sheet vinyl floor previously, and with a few decorative items and an area rug, it looks pretty good. Since I still need about four feet of the interior for storage (the shed is 8’ x 12’) I hung 2 color-coordinated shower curtains across part of the space to hide things like extra tables, chairs and other items that we still keep there. Come fall, the “She-Shed” goes away as we pack the shed with stuff again.

There is still much to do. I think I’ll cover that in my next post…