CPI4PCI:

Many months ago, Mom had the idea that for Dad's 60th birthday, we could make a difference for cancer patients and families and could help cancer research move forward.  Thus, she began planning for two very special things:  60 cards to be delivered to current cancer patients, and a 5K walk/run/paddle raising funds for the cancer institute that provided extraordinary care for dad during his fight.

We are so pleased that both efforts succeeded, and so proud of our family!  The weather was lovely, a terrific group of friends and family turned out and put on their "I [walked/ran/biked/paddled] dam far" t-shirts and hit the gravel and pavement.   

Today cards will be delivered, and tomorrow Mom will have the privilege of sharing with PCI that we raised $4000.  (I suppose I'm scooping the news, so if you're at PCI keep the secret for us.)  

  

Our thanks to everyone who supports the Pink Palace clan!

The Spillway

My dear friend's baby is a few months old, and we're delighted that he's coming to visit soon. So of course I asked: "You're taking him to see the fish, aren't you?"

When our baby girl came home at a year and a half old, we weren't up for big vacations. We'd had enough grand and transatlantic adventures for awhile, and needed little ones. So we stayed at my mom and dad's, and we took our kids to the park. This included, for reasons I can't really explain beyond the shivery-horror pleasure, a trip to feed the fishes at the spillway. Thus began a family tradition: new family member, welcome to the fish at the spillway.

When my friend's husband first came to town to be introduced around, spillway. New cousin? What will he think of the spillway? Think this might be the guy your auntie wants to marry? Has he ever been to the spillway? etc.

Dear baby A, I don't know why . . . but we can't wait to see what you think of the spillway.

And of course, guests, maps will be provided -- not only to swimming and fishing, but also, and more importantly, to the spillway.

Pymatuning State Park

In the Garden

After much labor on the part of K and Mom, and less labor but more fun on the part of the P trio, Dad's peace rose, a rainbow knock-out (beautiful already), and a bella roma are featured in the front yard. The perennial border will surprise us -- we couldn't tell what each bulb would become. We hope the shade garden thrives once more -- hostas that had been mowed over are coming back, and they'll be surrounded by cinnamon ferns and lily of the valley among other specimens.

I'm hopeful that more planting will follow the painting, still imagined as our project for May. Having ruled a metal roof out (the waste-reduction benefit is eliminated if the shingles have to be removed and a portion of the roof rebuilt anyway) we decided on the Roof in Harvard Slate. There's still time to vote on paint and trim!

Summer 2012

The Pink Palace is booking for the summer! Between families' vacations and a planned reunion, June and August are busy months for the house that once sat empty. We're excited that many of you are helping to fill it.

Run my Reno

We've just applied to Rivr Media's Run my Reno, because we think everyone -- not just the Pymatuning area, but all of America -- should help to choose the new color for the Pink Palace. And we think the house and the town would be great DiY tv stars.

Spring Plans

The spring will bring change to the Pink Palace, including a promised new coat of paint. We'd considered taking a vote during the town's fair, since the house sits so prominently on the corner -- and since the color scheme has brought more comment than anything else.

Our plans were delayed, and we're left to select the color on our own. (The rest of the block is currently white, and many of the neighbors have suggested we follow suit). The girls want the Pink Palace to stay pink, but we're looking at these palettes: Sherwin Williams and California Paints.

We're also looking into a metal roof. Details, and product options, to follow.

House History Continued

I've had a fantastic email exchange with Victor Hugo's granddaughter, now in her 80's, regarding the original house plans. There have been several stories of the architecture of the Pink Palace and its brother, including the thought that it may have been a Sears Home or a Sterling such as these but can find no interior evidence (numbered joists etc) and the idea that the wood for some of both of the houses came from The Palms (the original home, known so for its attached conservatory with two-story high palm trees) has more support.

I'd welcome your thoughts, and am hoping to collect more from his granddaughter, who is also the town historian and an accomplished writer, soon!

Outfitting the Pink Palace

We knew we wouldn't be able to furnish the Pink Palace any time soon. We'd furnish Mom and Dad's room so they had somewhere comfortable to stay, but the rest of us would plan on bringing sleeping bags. It would be the most luxurious campsite ever -- a tea cart was included -- but it would be a campsite for awhile. And, at eight minutes from the lake, what else could we need (for now) but a kayak?

But one night at a work dinner, K's friend and colleague asked, "You wouldn't happen to know anyone who needs some furniture, would you?" K. laughed, and told her about the Pink Palace.

Her generosity overwhelmed us and filled the Pink Palace. There is now furniture in almost every room -- everything from bunk beds to bookshelves, and blankets to boot!

Growing our Garden for the Future

I've just ordered perennials for the Pink Palace, our Christmas gift to Mom. Together we'll be planting peace roses, rainbow knock out roses, and many shade perennials. Ordering from the spring in February is a lovely reminder that there is always something to look forward to.

Mom has had some really lovely ideas for how to celebrate Dad's life this year. Among these are a family reunion at the Pink Palace and a model rocket competition to benefit upci.

But she also wondered if it would be possible to find 60 people to do 60 acts of kindness or service, wherever and whatever they are, in Dad's honor on his 60th Birthday. Keep reading for updates, and please consider joining us for our 60/60 celebration in August.

Gemini

The house had one oddity, the real estate agent told us, but she was sure it wouldn't be a problem: the gas meter for the house next door was located in the basement of the Pink Palace. This, we learned, was an artifact of the houses' former lives/life. The Pink Palace and its neighbor were once brothers and before that, they were one.

Victor Hugo Ehrhardt, who came to town to found the paint company in 1885, built the first house on the double lot at the intersection, just across from the paint factory. Vic raised four children there before he turned the company and the property over to two of them (Cap and Jack, for Hugo had died in early adulthood and Lila had moved to Florida with her banker-husband) in 1916. The materials from the 1885 house were used in the two that now stand side by side, this one apparently for Jack, who "liked things ship-shape" and his wife Frances, who was known as an excellent hostess.

I imagined what Jack and Frances would have said about me and K and our clan and our plans. But our more immediate concern, it would seem, would be neighbors who had heard that city people had made an offer on the house.

The kitchen was painted hubbard squash on the occasion of the baby shower of my very dear friend, by the generosity of her parents. It had been covered in sunflowers, so they texted when they'd finished the task that all was well -- the painting had gone smoothly, and they'd managed to paint around the flowers. Thankfully they were kidding. It's now the loveliest place to sip coffee and write, though the living room, with its tiny library, is the favored place to read.

Why the Pink Palace at Pyme

We used to drive by the Pink Palace, as it came to be known among us for its prior owners' surprising paint choices and the delight they brought our daughters (and perhaps our daughters alone), on the way to the lake. The house had been for sale for too long, and every time we left town my husband or I would say "We could always buy the Pink Palace."

The Pink Palace sits at the only stop light in the town where K's Dad was born and lived before leaving for college, which was also, coincidentally, the hometown of my youth. Dad's family had been there before there was a town proper, and they'd bought a significant swath of property up by Seminary Hill from the McMasters before they themselves divided and sold lots. Dad had been collecting family history documents for years, though he discouraged K from his dream of rebuying Grandma's house (built on part of the original tract of land). "Don't romanticize Grandma's house," he said, before reminding us that lines for gas lamps still ran through the house. Fine, we could always buy the Pink Palace.

Dad had been living with cancer for two years last summer when we had a frank conversation about the near future. A dream-of-a-lifetime trip to Italy behind, what would be ahead? And K said to Mom: "Well, we could always buy the Pink Palace." Glad that I wasn't trying to sell them on my dream of opening a L'Eau Vive franchise in a church that was also for sale, Mom and Dad were in.

The research and restoration and furnishing would take time. But in the next months, the Pink Palace brought us much joy and many surprises.

The Pink Palace in Winter