Archive for April, 2009

A Weekend of Home Tours!

Friday, April 24th, 2009

This will be a primo weekend for getting a glimpse inside the charming houses of Sacramento. I will have house history flyers available at both tours – be sure to pick one up!

Curtis Park Home Tour:
Saturday, April 25
10 AM – 4 PM
Tix available at The French Hen, The Ivy House and other spots
Includes 7 homes and other fun activities. For more info click here.

East Sacramento Home Tour:
Sunday, April 26
10 AM – 4 PM
Tix available at William Glen, Collected Works and elsewhere
Includes 6 homes. For more info click here.

How to enjoy that morning shower

Saturday, April 18th, 2009


The shower I want to try. Photo courtesy of Calistoga Ranch.

Lately I’ve not wanted to shower. I know, gross, right? But it’s not that I don’t want to shower, it’s that I don’t want to shower in our bathroom. It’s so cramped that you have to sidle behind the toilet to slide open the shower door and turn on the water. There are no windows and the fan doesn’t do much to keep the mold at bay. Pretty! I won’t even go into the gold palm tree no-slip decals in the tub.

This is one of those mental attitudes that needs to be checked before it turns into a full blown “thing” – as in “I have a thing about spiders” – and I turn into Howard Hughes. So I’ve come up with some ideas about how to improve my morning shower without taking a sledgehammer to the walls.

Keep the bathroom clean – it may be coffin like but if it’s clean at least it sparkles a bit.

Light a soy candle

Switch up your shampoo – I use those free samples from Total Beauty Experience to break my shampoo routine and the new fragrances are a nice jolt for the senses.

Don’t shower alone – this one is sort of obvious.

Work out right before your shower – this feels especially good as you can use the shower to cool off.

Keep the door open – unless you have a dark imagination involving Norman Bates, this will help lessen the claustrophobia.

Get a filter and a new shower head – your body soaks up a lot of the chlorine in the local water and a filter would keep your skin from drying out (and save on your color job). A new shower head turns that police riot-hose blast into a gentle Amazon rain.

Use your time wisely – this is your chance to plan your day in advance so be thinking about how it’s going to be a good day and what you will accomplish.

Get in and get out – with California’s current water shortage, maybe it’s best to just get the hell out as fast as possible and save you ruminations for the daily commute.

10% off Pure Necessities products for Sac Historic House blog readers

Monday, April 6th, 2009

The lovely folks at Pure Necessities whom I have raved about here and here are offering 10% discount to Sacramento Historic House blog readers. Yay! I especially like their Rose Geranium and Orange Eucalyptus soy candles.

When ordering please be sure to reference “Sac Historic House” in the discount code box or comments. The discount will not show up in the tally but will be included in the follow-up email to you.

Enjoy!