Tag Archives: Mrs. B at Home

And They’re Off!

May 23, 2008UncategorizedMrs. B at HomeMrs. Blandings

Welcome to Camp Blandings where the three young inhabitants will begin the summer filled with excitement and enthusiasm.

We will swim and play golf, walk to Brookside and likely hike in Colorado. I will make every effort to keep the electronic demons in check.

At some point the season will make an ugly transition and it will become “too hot for the pool.”

But for now, we begin summer again and even I cannot forget the feeling of your world breaking wide open when the bell rings for the last time. Exultation and relief.

Even for the resident camp counselor, who often stands head in hand wondering if this was really what I signed up for, the last day of school is always a good day.

Because of a cooler spring, the peony hedge in the front is a little late in blooming this year. Its stalks are usually heavy with blossoms for Mother’s Day, but this year we had to wait a bit.

So yesterday, when we drove up, car crammed with boys and backpacks and cubby labels and artwork, the peonies greeted us like fireworks, welcoming us home to days of laughter and lounging and beastly boredom. Summer in the Dream House begins today.

Shameless Self Promotion

May 7, 2008UncategorizedMrs. B at HomeMrs. Blandings

Unless you have been living in a bubble, you know that there is a new Indiana Jones movie coming out at the end of the month. What? Sex in the City? Yes, I’ve heard of it, but all the boys are talking about at my house is Indy.

With a PG-13 rating, it’s somewhat interesting that the movie promoters have chosen Legos as one of their avenues of indoctrination, but Blandings’ boys 1, 2 and 3 can tell you almost everything you need to know about a movie made well before they were born.

Catalogues and computer games extol the adventures of Dr. Jones and what mommy can argue with a hero with a Ph.D.? You don’t think I missed the opportunity to tell them how many years he went to school and how hard he had to study do you? Yes, the message is definitely that women and adventure follow straight A’s and advanced graduate degrees.

Indy wasn’t our first Lego love. Star Wars was number one in the Blandings’ box office, a smash hit, for over two years. Again, PG-13 movies promoted by products with “7 & Up” on the box.

A Star Wars “museum” was erected in the dressing room. (“She’ll never let us do it, you know she won’t.”) Sheets removed and Chicken Walkers installed.

Alas, the Legos rarely stay in the museum. Not made to reside on shelves they are brought out for battle and sometimes just to show. Repairs must be made when #3 gets in over his head.

But do not count our day as the day of shameless promotion. In 1948, David O. Selznik and RKO Radio Pictures built 73 houses across the nation to promote the new film, “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.”

Based on Eric Hodgins’s book of the same name, the movie struck a chord with American audiences. Postwar movie-goers were flocking to the suburbs looking for dream houses of their own. The star, not Grant or Loy, but the house, was modeled after Hodgins’s house in Connecticut. His book was a fictionalized account of its conceptualization and construction. Building the house nearly bankrupt him and he ended up selling it. Once he had success with the book and the movie, Hodgins attempted to buy it back. The owners would not sell.

RKO’s original plan was for 100 houses in 100 cities. The studio provided the blueprints which local builders could modify. It seems all the kitchens were state of the art GE electric. Fancy. Generally, tours of the homes were conducted and proceeds benefited a local charity. PR machine.

I have relatively recent articles from Tulsa, Toledo, South Bend, Oklahoma City, Chattanooga, Portland and, yes, Connecticut, providing updates on the Blandings’ homes in their cities. Most of the homeowners were not aware of the houses history when they purchased them, but all are captivated by the charm of the homes and the story.

We have one right here in Kansas City a short stroll from my Dream House. I didn’t know until I started writing the blog and folks started saying, “Oh, like the house around the corner.” One of our iconic developers, J.C. Nichols claimed he could build the house of a fraction of the $18,000 that Grant’s character paid for his. I contacted the owner and asked her if I could post an image. Lovely and gracious, she agreed. She knew, of course, the house’s pedigree. She said, “Come by soon, everything is green and blooming.” A dream house, indeed.

Many thanks to my sister-in-law who was an unbelievable help with the research. Love ‘ya lots, Luc.

Presents

April 28, 2008UncategorizedMrs. B at HomeMrs. Blandings

In case you were wondering, I did include the fifth book in the donation to Dining by Design. When it came right down to it, even Hadley, Brown and Radizwell were not satisfying enough to override the deep-rooted guilt of my childhood.

And, as often happens, I was rewarded for doing the right thing. Patricia van Essche, a now long-time on-line friend forwarded a little treat of her own. House and Garden’s Complete Book of Decoration, originally published in 1937, this issue is from 1960.

It arrived on Saturday and I flipped through it quickly before dashing out the door to set up for the auction. Oh, the sacrifices one makes! How I longed to sit and pour over each and every page. But duty called.

The auction went beautifully. This won’t be surprising, but it wasn’t the folks who “bid early and bid big” who meant the most (though I am so grateful and awed that they did) but my best friends who came early and stayed late. Supporters in an entirely different way. Mr. Blandings and my co-chair’s husband surprised us with chilled champagne. As we sat on the steps and celebrated amid the banging of the table take down, we wondered who was happier the co-chairs or the spouses.

The chaos temporarily stored in the back of our cars, we headed home exhilarated and exhausted. As I wandered through the living room to the office to check my email, a manic habit that I have formed over the last six months, look what caught my eye. Mr. Blandings, who should have been receiving gifts from me to compensate for the neglect and distraction, left me a little love token on the mantle. Heaven help me to deserve him.

Weary and bleary-eyed the next morning I opened my other present. van Essche’s gift does not disappoint and even Mr. Blandings peered across the breakfast table at the kitchen section.

But wait, what’s this? Sleek and stainless, a double Thermador oven

just like my own.

A point of contention through the kitchens-in-the-air that we are always building, Mr. Blandings claims she will give out eventually and we will be stuck with custom cabinets built for her that will be useless once she goes to appliance heaven. But I adore her. And even though he once claimed her “inaccurate,” a thermometer has proven her to be within three degrees. The thing is, I like things things and people who stick, even when something newer and shinier comes along.

Dining By Design – A Fantasy

April 22, 2008UncategorizedMrs. B at Home, ProductMrs. Blandings

After yesterday’s mention of the Dining by Design event, an anonymous reader asked, “What WOULD you have tossed together for a table setting, given the time?” Oh, yes. This is great fun. What, indeed? Let’s assume no budget as that will make it loads more appealing. First the basics. Round table for ten, white under cloth, bamboo chairs, black. I’d have to start with Le Lac, square overlay, two-inch black grosgrain ribbon at the hem. An additional 3/4 inch ribbon, 3/4 inches in from the larger one. The corners would just break on the floor so the white of the bottom cloth would just cut the pattern a bit. I might have four black tassels at the ready just in case; I fear it would be too much.

Large, outdoor lantern suspended magically from the ceiling. (You might be over these, but I’ve adored them since way before they were the rage.)

A mass of white peonies in

a giant Oscar de la Renta bowl from Lunt. Just a hint of that turquoise peeking through. Yum.

I’d love to use the Muehling candlesticks, but am afraid they don’t have a spot at the table.

Tiffany Bamboo flatware.

Baccarat crystal. There’s a lot going on here, we need to give our eyes a little rest. To top it off, big, oversized white linen napkins from Sharyn Blonde with my monogram in white, also oversized.

And, no evening is complete without Mr. Blandings across the table. He’s what makes any night a party.

Evil Spawn

March 31, 2008UncategorizedMrs. B at HomeMrs. Blandings

Bewildered Rosie stands on what has revealed itself to be carpet.

I mentioned in a previous post that it’s possible that children’s rooms are rarely photographed because it’s too much trouble to clean them up. I might have been projecting.

The vintage prints were my idea. The sports posters were not.

A local company is coming today to shoot an ad in the Dream House. When the scouts arrived, the downstairs was pristine. “Did our contact tell you we’d love to see the boys’ rooms?” Um, no. But that was fine. Only they were messy. I mean really messy. Boy messy beyond anything you can imagine.

I had the background of the valance painted after I found the prints….

As they were snapping away and I could literally hear my mother spinning in her grave, one of the scouts said, “Oh, it’s so real!”

then decoupaged color copies to create a similar scene. My creativity often flows from my limited budget.

I have a personal “no lie” policy. I’m crafty with words and can almost always come up with something, like, “It’s always great to try something new, isn’t it?” So, I knew what she was doing.

Number 2’s side looks slightly better, except all – all – of those animals are usually in his bed.

I spent a good part of the weekend trying to eliminate some of the “realness.” It’s never a good idea to go sifting through people’s things; you always discover things about them that you would rather not know. I’m continually conflicted about my children’s rooms. I had a very territorial feeling about mine. I was confused about why it needed to be tidy if I didn’t mind it.

The house is unusual in that the room, with this dressing area attached, is almost as large as the master. I wonder when they were customizing the floor plan if the owners were thinking “Lego Museum” in the built-in?

But as I was lugging out the three, big, bags of garbage (not rotting carcases, just broken or obsolete toys) I realized that maybe my mother was just trying to dodge Family and Children’s Services.

I had to photograph it yesterday. It might never look like this again. It’s still plenty real. And if they need any more, all they need to do is open the closet.

Yikes.