Chatting over the back yard fence
Howdy from Athens, Georgia!
In the course of work on the ranchrevival website, I have had the pleasure of meeting, long-distance and in person, a number of wonderful people who happen to be the current custodians of well seasoned ranch style houses. Most of these folks are in one stage or another of active remodels. These people, and the ones I have yet to meet, keep me wanting to make this the most useful site possible. It’s both nerve-wracking and exhilarating to do a remodel. The size of the project doesn’t matter: no matter how good the planning, there will be surprises and they will test your emotional and financial resources.
For me in my own projects, good ideas (and sometimes, advice that’s rescued me from a pickle) have often come in the form of conversations with others who’ve already done or are in the process of doing what I’m trying to do. I think that explains the popularity of house blogs, these days. We’re doing the electronic equivalent of chatting over the back yard fence. I think of you as neighbors and friends in our mutual efforts to make our homes more comfortable, more beautiful for the life ahead. I’m going to continue to hunt and gather the best content I can find and hope to share it with you here — over this virtual back fence — and on the site. I invite you to do the same.
Chat with you soon,
Jen Wolf
Editor, ranchrevival.com
Publisher, The Boomerville Press
Comments
Comment from admin
Time: July 23, 2007, 3:34 pm
Howdy back! Where in Texas are you?
Regarding blogging: There are a number of free blog tools out there (available on the Web) that you can use to set up your own blog, for example, Blogger (blogger.com), Live Journal (livejournal.com), and WordPress (wordpress.com), all of which I believe have easy ways to incorporate photos. Usually the way it works with the free blogs is you create an account, select a template and then jump right in with your first entry.
Once you get your blog set up, I highly recommend you visit the Houseblogs Network at http://www.houseblogs.net/ and create an account there (it’s free). A lot of your fellow ranch style homeowners who blog are registered on houseblogs.net. I did a search on “ranch” and got nearly 50 hits. Once you create an account you can set up a “friends” list and each time you log in to your account, you’ll see a notice that says “X number of your friends have posted new comments.” I’m still learning my way around that network, but it’s a good way to keep up on what everybody’s doing, and it’s very inspiring. You’ll be in great company.
With regard to the work you’ve done on your place, please consider doing a “before & after” with us on one of your remodeling projects, or some aspect of a project that you think might be fun to share and/or instructive for our other visitors. We’re starting to collect material to build that part of the ranchrevival.com site now and are looking for material (we like to keep it brief so don’t worry that you’ll be asked to write an epistle about it).
Best,
Jen
Comment from Shana Owen
Time: July 22, 2007, 6:26 pm
Hey Jen,
Howdy from TX! We would love to blog about our house. We’re actually “almost” done…haha! I say that with sarcasm because our projects will never end. We’ve lived in our home for 10+ years. It’s a 1951 Ranch. What does the term ranch revival refer too? Is that just a name for redoing a ranch? We love ours…fell into it b/c it was super cheap and next door to my parents and childhood home. I’d love to set up a blog website and pics…can I do that on here or do you recommend a site…We have tons of pics that I’d love to organize into a chronological virtual photo album. Look forward to hearing from you soon!
Shana