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Sandra Snyder / Features

The humble house is a house of cards SANDRA SNYDER WALL TO WALL

Post a Comment - 08/16/2008 1:00 AM EDT

Call this one Lament for a Shanty. Lots of shanties actually, colorful, quaint little shanties that once stood, shoulder tight, beside a trout-filled inlet lined with equal parts twilight fishermen, sunburned souvenir-toters and custard-clasping (or wearing) little folks.

• It all started with the steps. • When Ja - 08/2/2008 1:00 AM EDT
  It all started with the steps. • When Jan Kelly and Tony Kleynowski bought their Harveys Lake home 18 years ago, the back yard came with nothing to recommend itself. • On the contrary, it needed pretty much everything. • Therefore the couple started out small, hiring stone mason Ken Thomas to replace the stairs connecting what is now a two-tiered, all-stone patio awash in flowers to a blacktopped driveway that, while winding and expansive, still somehow belies the magical world to which it leads.

• A hue and cry: To paint or not to paint? SANDRA SNYDER WALL TO WALL - 08/2/2008 1:00 AM EDT
  Good design is in the eye of the beholder. Where I say potato, you say potawto. Where I say fun, fresh and frugal, you might stop at just F, giving me such as a grade.

• If flowers could talk: Messages may grow even in iffy gardens SANDRA SNYDER WALL TO WALL - 07/19/2008 1:00 AM EDT
  In this era of almost mandatory austerity, try this for a bright side:

• In trying times, keep the faith and the stuff SANDRA SNYDER WALL TO WALL - 07/5/2008 1:00 AM EDT
  As the wailing and gnashing of teeth continue over everyone’s favorite watercooler topic, reassessment, questions fly like so many Fourth of July sparks.

• Take heart, all ye suddenly antisocial ones SANDRA SNYDER WALL TO WALL - 06/21/2008 1:00 AM EDT
  If indeed every cloud has a silver lining, the monstrous cumulonimbus cavorting over Luzerne County must be no exception.

• Love your larva: Try on a young point of view SANDRA SNYDER WALL TO WALL - 06/7/2008 1:00 AM EDT
  Hope you don’t mind, the passerby said, but she’s taking all your caterpillars.

• SANDRA SNYDER | WALL TO WALL: Five-cent tour can reveal the way we were - 05/24/2008 1:00 AM EDT
  Every standard-issue house needs a modernly dubbed bonus room, once known as an “all-purpose room,” a misleading term in that most of these special places end up as singular-use catch-alls in need of warning signs at their entrances.

• SANDRA SNYDER | WALL TO WALL: Mom’s lessons still percolate years later - 05/10/2008 1:00 AM EDT
  As it turns out, Mom was right. Again. As usual.

• Iffy but spiffy, an old garage an ode to joy SANDRA SNYDER WALL TO WALL - 04/26/2008 1:00 AM EDT
  Call it all a Leaning Tower of Follies. Casual observers essentially have said as much. Some poked their fun outright, while others perhaps secretly thought I might be even nuttier than Noah without even a chance of the ark-erector’s redemption.

• Deep cleaning can merit some deep thoughts SANDRA SNYDER WALL TO WALL - 04/12/2008 1:00 AM EDT
  Spring cleaning: yea or nay?

• From warriors to wimps, ’tis a season for all SANDRA SNYDER WALL TO WALL - 03/29/2008 1:00 AM EDT
  Once upon a time not so long ago – let’s say a warm, late-fall Saturday -- near the outskirts of Philadelphia, a warrior awakened. She pulled on some old clothes, pulled back her hair, gloved her hands and headed outside, weapons at the ready.

• A saint and her provisions go marching in SANDRA SNYDER WALL TO WALL - 03/15/2008 1:00 AM EDT
  Heaven is abuzz today, for something big is on the agenda. A dinner party, it must be believed, such as the populace has never experienced before.

• Hey, heard the one about the Irish rabbits? SANDRA SNYDER WALL TO WALL - 03/8/2008 12:00 AM EST
  Limpy the Leprechaun and I were chatting just the other day, and he’s as confused as I.

• And the pale guy? Clean hoots REVIEW - 02/29/2008 12:00 AM EST
  Ever left a fabulously snarky comedy performance and said to yourself, “He (or she) should do a bit on … fill in the blank?”

• Ah, how sweet it looks, but does it work? SANDRA SNYDER WALL TO WALL - 02/23/2008 12:00 AM EST
  “Caution,” the e-mail read. “The attached dismembered image is graphic and not intended for younger viewers.”