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All the massive cabinets displayed former funk from a bygone way of life, the butler’s pantry was well-stocked with delectables, and there wasn’t a saccharine vestige to be seen. Not the slightest bit dusty, the inn was smartly polished and run like clockwork. Vandenburgh brought the best of the 19th century into the present tense. As innkeeper for the House on the Hill bed & breakfast in Waterbury-a glorious 18-room mansion (a majestic relic that is currently on the market) with all its Victorian splendor quite quintessentially intact-Ms.
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Vandenburgh was exploring every nook and cranny of her inner Victorian. For 32 years before she came to Sherman in 2008, it could be said that Ms. If that sounds quintessentially Victorian to you, then you are dead right. Vandenburgh got the mantra that informs all the days of her life-“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” Don’t you love it? Her father passed away when she was young, and so the family grew its own food whenever possible. Her mother was an extremely busy public health nurse in their small town.
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So she knows how to start from scratch, literally. “I was traipsing around, helping to plant tomatoes when I could barely walk,” she asserts. Going to college only happened after growing up in Salem, Ohio, and spending a whole lot of time on her grandmother’s farm. In other words, she’s got spic ’n’ span all sewn up with a steady eye on frugality. Indeed, she graduated from the College of Agriculture and the School of Home Economics at Ohio State University. Vandenburgh has a few credentials that render her more qualified than most to make facelifts happen. With the right can of paint, they could have been focal points.īefore you kick yourself too hard, keep in mind that Ms. Vandenburgh’s garden and you will regret tossing out a few tables and some rusty chairs.
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By the time she has given her found objects a pat on the head and a few words of encouragement, they are anyone’s envy.
She sees star quality in things that were undoubtedly dumpster-bound. Witness all the tarnished tables that she has bestowed with a sense of pride by dusting them off, fixing up their structural blemishes (but by no means does she polish off their patina), setting them in some princely position, and letting them have their day in the sun.
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