A great reminder was given me today when I entered the choir loft of St. Paul Lutheran Church and found all the music I’m scheduled to play tomorrow morning to be completely foreign to me and was once again brought to the realization that I don’t know even a portion of liturgical music that’s being played in the different churches. It was a humbling experience in forcing myself to go over and over the selections to where they sounded OK, but having never heard them sung or played before, I’m gonna have to be exceptionally careful to listen for the singing voices of the congregation. After about an hour, women and men began arriving to help decorate the church for the season of Advent. Several of them hollered up to the balcony saying they appreciated me playing their vintage pipe organ. I smiled and said in a loud voice, “I’m getting used to the old girl and I think she’s beginning to warm up to me.” Another one of the ladies proceeded to tell me the organ was built in the 1920’s and was originally installed in Emmanuel Lutheran Church which merged with St. Paul when their new church was built on East State Street. I smiled and said, “Yes, I’m glad she was moved because that church building is now a State Farm Insurance office.” If it were still there, likely its only function would be a silent conversation piece. Yes, I had my humbling today and certainly deserved it.
My public open house at 1029 – 12th St. NE had a better turnout than I’d expected since it being Thanksgiving weekend. While there, I was again reminded of how exceptionally well built it is along with a basement which has NEVER had any water seeping in from rain or groundwater. When I was told there wasn’t water seepage during the flood of 2008, I was all the more confident anyone living there should feel pretty safe in doing any type of build-out of extra living area down there. I only wish the owner didn’t paint the rooms such dark colors. I know everyone has their colors of choice, but when a home is on the market for sale, the color schemes must be more muted as well as balanced with colors used in adjoining rooms. Several people made remarks about the colors and that’s all I could say was, “Colors can be easily changed to fit tastes.”
My all time dis-liked colors for interiors are deep blues and bright reds. I thought the blues and reds were out of style but evidently not so within our city. This past week I’ve been in more than a few homes containing those colors. I wish many of the paint stores would counsel people in not using those color families in their homes. Blues and reds are OK as accent colors but not as standard wall colors. Even blue exteriors are hard to sell. I’ll not forget how difficult it’s been for me over the years when selling homes that are either painted or sided in blue. The one I’ll never forget was a big ranch which should have sold right out of the gates, but the exterior had everyone turned off. I finally sold it to a couple who could see past its bright blue exterior. The first thing they did was have it sided a soft sage color. They invited me out to see the finished product and in truth, I actually drove past it the first time. When I turned around and pulled up, the wife laughingly said, “I almost drove past it coming home from work after it was done.”
We must continue to look past the mental barricades of color and start envisioning value.
