burning down the house... or the apartments next door (almost)

Well, still no reply on the doohicky... folks help me out here?
Very busy right now, my little brother is in town and I must pay attention... little as in 23 years... he is one cool guy!
But the joshua tree next door burnt down the other night. Sad thing, because i have been secretly coveting it and was thrilled to look at it every day and now it is gone. Plus, there is not a big chance I will be getting one of my own since a baby one costs $400!!!!!!!!!

The butt ugly built in decoupage

P7150039, originally uploaded by Blair Necessities.

Well, so far no one knows what the doohickey is in the previous post… too bad because I am rather curious.

But…

I think I will introduce you to the built-in ugly art piece that also managed to destroy the house when it was built in…

See that thing? Yeah, that is in my equally odd kitchen, not sure what that it is doing in the kitchen, but it is there none the less. It is a collection of work from the golden age of abstract (as in Picasso and such… and don’t argue about my use of abstract, yes, Picasso was a cubist but there is not only cubism represented so… please indulge me if you will)

In order to have put this in, they had to dismantle and CUT (yes cut) the mahogany molding and put in a silly BOOK SHELF in the DINING ROOM so that I could gaze upon distorted pictures of naked little boys and lonely looking women. Now, some folks that walk in love it, and while I don’t really hate it I feel it is not a good thing to have in a kitchen. When we get around to taking that thing down, I will give it a place of honor somewhere outside, maybe near where the pump house is when I can talk Chris into getting some laying hens and setting up a coop (though I feel like the coop thing will never happen, it doesn’t hurt to dream does it).

OK, back to the decoupage monstrosity…

I have to admit that the built in is not all bad, because it is also where they installed the dishwasher (and as the laziest house wife in the world, I can’t live without a dishwasher)… but just so you know, the dishwasher is built in to a mahogany cupboard.

Also, molding update: there is only the molding around the three windows left to get the living room started in its long road towards it glory… once they are done we get to paint! Which means I will finally have a room that can be usable, the dining room will follow and then I suppose it would be the bedrooms and bathrooms… where the real work has to get done.

The dohicky

OK... Living in a desert with modern conveniences like a heater prevents many of us local yokels from knowing what those fancy do-dads are on some of these here thingamagigs...

See that little round thing?

It is on the side of the fireplace...

What is it?

None of the other ones have them, these dohickies are on both sides and they open up and have a mesh screen with stuff in it, I don't think they go all the way through...

Thank you in advance!

I heart Eastlake

I really do.

P7150084, originally uploaded by Blair Necessities.

but it is a love hate thing... because there are quite a few we need to get to replace the ones that have been tossed away...

I find them so pretty, and they look even prettier when they are all cleaned up.

I suppose I should take an inventory of all the parts we need, or is it want... but looking at what these things are going for I could be tempted to say oh are there any good reproductions out there?

I think we are looking for about 10 of these here hinges...

For some reason I am assuming the door knobs are related and I would need 7 door knobs...

6 faceplates (though it might be good to have 7 one looks like it may be cracking)...

one round thing that I have no clue what it might have been since we just have an empty hole...

I wonder if I can task some people that live where there are more than the six old homes (only slight under exageration) to go looking for these for me.... anyone out there willing I will let you know exactly what I need...

help

Oh, and you may be interested in knowing I am operating on about 4 hours sleep that I did not even have the pleasure of having these occure all at once...

Leeches, leeches, what leeches...

OK, not leeches, it is leaches I am sorta talking about.

It has been a crazy time not just for us but for the USA.

Anyway, I think I can stop my constant tears and TV watching, what I was doing was just not healthy. Interesting thing is that natural disasters in other countries I am in I can handle, Katrina wiped me out and I live in Arizona....

So, in order to get on with my life as I am sure any survivor would want me to do, I will tell you about a neat little rigged job we discovered....

But first let me ask... where does your grey water go?

Most people might say the sewer or perhaps even the septic system.
We noticed an odd odor in the back yard... so we dug.

Only to discover that the grey water from the washing machine has been slowly killing the oleanders for years and years...
Pictures will come I promise.
I still marvel at how this house has managed to withstand not only this harsh desert climate but "fly-by-night" jobs...
So, if any of you readers (all one I think) have seen the flickr slideshow... is there something that you are intrigued by to help get me out of this Katrina induced slump?
Oh and the leak in the basement was a leak in the water main... the joys of old homes is NEVER ending isn't it!

And, another question... I have a huge front porch, how tacky would it be to have real furniture on it and have an extended outdoor living space?
Is this OK or are my southern (NC and TN 4 generations back) roots showing or are my northern roots (MA and PA 5 generations back) just horrified?