Hi little board. Today started off with the furnace repairman coming very early. Our furnace conked yesterday and it was only 6 degrees - nippy. We needed a new igniter.
Oops, Mike just called and he's right around the corner, will stop in. I'll come back later.
There. Mike stopped by and had a sandwich and piece of pie for his lunch and finished off the last left-overs from Thanksgiving. Thank goodness, lol.
So what's going on today? Anything new or exciting? Nothing is new here except that an evil developer who has been buying up the houses on my old street, building mansions and trying to sell them off for gazillions has done it again. I should post the listing for you. Watch on an empty stomach, though. It's tasteless beyond belief. Some sheik will buy it and install a couple to live there and he might stop by a couple of weeks a year, just like all the rest of the foreigners who have been buying this bad guy's "houses".
KaeEll, other than the brick-paved driveway (which looks a little too pretentious, in my opinion), I've seen way worse around here! At least it's on a little land, and the landscaping itself is pretty. We have some areas with ridiculous mansions squeezed in like townhouses, that pretend to be castles! I think the rooms are well proportioned, and I'm even a little jealous of that fireplace in the dining room, because I've ALWAYS wanted to have one in mine! LOL... Whenever I see any massive houses on small patches of land, I always think of my father who would remark that they'd be fine if only they were on five acres where they'd look more appropriate. He was so right! If he were around today, he wouldn't BELIEVE what's being stuck where...
I'm a bit of a zombie today. Jim went down to NC yesterday, and will be back Saturday. I thought that I would go to bed early last night, but then got a second wind late into the evening. I ended up playing on the computer until VERY late, and then took Lucy out quickly for one last "go". I fully expected to fall asleep immediately, but once I got myself into bed, I wanted to read. So I did until the wee hours of the morning. Of course, I woke up at my usual time, but it's such a rainy day today that my morning mug of coffee never quite did its job. And it's COLD! So, I'm listening to the rain outside, to Lucy's snores inside, and to that primal portion of my brain that's telling me to go hibernate for the rest of the afternoon.
(Typos: See, I told you that my coffee never worked today!)
-- Edited by Moore ideas on Thursday 15th of October 2009 01:47:33 PM
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
KaeEll, I found a couple of really pretentious houses in the Great Falls, not far from where I grew up. Unfortunately, I couldn't get larger versions (at least not that I've found anyway), but the grey one looks like they tried to build a moat! LOL...
I wish I could find a picture somewhere of the house that was built on the corner of where I grew up. I almost ran off the road when I saw it!
-- Edited by Moore ideas on Thursday 15th of October 2009 03:57:20 PM
LOL, Moore. Whenever I take a book to bed I always end up reading waaaay too long and ruin all the good intentions. I hope you've had a better afternoon.
I can't stop my rant about these monster houses. They ruin communities!!! When a whole bunch of foreign owners take over these mansions, security guards all over the place, kids forced to keep a distance... Arg. When the artist known as Prince moved into a Toronto neighbourhood (he's almost never there) houses went on the market like crazy. And then Raptors and Blue Jays bought them. So now it's just a few blocks of overpaid nincompoops and overpriced, over-done houses.
The other thing that happens when builders throw up these damn things in places that used to be communities is that some nuts buy them, then realise they can't possibly manage them and sell. over and over again. Stability vanishes. Nobody knows anyone.
*sigh* Well, at least they aren't going up on postage stamps as they do elsewhere. The city here has pretty strong by-laws about that but the second you move out to the suburbs, it's the same thing Moore mentioned.
Oddly enough, one of the things I was doing to amuse myself late last night was to take a cyber photo tour of a beautiful estate that I haven't been to in SO many years, right here in Georgetown. It's called Dumbarton Oaks, and it was built somewhere around 1920, I think. I was long-since turned into an art gallery (of sorts), and is used for special events, but it's the GARDENS that draw people. Even when I was a teenager, I used to go just to wander the property, when I was home on breaks.
The thing that's so amazing is that, once in the gardens, you can't believe that you're right smack in the middle of Georgetown, with all kinds of shops, restaurants, and parking facilities just minutes away.
www.doaks.org
They really knew how to do it back in those days! The other place that I was exploring is in Duluth, MN that was once owned (built by, actually) the family of my best friend. It was ultimately given by the family to the University of Minnesota, after the one remaining Aunt was brutally murdered (along with her nurse) by her adopted daughter. It's actually a very notorious murder, and I knew "Aunt Elisabeth", and had been at Glensheen a number of times, when it was still Elisabeth Congdon's private home.
www.glensheen.org.
Here are just a few pictures of Dumbarton Oaks. And Georgetown is right outside the gates!
-- Edited by Moore ideas on Thursday 15th of October 2009 04:30:30 PM
So while I do love the houses themselves, I could see how annoying it would be to just throw one into a regular neighborhood. I went to school with a family that literally had 14 kids. So their house was huge. It wasn't a mansion but it was big enough for that many people and it just sticks out in the neighborhood like a sore thumb.
And Moore I love all of those pictures you just posted. So pretty. I will actually be doing a drive through CT this week to take pictures of my last New England fall. Its so pretty out there.