http://www.homeownernut.com Home fanatics blog it out! Thu, 07 Jun 2012 23:34:49 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en HomeOwnerNuthttp://feedburner.google.com Everyone should have a respectful fear of natural or man-made catastrophes. Today you can choose from the Mayan prediction that the world will end on December 21, 2012 to the everyday fear that a nut will set loose a home-made bomb in the supermarket. In October 1962, during the Cuban ... http://www.homeownernut.com/gimme-shelter-preparing-for-the-big-one.html German architect and designer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is credited with saying, “A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier.” I suppose that’s why there’s no end of chairs – perhaps surpassing all other furniture – that architects eventually draw and create solely for exhibitions. ... http://www.homeownernut.com/cool-chairs-and-gummy-bears.html You know the old axiom: for want of a nail, a shoe was lost. In this case, for want of a nail, a working rubber gasket, a well-calculated electrical circuit and your tools and appliances can blow up in your face. It’s said that Darwinian laws cull the shabby from the ... http://www.homeownernut.com/ugly-spring-product-recalls-by-the-cpsc.html They say there’s a wrench to fit every nut. That’s a metaphor for saying that there are bathroom designs to fit every taste and eccentricity. The unique comfort stations below prove beyond all doubt that everyone has their own notion of a place to roost and attend to their ablutions. The ... http://www.homeownernut.com/bathroom-designs-for-eccentrics.html There are bath people and there are shower people. Just like people who own a cat and a dog, there are people with baths and showers. My back could be gnarled with sprung muscles, and I’d still prefer the shower. A few years ago I stayed with friends in Hawaii ... http://www.homeownernut.com/summer-weather-report-outdoor-showers.html Americans are peripatetic by nature. Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like somewhere else. We’re on the move, a trait that led to the creation of a vast mobile home and RV culture. My favorite children’s book was The Fabulous Flight of Peter and Gus. Peter has a ... http://www.homeownernut.com/living-in-planes-trains-and-automobiles.html George Bernard Shaw wrote that youth is wasted on the young. The older I get, the more I believe it. I would be half the cranky mature citizen I am today if I had one of those cool kids beds on the market. When I was young, my brother Ted ... http://www.homeownernut.com/kids-stuffbedroom-furniture-for-dreamers.html Are wall trophies here to stay? Let’s be frank about taxidermy, shall we? Done tastefully, a stuffed animal looks great on your walls. Done poorly and your home looks like Norman Bates’ office in Psycho. The Pump House restaurant in Fairbanks has a 12’ tall, mounted grizzly bear that makes ... http://www.homeownernut.com/staying-ahead-of-wall-decorating-trends.html Has the digital age eliminated the need for wall clocks? Not so, I say. Your wall clocks may begin from the notion of decorating, adding a fresh design to a drab wall. After a fashion, I can report from experience, no matter what the clock looked like originally, eventually you’ll just ... http://www.homeownernut.com/its-time-for-kitchen-wall-clocks.html The idea of a birdbath – the idea itself – sets my mind loose on sociology-politico judgments galore. For heaven’s sake: they just look good and help out our two-winged buddies. Still there’s a back story to birdbaths, class snobbery and our European heritage. Bah! Where I grew up in ... http://www.homeownernut.com/outdoor-home-improvements-strictly-for-the-birds.html