Mid-century modern in living color
image from: http://www.michaelamcnamara.com
If you have kindergarten nostalgia, or are otherwise easily entertained by primary colors, I have another “happy house” for you!
Mountain Shangri-La
image from: http://www.sothebysrealty.com/
Since not all of Colorado is burning (lots of it, but not all of it) I thought I would feature a beautiful home in the Colorado mountain town of Crested Butte.
image from: http://www.sothebysrealty.com/
I did not make up the “Shangri-La” stuff - this house is actually named Shangri-La. It was built in the year 1900 back when Crested Butte was but a mere frontier mining town.
Today, however, Crested Butte is one of Colorado’s premier ski resort destinations. (And by that I mean PRICEY!!!)
image from: http://www.sothebysrealty.com/
The historic home was completely renovated in 2008 and they really didn’t leave any of the original character… I was kind of bummed out about that.
Book review: Ten Famous Houses in Fiction
I finally found it. I have been looking for this book for about 20 years. And I finally found it on Amazon.com!!!! Thank you to the Gods of Amazon, because this is THE book I have been wanting to hold in my hands since I was about 14 years old.
Yes, I first signed this book out from the little community library where I grew up in Canada about 20 years ago. I read it cover-to-cover and enjoyed it so much, I signed it out again and again. In fact, when the library “retired” the book, my name was the only name on the card (so I’m told). I had not seen hide nor hair of the book since.
Until now!
I hold in my hands the most insanely entertaining book that a house/art/literature lover could ever dream of!
Literary Houses: Ten Famous Houses in Fiction (1982) is a book written by Jamaican/Canadian/Englishwoman Rosalind Ashe (a pseudonym for Rosaline Dale-Harris) and illustrated by a collection of talented artists.
As the title suggests, ten houses from classic literary works are profiled and illustrated in great detail – complete with imagined floor plans!
True house nerds will share my enthusiasm about this book; everyone else will be like, um, what?
So for those who enjoy pouring over fictional floor plans and being lost in the pages of Victorian era novels, read on.
Charleston’s glorious Palm Villa
The owner of this 1903 southern mansion shared his home with me and I am very excited to share with you.
image from: Zillow.com
Southern graciousness and charm abound in this historic district home in Charleston, South Carolina. The first thing you notice are the massive wrap around porches – over 1800 square feet of “piazzas”.
image from: Zillow.com
The house is not currently for sale – so don’t get your house-hunting hopes up – but I was granted permission to share the former listing photos.
Built in 1903, this 4 bedroom/3 bathroom home was actually a hotel in the 1930′s and 1940′s!
We’re on fire here… again
photo of Canon City in the foreground (via Facebook)
Colorado is hot, dry and burning once again. We went through this last summer but this time one of the nasty wildfires is very close to my house – within 5-8 miles! It broke out yesterday afternoon and we watched it spread very quickly thanks to some unforgiving winds.
Smoke plume from a street near mine in Canon City, Colorado (via Twitter pic)
We have not been evacuated YET – but it could happen and if we get the word, we are ready to be outta here quick!
Map of the evacuation area for the Royal Gorge Fire (via KOAA)
No homestead holdouts here. But for now, all we can do is just sit and wait to see which direction the wind blows.
They did evacuate the Territorial Prison last night which is a mere 7 blocks from my house. It was a tad nerve-wracking to have hardened criminal shackled and transported right near my house by the busloads.
Prison vans evacuating inmates from Canon City Territorial Prison
The big tragedy of this particular fire is that many acres and buildings were lost at the famous Royal Gorge & Bridge Park.
