JaxByDefault's Profile

My old house was the "color disaster" house in my old neighborhood! :)

When we moved in to our former 1890s Victorian, it was bright yellows with white trim and accents in cranberry and green. People would make comments about the color and ask us about (beg us, really) painting it after major rennovations.

A couple of years later when we were touching up the porch stairs and white trim, the sight of painting equipment made people panic: "You're keeping it yellow though, right?" "But we give directions by the big yellow house on the hill!" and "It's been called the Yellow House for decades!"

Sigh. We had no plans to change its main color, just the accents. Amazing that the complaints and snide comments just stopped. . . and thus I realized that commenting on the Yellow House was just as much a neighborhood fixture as the quirky house itself.

We just painted Our Lady of Perpetual Maintenance (our newer 1905 house) this summer. Before, I had a neighbor complain that the colors on the house before painting were Craftsman and from the wrong era. Now that it's Vernacular appropriate cool gray with white trim, people complain about the bright blue door (a nod to my beloved London).

There's no winning in a historic district -- no matter where you live (trust me). Someone will always have something to say: too conservative, too wild, too modern, too slavish to the style, not historically perfect, etc.

Your home both reflects and embraces you. Do what makes you happy.

I go between Mooncup and non-applicator OBs. The cup is fine for home and work, but I usually turn to the OBs when traveling (I'm beginning to think it's the only globally available tampon) and during hard sports. I have found that the cup is great when hiking, not so great while playing soccer.

My parents did a less fancy version of this!

They always lined us up on the front porch and made us hold up the number of fingers for the grade we were entering (starting over at 1 for high school). My patient parents waited for the day they could use the photos to embarrass us all at graduation parties, in yearbooks, etc. More amusing than the clothes or the awkward-years looks was the facial expression progression from "delighted first grader" to "Mom and Dad do I really have to do this in front of my friends?" high schooler.

Years ago, while in grad school, I jokingly snapped a picture of me on the first day of the term with the same set-up -- only I held a sign that read "23rd grade." I sent it to my parents, who at home were still taking the traditional back-to-school photos of my youngest siblings.

According to the Historic Register, ours is the unfortunately named "Flood House."

To us, it's "Our Lady of Perpetual Maintenance"

Fun project! Looking forward to seeing the finished house and hearing May's trademark, dry and wry commentary about the experience of living in it.

Also, Top Gear and (James May's) Toy Stories are two different -- very different -- shows.

If I were a mean person, I'd let loose some Sigg smug on a certain self-righteous mom who threw a hissy about their kid being offered a shared sip (gasp!) from a plastic bottle (gasp!) by a well-intentioned 3 year old trying to share on the playground (the horror!), then lectured me on plastics.

Seriously.

1) It's probably not the end of the world even if I didn't nicely intervene in time to introduce a caveat to lessons in sharing: "That's nice of you to share...but let's all drink out of our own bottles..."

2) Unknown to her: the plastic bottle was a BPA-free plastic made of corn remnants.

Instead, may she find the safest water bottle in the world; Can't wait to see the inevitable new score in action.

I have to wonder, however, is it really that green to chuck out -- or recycle -- all of these "old" bottles? Sunlight will rapidly breakdown the chemical outbreathing of many plastics and the older bottles are likely "adult safe." (OK, avoid if you're pregnant, etc).

Interesting, but it's all relative to where you live.

As for imported shrimp: no. It doesn't make it's way into our home and we're careful when we eat out (proud that I got spouse on this kick years ago). Shrimping is an important, and at-risk, domestic industry on which whole towns depend (including many still recovering from Katrina).

I still get wonderful, local Gulf shrimp when I visit family, but I support my regional shrimpers and go with the local Mayport stock while at home.

Also, shrimp is best fresh off the boat and hardly worth eating at all frozen. I suffered through many shirmpless years when I lived in landlocked cities, saving shrimp for beach vacations.

... then again, living in several different places I've picked up tastes for things that aren't easy to give up and for which I make the occasional non-green splurge. I just bought a Tennessee tomato at the farmer's market last week because I fell in love with their awesomeness when spouse and I lived in his native state for a few years.

Lovely! Job well done -- especially with the Vernacular/ Foursquare appropriate dark window sashes.

[b]Lindsey D.[/b], Birmingham is about 5 hours north of the Austin to Tallahassee route, but agreed on the Civil Rights Institute -- fantastic. Dreamland BBQ, however, I've never been too impressed with...probably because Ben's (Fairhope, AL) and Praters (Morrison, TN) have set the bar high and ruined all other SE style BBQ for me.

As for design, if you love French, Italian, or English antiques then Aubergine and RF Architectural Antiques in Fairhope, Alabama will delight. There is an abundance of (albeit largely beachy or kitschy) art, fabric, and specialty shops with local wares, too.

New Orleans is a feast of affordable second-hand furniture, design elements, and craft.

This historic districts of New Orleans, Mobile, and Pensacola have some classic architecture (and some of the oldest in the country).

As for modern, some of the post Katrina affordable housing projects in NO are innovative and interesting. Also, you'll see more than a handful of Tumbleweed and Tiny-houses all along that swath of coast.

For modern design elements...well, Austin's your best location on that route.