This lovely home that we own is full of quirks.  Some of them cross the line to “what were they thinking” (like hard-wiring the atrium light with speaker wire) but there are some more fun less safety-hazard quirks too…

The School-House Fire Alarm:

This is one of my favorite features of our house- totally authentic and great for parties!  For everyone who will ever be tempted to pull it when they visit, I’m not going to divulge whether it’s hooked up or not… but I will leave this hint: we WILL know when you pull it!

In the same vein, this guy:

Funny thing is, it’s on a hallway wall!  Does it imply that if we got a sledge hammer and ripped down the wall (which will happen some day) we’d find a fire extinguisher inside?

Did I mention that our house is 100% handicapped accessible… literally?  Like, it’s literally been retro-fitted for the handicapped?  We have ramps, two zero-clearance showers (no tubs), and hand-rails everywhere. Luckily we don’t really need them as hand-rails yet, but they do make nice towel bars:

I will admit I do use these hand-rails when trying to balance on one leg in our 2’x2′ shower trying to shave my other leg (and I have also hit my head on it a couple times too):

Last (well not really last, there are tons more but that’s all for another day) but not least is another favorite, which resides in close proximity to my ultimate favorite quirk:

What is it?  An indoor door-bell?  Nope!  It’s a Buzzer!  So, if someone is at the front door and I walk to the kitchen, look across the atrium and through the window to see who it is, deem them allowed to enter our house but don’t want to walk the extra 20 feet to the front door to let them in, I push the buzzer and buzz them in.  Yup- just like grandma’s apartment building (except we’re not 85, not on the 6th floor, and don’t live in an apartment building).

As of today we have two statues.  Our Beer Monk who encourages me to brew and looks over the atrium  (he stands about 18 inches high) and our garden gnome who encourages us to travel.  He stands about 8 inches tall and is a close relative of that gnome from travelocity

So, in my opinion, statues ARE NOT REALLY a very appealing Eichler “enhancement”.  But, to each is own (design is a personal thing).and I guess we just choose not to have 9 foot concrete fountains and 6 foot tall concrete ladies painted in sexy white latex paint surrounding our house.  I know, weird.

To date I’ve sold TWO fountains weighing in at about 1000 pounds each.  Two lions that easily weighed 250 pounds each.  A 300 pound lady, a 100 pound bench, a mini fountain (100 pounds, not pictured, from our atrium) and some odds and ends (about another 100 pounds).

Without any exaggeration that’s 2,900 pounds of STATUARY!!!  Is that a word?  Oh well, here the are!

Backyard fountain (on the first week we moved in, April):

The “Cherube” fountain out front:

Sexy Latex Lady!!

Grrrr, 250 pound lion:

Odds and Ends: