Not ethnic, but completely crazy.

We have a huge oak tree in our front yard and once the 2nd floor was being framed- we realized one of the branches would touch the roof. No good. So my dad decided to rent a bucket truck and cut the branch down.

Well, my fiance has this strange obsession with garden gnomes. We had tons of them before Katrina, and the collection has started again. He was even a garden gnome for halloween one year.

Needless to say, my dad is crazy and creative. He stole one of the gnomes from my fiance and I's apartment. When he cut down the branch in the oak tree, he made a little ledge on the end of it. And GLUED THE GARDEN GNOME UP THERE! So now we have a garden gnome that lives up in the tree, which is about 2 stories up. When you are on the 2nd floor front porch, he becomes noticable. He's holding a little sign that says "Welcome"

We both think its hillarious.

Not "ethnic" crazy but....

Though she celebrated with us when my DH and I purchased our land and discussed my plans with me constantly as I was designing my home, my dear Mother passed away before we could actually get started building. My family is totally not into gravesites so we had Mother's remains cremated. But then none of us could think of anything quite appropriate to do with her ashes.

I was a military brat and we moved around constantly but, from the time I was maybe 8 or 10 years old, Mother and I used to go around visiting houses in the process of being built and dream about what we would do if this were "our dream house". The biggest regret I had was that she didn't live to share my build process with me or see my dream-home finished.

Mother was the foundation of my life and HOME was always where-ever Mother was. So when I started to build, I suddenly had an epiphany about what to do with her ashes. With the blessings of my Father and three brothers (and DH's help) I scattered them under my foundation just before they poured the slab of my new home!

Crazy? maybe. But it seemed right to me and still does. And, if Mother's spirit should decide to haunt my home I will be happy to welcome her!

bevangel, that is acually really cool. DH and I have already discussed something similar. We both love our garden and if he died before me, I'll have his ashes made into a cement sculpture for the garden. Or I'll put his ashes under a new gardenia bush or something. but he will go in the garden!

I think that's nice, Bevangel.

I've never heard of the greek blue eyes. Interesting.

I found a penny the first week of construction. Heads up. ;) So I carried it in my pocket every day. We didn't have any problems during construction, so when the stonemason's were putting stone on the garage, I stuck the penny in and the mason rubbed mortar so I could see the tiny edge. Only I know it's there and I rub it now and then. I take that back, DH knows it's there, but can never find it! lol

I love the gnome! Too funny. DD2 bought one for a dollar at Wal-Mart and put it in my perennial bed when leaving one day. Since then, we swap back and forth hiding it for the other to find. She drove to school one day with it buckled in the backseat before realizing it was there. I've found it in the fridge, in my shower and other strange places. Since she has moved to a townhome, it has appeared in her powder room. It's harder to play since we don't live in the same home any longer, but still fun.

allison - My mother and are are about 1500 miles apart and still play that game with a little #1 mom figurine I 'bought' her for xmas when I was in 3rd grade. ;o)

I meant to put a bible in our foundation, but they had it set before I could get to it. We have written on walls and I'm going to write scriptures on the floor once I can find my way through sheetrock dust :o)

Fun thread!!

great stories! bevangel, i think you're mother is honored to be such an important part of your home. allison: i LOVE the hide-and-seek you and your dd play with the gnome. i'm going to run right out and buy one! ...where do you get them?

Wal-Mart should be getting them in soon for spring....because what's spring without gnomes in the yard?! ; )

Hahaha Please come steal one from my house. My fiance has about 10 right now. I even found a New Orleans Saints gnome once. He really freaked out about that one.

kateskouros, you crack me up! Great story... and I loved that movie! I always say (with my pretty darn good Greek accent impression) "the man is the head of the family... but the woman is the neck." :-)

We did do a couple funky things... nailed family pictures in the framing of the walls, wrote various "blessings" in the concrete, etc. I don't think I'm done yet. :)

Great thread!

At my wedding we had little rocks to hold the tablecloths down. I wrote words on them like "harmony" etc, etc. A family member kept them for me, and they've just been hanging around. When our cousin was pouring the slabs in the basement and garage, we remembered the rocks and tossed 'em in! When we painted our cabin, I wrote on the drywall in each room in pencil (important so it doesn't accidentally show through), and then painted over them. This is a fun thread!

haha, my husband is Greek too and yes he is telling me I need to get the priest to "bless the house". Now I am christian and PROUD of it but I am not Greek, won't ever be as "good" as my Greek sisinlaws. But again as kates says, thats another story.

I did laugh becuase I totally understand the OP!!

OH yeah, Kateskouros, I PUT IN A LAMB PIT IN THE BACK YARD WITH electric to help spin that sucker next Easter. LOL

peytonroad: are you nuts? i don't even do that! i toss that sucker in the oven. dh's SIL's family actually roasts a whole animal ...head and all outside on the side yard. it's a must-see-to-believe kind of thing.
thanks for reminding me about the priest. got to get him on the schedule.

don't let the SILs give you any grief. they're just kutoponiri ...fools.

The city of New Orleans is predominantly Catholic and theres also alot of Scilian/Italians. In this city theres a custom of burying a statue of St. Joseph upside down in the yard if you are trying to sell your house. When the house sells you are supposed to dig him up and bring him to the new house for the garden. But alot of people just leave him. I'm sure theres St. Josephs still underground all over the place!

I dont know if anywhere else in the States does this. Im sure theres quite a few people that would think its crazy, but its just one of those things we do here.

I think burying a St. Joseph statue upside down is a Catholic thing, my Irish MIL does it. I've lived in Mass and Maine and it's common in both places.

Our brick mason embedded a nickle from the year we built on the top of the chimney...

We put a shiny new 2008 Ohio quarter in a corner of our basement when it was poured. We also made a time capsule out of PVC pipe and put it into one of our walls. Inside was a copy of the newspaper that day, pictures of my husband and I with our cat "children", and a mini version of the house blueprints. I wrote a little blurb about us and about the building of the house, along with pictures of the land before we cleared it or built anything. I also threw in some pop culture items. I got the idea from the century-old farmhouse my husband and I gutted and restored as our 1st house when we were newly married. The original owner of the house put a sealed jar in the subflooring of the attic house when it was built, with various items from his own family. We found it when we had to tear up part of that attic floor to fix water damage from a leaking roof. We spent many happy hours looking through the stuff in that jar about the original family who lived in that house after it was built. When we sold the house, we gave it to the new owners, who have enjoyed it as much as we did.

If the house wasn't already built, I can think of a few politicians I would have liked to embed in the slab....

mainecoonkitty - what a cool idea about making a "time capsules" and hiding it away to be found by some later owner who decide to remodel. (I sure as heck don't ever intend to remodel so they probably won't get found again in my lifetime!)

I have a couple of perfect places to tuck something like that away so I think I'll do several to increase the chances someone will someday find one. Now to figure out what kinds of things to include....

dallasbill - your comment about politicians totally cracked me up! And I'll bet there are a lot of folks who wouldn't mind have minded burying their GC in the slab by the time all was said and done either! LOL!

I saw this link yesterday and knew it was one of 'those' threads.
Took me till tonight to get the time to sit down and enjoy reading the wonderful things that everyone did/does/and plans to do to at their homes.
It was nice to know that there was such a fun thread to read. We need more of these here!!

The next time I go to N.O. I'll be looking for gnomes in trees. and a saints gnome...too_funny!

I really like the idea of being cremated and mulched into my dasies..glad to know that I'm not the only one who plans on 'staying at home'. And the idea of mixing the ashes and making a cement sculpture is pretty cool!

great thread!

Mainecoonkitty - Great ideas. Too late for me, but awesome treat for someone else years from now in your home.

Too funny everyone! Thanks for sharing.

Great thread and so many cool stories. Our foundation is poured but I love the idea of putting a time capsule in the wall with pictures of us and the kids. Thanks for sharing!

kates, please just tell us that you don't spit on people...

My sis is married to a Greek guy and they loved the movie. His dad grew up in Greece and when he saw the movie, he loved it and even commented about the Greek patriarch "he even LOOKS like me!"

I like that show on HG If Walls Could Talk. I am sure some of you like it, too. Maybe your houses will end up on it someday. (But guess it's unlikely it will still be on TV, or whatever we'll be calling our entertainment system, in 50 or 100 years...)
good thread.

ha! as i mentioned i didn't care for that movie! and no, i have never spat on anyone, or at any time. a good friend of mine did in fact spit in church. she was baptizing a baby and there is a portion of the ceremony that requires the sponsor (Godparent) to "spit" on the devil on behalf of the infant.
now, i've baptized a few children in my day (4) and i KNOW that when you get to that part you DO NOT actually spit! you simply turn your head to the side and do a little "tu... tu..." now this friend of mine is not stupid but i swear i cannot figure how she EVER thought she were to actually SPIT in church?!
i think i could definitely write a better screenplay for a greek flick.

i was thinking about a neighbor we had when i was a little girl. (not THAT long ago!) her name was mrs. petchie. (cute, i know!) i used to love to stop by her house on my wanderings up and down our street. i'd stop by and make my way up two tiny cement steps which led to her door. the top step had dozens of colored glass marbles embedded in the cement, just randomly placed. when i'd get inside she'd treat me to a glass of milk and put out a plate of social t's (sp?). how civilized!

but i didn't go for the cookies. it was just to get a look at those pretty marbles!

LOL. I am ethnic and Greek AND married to a Greek! We didn't do anything while building our house, but the priest has blessed it...even the dog's bed LOL. My husband did sprinkle holy water onto the newly poured foundation of his business. Oh, and we actually roast the "whole animal" too!!! It is the reason I havn't eatten lamb since I was very young and why I'll never host the 75 family members for Easter!
Very funny thread!
AJ

ok choritzas, (not sure of the spelling) Are your houses santorini blue and white? hahahaha

no, but i'm going to do a mural in our dining room of mount olympus.
just like in all the best diners.

I am not Catholic, but am trying to sell my house (yea- lotsa luck..). Anyway, a friend gave me a St. Joseph statue that is supposed to be buried upside down on the south side of the house.
I forgot all about it until I opened the glove box of the car- I had put it in there, as I was in another state when she gave it to me.
My house has not sold, and I guess I better get busy and bury that thing...!
Any other crazy thing/witchcraft/hocus-pocus that you know to sell a house? I'll try most anything at this point!

I loved reading what ya'll did.

Kateskourous - I actually have one of those eyes. Didn't know the back ground of it or anything. I got it as little girl from one of my grand parents trips. They often visited the mediterranian countries during the cold Swedish winters. I still have it and maybe I should start wearing it.

It's not quirky but we put a bible verse in the cement at our threshold. When I first wrote it out I wrote to big and the cement was drying so I couldn't put the entire verse on it. But when I came back the next day our GC had re-done the cement to accommodate the entire verse.

"But the Lord can be trusted to make you strong and protect you from harm".

wow, kats, that was REALLY nice of your GC!

Kats, what a great gift from your GC! So very thoughtful.

Before our carpet went in I had my kids paint on picures, handprints and write lots of current information about their lives on the subflooring. They had a great time doing all of the "artwork", and it will be sort of a permanent timecapsule everytime the house gets new carpet.

We also had some subcontractors that took it upon themselves to "bless" our house. They wrote bible verses and prayers on studs throughout our house. My DH was not too pleased, as they were of a religion that he is not too fond of.

ilbg - bake gingerbread just before each showing. (My realtor friends swear there is some sort of subconscious impetus provided.)

In keeping with the thread, Da buried a silver dollar under the hearth when he built the house, to bring prosperity. (He was Scotch/Irish/Welsh and I haven't any idea if that was a tradition brought over.)

We had three bricks engraved. One with my initials, one with my fiance's initials and one with "2009"... they arent in the most noticable spot, but we know they are there.

Gosh would never have thought of any of these things.

I figured though, once we start digging through what is left of our home, we will find things from the old house we will want to incorporate into the new house.

I never thought of embedding them though, but I had thought of maybe trying to reuse the old front porch, maybe put up a welcome sign of some sort. Also, the old fireplace chimney is still standing tall and proud. Thought of maybe trying to make some sort of outdoor fireplace entertaining/sitting area.

Great post. Thank you