Tools of destruction

Photo by CPSC

Some 304,000 units of the Chinese-made Chefmate® six-blade blender were sold at Target stores for $14 between September 2007 and February 2011. Read up on the recall at the CPSC. If you bought this blender (look for model #BL-10), contact Target Guest Relations at (800) 440-0680 for recall information, or visit www.target.com.

Lawn troubles? Oh, Deere

Photo by CPSC

September was a terrible month for John Deere. The CPSC announced recalls of 5,200 units of Deere’s  D100 Lawn Tractor. Flaws in the connections of the brake assembly to the transmission housing can cause brake failure and loss of control. Not a good thing. Read the CPSC report on the tractor that identifies specific model numbers in the recall.

Double Deere ya’

Photo by CPSC

On September 14, 2011, the same date at the D100 recall announcement, the CPSC reported that John Deere was recalling 15,000 tractors with Model numbers D100, D110, D120, and D130 — all with a 42-inch Edge™ Cutting System amid reports of laceration hazards. Consumers should contact Deere & Company at (800) 537-8233 for details or visit the John Deere website.

Midnight rider

Photo by CPSC

Completing the tri-fecta for lawn mower recalls in early September are Kubota Riding Mowers said to be prone to fire risks. Some 6,100 mowers were sold in the United States, April 2010 – April 2011 for between $3,600 and $11,500. Visit the CPSC for model numbers in the voluntary recall.

Pardon me if I let the grass grow out this winter!

Allan Island was purchased by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen (no relation), who bought the island in 1992. Allen, currently 57th on the Forbes World’s Billionaires list, is letting the spread go, along with its 2,400 foot airstrip and boat dock, as well as the acreage approved for up to 44 subdivisions.

Native environment, rustic architecture, and Free Willy

Photo by Realtor.com

With two miles of waterfront and seven beaches, you can stroll along without the painful intrusion of neighbors, or paddle your kayak with a resident pod of killer whales. The Seattle Times says Allen never improved the land beyond building the caretaker’s cottage that still remains. Instead, Allen but eventually settled on nearby Lopez Island as a location for his summer getaway.

Flights of fancy

Photo by Windemere

Realtor.com offers this cormorant’s view of the airstrip and island layout.  Your groceries and guests can come by float plane, boat, or helicopter. You could re-sell the lots at $1 million each. But first you have to spend $3 million to bring in electricity. The caretaker’s cabin is powered by a generator.

Temporarily yours with a simple design

The A-frame caretaker’s cabin will suffice while you rough it and build your dream house. It has views overlooking the Strait of Juan De Fuca, Rosario Strait, and the towering, snow-capped Olympic mountains. And you’ll find ways to make do with the miles of dirt jeep trails that traverse the island. Get the goods on the sale at Yahoo.

The new CPSC center will be used for reviewing products that receive consumer complaints, including mattress flammability testing and carbon monoxide alarm testing. The CPSC then leans on manufacturers until they issue voluntary recalls of their poorly designed tools or appliances. I’m often astonished that many recalls come in the home-safety device category. Here are some recalls announced for June:

Riskyvarna

Did you buy one of the 1,600 Husqvarna yard tractors with TuffTorq K46LD transaxles? They seem to have a serious problem coming to a stop, with consumers reporting drive failures and loss of brakes. That would be bad. Check the consumer alert site for model numbers.

Uncool appliances

GE is recalling more than 90,000 Zoneline air conditioners and heaters manufactured by Sharp electronics. Several property owners reported that their GE Packaged Terminal Air Conditioners (love the use of the name “terminal”) burst into flames. The units were sold in this country from March 2010 through March 2011. Check for serial numbers at the CPSC.

Don’t go near the water

Eight manufacturers of swimming pool and spa drain covers are recalling the products that pose what the CPSC calls “entrapment hazards” to swimmers. The recall affects more than a million covers sold in the United States. Rather a lot, really! The Association of Pool and Spa Professionals has created a website to identify the makes and serial numbers of the covers included in the recall. If you own one, take heed, and just run through the sprinklers until a replacement cover arrives.

Eco-roofs really caught hold again in Germany of the late 1970s. Jörg Breuning was introduced to the practice as a German landscape company employee. He brought the system and his experience to Maryland in 1988 and founded Green Roof Technology to develop less expensive and lightweight systems that would suit American architecture.

Rooftop green gardens

Living Roofs, Inc. is the first company in Florence, South Carolina to focus on commercial, residential, and institutional buildings. The company installed this 28,500 square-foot garden roof atop the city’s Federal Courthouse. (Read more about Living Roofs.)

Residential Eden

This three-level house with rooftop gardens is also super insulated and has nary an energy footprint with its passive solar array. Located on a hill north of San Francisco, this home to three generations of one family is a green work of beauty.  Look at the interiors!

Grow your own

This garden work in San Francisco’s Embarcadero proves that building architecture need not limit the creation of green rooftops. Rachel Mathews of the Successful Garden Design blog notes that in planning a rooftop garden, you’ll need to determine how to maximize usable space (including walls), discover how much weight the roof can bear, select the right plants for your climate and round up the lightest materials you can.

Why not give it a try?

According to researchers, the highest at-risk group for barbecue injuries are male children, age seven or younger. The second-highest at risk group is of males, 20-35 years of age. Presumably we’re too busy with hormones from 8-20. Then we discover beer. By 35, we’ve apparently learned our lesson.

Midnight in the garden of eatin’

Fire suppression consultants Omni Fire and Safety provides this cautionary evidence of the ongoing rift between men and fire. Like all appliances and stoves, the barbecue should always be attended and operated with care.

With gas barbecues, always turn off the propane before shutting off the conduit to ensure that all the fuel is used up. The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that there are more than 500 fires a year caused by misuse or malfunction of propane grills.

Blazing glory

A Denver man using an outdoor grill on an apartment balcony set fire to his complex.  Always check air current and velocity if you’re silly enough to set things on fire adjacent to your home. Why not light up the grill in the garden or the driveway? At least 20 people a year die from the carbon monoxide emitted from both gas and charcoal barbecues.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission offers the following safety guidelines for operating outdoor stoves. This information may surprise you:

• Safety for gas barbecues
• Safety for charcoal barbecues

The pit of despair

Old habits die hard for us brutes. In lieu of using modern appliances, we often celebrate tribal rituals for sacrificing and preparing food. In this cook-out disaster video, a Phoenix man who tried to roast a pig in a three-foot deep pit stumbled into the fire and burned to death.

Grill wisely my fellows and, by the way, gasoline is not lighter fluid.

Suez who?

Now available, complete with delightful river access and views of Nile boats, the former home of Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak.  Mubarak was the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011 and recently chose to live elsewhere.

The high price of D.C. office space

The building to the far left in this photo is known as home to the United States Congress for part of the year when members are not off on special-interest junkets. Republican Christopher Lee of New York’s 26^th District was forced to leave his plush office space recently after a woman with whom he’d been flirting online complained about his picture (also above), saying, “”Will someone prove to me not all Craigslist men look like toads?” Read more at MSNBC.

Design failure caused vacancy

Also recently, while I was away, the AT&T Center in Texas was left without a summer tenant when The San Antonio Spurs were eliminated in the first round of the NBA playoffs by The Memphis Grizzlies. The shocking early exit was attributed to old and failing architecture in the center of the Spurs line-up. Tim Duncan, originally constructed in 1976, no longer has the necessary vertical clearance.

Elegant house exteriors fab, interiors a Royal pain for many

Thousands of British women wept in unrelenting grief while I was away, bemoaning their ultimate failure to secure a bedroom at coveted Windsor Castle. The oldest residential castle in the world, Windor’s noted interiors will seat the posteriors of newlyweds Prince William and Catherine Elizabeth Middleton. Learn more about it at the website for The British Monarchy.

Abbottabad a Bing-Bong

Finally in this architectural wanderlust is the palatial estate in northern Pakistan owned by keep-to-themselves neighbors Bertie and Lou bin Landon. So fully appointed, you may never want to leave. Vacated by a sudden death in the family, the home comes with a state-of-the-art architectural stealth system that renders it invisible to thousands of armed troops camping just across the street.  Read more about it.

Miss me?

Today, I’m committed to devote a blog entry to furniture that may or not be comfortable—but can cost us more to buy than a used economy car. Okay, I may be overstating the cost to make a point. If you’re not too busy entering our caption contest (do it!), consider whether you’d want to own some of this furniture.

Decorating with abandon

This Austrian “TV Drehturm” is designed by high-end furniture maker Skloib. On one side of the unit, you’ll find a plasma television. On the other, there’s a real, roaring fireplace. If you need to ask the price, you can’t afford one.

Rain o’er me

Somewhere on the planet (certainly here in Washington State), it’s raining. But you can have rain whenever you want it with this GEO 180. The sound alone will put you in a state of blis, according to Hometone. It’s advertised as “the perfect bathing experience”.  But for me, the perfect bathing experience includes at least one other person.

This ought to chair you

Alfresco Home designs this Grand Cayman daybed that sells for a steal at $3,499.00. Heck, it includes free shipping!

Furniture that shows your personal highlights

Your guests will be simply illuminated when they sit on this outdoor settee from Roco Outdoor Furniture.What you see is what you’ll get—all for a mere $2,250.

If I owned this glowing furniture, I’d enter the caption contest. But I write captions week long, and someone at Homeowner Nut would see right through me.

Or, you can be a slacker and then use the following images to identify the precise ills that plague your lawn come spring when you’d rather not be bothered:

The Lawn In Winter (apologies to Kate Hepburn)

This is what your lawn looks like on Pink Snow Mold. Rusty-pink circles begin to widen under the cover of snow, turning a tan or white hue as the disease progresses. That fuzzy edge on the fungus is called mycelium. The University of Oregon Extension tells you what to do come springtime.

Gray’s Anatomy

Among the 100 diseases that strike the lawn and other plants, gray mold is one of the easiest to treat by drying out in the spring sunshine. The North Carolina State Department of Plant Pathology can help you make an early spring diagnosis.

Patch Atoms

Fusarium patch disease is encouraged by overly thick thatch beneath your lawn. Get out the aerator in the spring and give your lawn a fighting chance to absorb precious nutrients

Red Menace

If this pink mycelia fuzz dominates your lawn after the snow melts, chances are it was well established in autumn before the first snows. You’ll need to cut back the lawn, give it fresh nourishment in springtime and, under the worst conditions, consider using fungicide.

This public service message was brought to you this holiday season in the good name of your lawn, a carpet of life that you step on and it still loves you.

According to Yahoo, homeowners Mark Feldberg and Emilyn Page weren’t “the easiest people to work with” and three architects were summarily dismissed. So far, the project involves a dream house, a lavish courtyard, three tree houses and a sculpture garden.

Wet Dreams

Have a look at the interior hot tub set across from the fireplace and you’ll understand how extravagant the Feldberg plans are.

And if you really want to soak, try the master bath. Apparently the fourth architect has delivered on this interior grotto of joy.

Warming Up to It

Could you relax here? It does look like a cozy place to collapse after dishing out $6 million.

And it does cast a lovely glow, as if the home were carved from a half-barrel of exquisite wood.

Although it looks as if half of the house was sent elsewhere…

Trees Please

Most of us have had a tree house or two. But clearly, these are a little too snazzy for kids to climb up and make stink bombs or finger-paint stuff on the walls. There is something out of the Hearst Castle in the creation of guest houses that are as appealing as the main house. I’ll take the tree house on the left, please.

See a slide show of the home at the Wall Street Journal. So what do you think: worth $6 million?

I personally like to spiff up the house for Bruce Springsteen’s Birthday (September 23), Hug an Australian Day (April 26), King Kamehameha I Day (June 11), Watergate Day (June 17), and my favorite, National Pancake Day (September 26). But I realize a lot of readers love Halloween more, so here are some pictorial ideas to spook your imagination:

D.B. Cooper

This battery powered skull and bones set commemorates Halloween and, at the same time, the exploits of Cooper, who leaped from a Boeing 727 with $200,000 in a briefcase on November 24, 1971.

Hungry Heart

Speaking of Springsteen (everybody’s got a hungry heart), or Lord Tennyson (always roaming with a hungry heart), this appetizing tabletop Halloween decoration ought to get your guests a-bobbing for apples. Lay your money down and play your part.

Stormin’ Norman

“Gee, I’m sorry I didn’t hear you in all this rain.”  Come on in. Take a shower. I think you’ll find these bath towels extremely fluffy and absorbent.

Pity Potter

Outdoor Urbanite has a nice presentation of this literary theme and other decorations I know you can’t live without.

Frighty Night Lights

Ok, you can outdo the neighbors, right?  Take your best shot outdoing this family!

Gnome Body Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen

I already took my digs at garden gnomes, so I’ll leave you to your own commentary on this grand prize costume from Inhabitots.

Take the Halloween challenge:

1. Post links to your own favorite decorations, or

2. Find another blog that mentions Tennyson, Springsteen, and D.B. Cooper, along with actual Hitchcock movie dialogue in a single post.