Delightfully Ugly Houses

A while ago I posted a picture of the most strikingly ugly house I’ve ever seen. I decided when I saw that house that my new mission in life is to build a collection of aesthetically obscene houses…houses that are so ugly that some record of their ugliness just has to be kept so the offensive house isn’t lost to posterity when someone with some taste buys the home. I don’t include houses whose ugliness is caused because of physical deterioration or homes that are ugly because they are so typical (all houses with nothing but pastel colored vinyl siding on them). I look for houses that are in good physical condition but nasty to look at because their owners have defiled decorated them in a way that makes them uniquely hard to look at.

Early in December Lisa drove past this house when she was taking pictures of comparable home sales for an appraisal she was working on. I’m thankful she got a picture of it…even though it wasn’t on her list. Who wouldn’t like the combination of medieval castle and huge 70’s style solar panels!

Here is a house Lisa found today that she knew I would want to include in the collection.

I wonder how much time this homeowner spent painting every individual brick on this house in alternating colors. Well here are the results of his work. Thankfully there is a white ford obstructing much of our photo.

I’m going to try to get some more pictures up of entertainingly ugly homes. If any readers find houses worthy of the collection please email them to me! Remember…I’ve got lots of pictures of homes that are in disrepair or that are ugly because they are excessively ordinary. I want the aggressively ugly houses. If I can build the collection enough we’ll start a new web page dedicated to these fun homes.

Click below to see an UPDATE!!!
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Huge Eyes

Melia has big eyes.

The ACLU On The First Ammendment

Here is an interesting passage from the ACLU’s “Free Speech” website.

It is probably no accident that freedom of speech is the first freedom mentioned in the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” The Constitution’s framers believed that freedom of inquiry and liberty of expression were the hallmarks of a democratic society.

I’m glad the ACLU exists though I don’t agree with all of the actions it takes. I think they are a valuable guardian of many of our constitutional rights. One major problem with the ACLU is very clearly illustrated by the above passage from their webpage. As all readers here I’m sure are aware…freedom of speech is not the first right mentioned in the first amendment. The right they ignore in this passage is the one they routinely set aside and even fight against in many of their legal actions.

I’m betting ACLU will fix this error on their webpage. It would be nice if they could also fix the error they make when they advocate against religion in nearly every case they are involved where a religious issue is at stake.

(ACLU link courtesy Best Of The Web)

Being Appraised

Here is a cool picture of Melia checking me out. She is really fun to watch. Her standard procedure for figuring almost anything out is to stare at it for about 30 seconds. During this time she won’t look at anything that might distract her from her subject. She will then quickly grab it and try to put it in her mouth. There is no picture of me getting slimed immediately after this photo but it happened.