July 14, 2010: Yard Decorations on a Budget

I love how my son-in-law, Bryan, has decorated their back yard and patio on a budget. Amy and Bryan manage a large mobile home village, and they live in a company owned house on the property, so Bryan has used concrete blocks and pavers that can be moved and reused if they should happen to relocate.


The entrance to the back yard is paved with large concrete squares set in river rock.


He carries on the theme by stacking the thick concrete pavers to form end tables.


One holds a small water fountain.


The other holds a pot of flowers.

This column of concrete block actually hides their electric meter. It has an opening just large enough for the meter reader. If Amy were a gardener, she'd have some lovely flowers tumbling out of that urn. (Hint, hint, Amy!) *Note: Amy informed me there are no flowers in the urn because it's a fire bowl. There are oil lamps hidden inside that Bryan lights when they have company.



More concrete blocks form the fountain, complete with fish and Alicyn.


There's also a fire pit.


And it works!


Unfortunately, Amy isn't quite as artistic with her interior decorating. She tried to build a fire pit in her kitchen last night. She was heating oil on the stove for some French fries, and had put a lid on the pot. When she removed the lid, it started a flash fire. Instead of replacing the lid to smother the fire, she picked up the bowl of potatoes and water, and threw it at the pot of burning oil. Of course, that made the fire go out of control, up the wall and across the ceiling, and down the wall on the other side. On it's journey, it managed to catch the curtain, that hides the laundry room, on fire, and melt the covers on the ceiling lights.

Alicia, her oldest daughter, wasn't home at the time. Baby Alicyn was outside with her daddy. Amy ran outside, screaming, and Bryan grabbed the fire extinguisher and managed to put out the fire. Amy said she was screaming for someone to call 911, and two neighbors just stood and watched, and did nothing. Nice, huh?

The damage wasn't terrible. It was mostly smoke and melted plastics that can be replaced. Bryan is handy enough that he'll do the work himself, so an insurance claim won't have to be made.


Both the light fixtures melted. It traveled toward the laundry room, catching a curtain in the doorway on fire.


Where the curtain was attached.


The fire traveled across the room and blistered the wall next to the pantry door. Shelves to the left (not shown) held plastic flowers that melted from the intense heat.

Amy says she's the only person in the world who can kill plastic flowers. She also says she's never cooking again.

28 comments:

  1. Wow, how scary. That's why I don't make french fries anymore. Long ago, we made some fries. They were so tasty, we saved the oil for the next night. When we reheated the oil, the same thing happened to me. Luckily, my instant reaction was to put the lid back on (not out of some instant firefighting thought, more of a -hey, I didn't like what I saw in there so I put the lid back- and hollered to the firefighter husband. He took the pot out to the street and let it sit, occasionally lifting the lid to see if it was cooled. The oil held the heat for quite a while and burst into flames a few more times. Once he thought it had cooled enough, he dumped the oil into the weedy median where it momentarily burst into flames again and sent some nice smoke toward the house of our new across the street neighbor. That's actually how we met those neighbors, he witnessed it.

    Not meaning to tell such a long story but you can let Amy know she's not the only one who's done this. That was the last time we put a pot of oil on the stove. I think that was 1994?? :-)

    There's still a spot on the bottom of my dutch oven pan where the blacktop melted onto my pan.

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  2. Amy, it's scary. I never put pots of grease on my stove, I make fries in a pot with a thermostat, so it doesn't overheat. I guess I shouldn't say never, because I did make fries on my gas stove in AZ. But I won't do it any more.

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  3. Funnily enough, fire and personal injury don't scare me. I seem able to remain clam and just deal with it. I don't know where it comes from, or how I came to be like that.

    I used to share a flat with a few people in London. One night, one person fell asleep in an armchair with a cigarette, and after a while it suddenly went up in flames. While everyone panicked I dragged it outside, down a flight of stairs and into the street, where we let it burn out. It was bravery; I just figured it was the smartest thing to do.

    Now, I'll tell you what does scare me; dragons in the toilet. You can keep that, thank you very much!

    Still, it's good that all they lost was some curtains and a bit of finish!

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  4. HOw how terrible!!!!!! I'm so scared for her. We don't really fry anything, and now I'm certainly never going to stop. I'm so glad that everyone is okay. That could have gotten so much worse than it was quick.

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  5. It is amazing how fast the fire spread. Thank goodness it wasn't worse and no one was injured. Well, maybe Amy's pride a bit.

    I love the hardscaped backyard. Bryan is very creative.

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  6. Wow, I was all mesmerized by the cool firepit/chimney until I read the scary fire story. I am glad everyone is OK!!

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  7. Glad no one was hurt. I love the concrete paver motif.

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  8. Oh, that's so scary! I've only made the, "stick them in the oven" kind of french fries. Not so sure I want to do the real ones now! Glad it wasn't worse! Your son in law is quite handy with the outdoor decorating. Love the end tables! Now all they need is a few glasses of ice cold lemonade sitting on top. They'll need them after a hard days work of scrubbing walls. And painting. And replacing lights.
    ~~Lori

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  9. Thank God that fire wasn't any worse!

    I love what your SIL's done too. Especially the fire pit. We might be stealing that design :)

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  10. Amy was extremely lucky. Not only could the fire have done much more damage, she's lucky the oil didn't get her.

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  11. Wow! The yard looks great! Very creative use of pavers, stuff I never would have thought of doing.

    As for the fire, thank goodness it wasn't much worse. I use a fryer on the rare occasions I make french fries. Not much, myself, for fried food, though Hubby thinks it's the top of the food pyramid...

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  12. Love the yard! Glad everyone is okay inside though! One time I put a pyrex baking dish on a stove that I thought was off.... about 10 minutes later it completely exploded, hairlike shards of glass everywhere, the ceiling, my hair, clothes... I didn't have a scratch, can you imagine? I just remember hubby carrying me out into the garage (I was barefoot) and brushing me off. I don't put anything down on the stove now! (I was 22 when it happened, still young and learning the whole household cooking thing!) don't even get me started on grease... scary!

    ok, word verification was "botulism"... do you think Blogger is profiling us LOL?

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  13. Granny, I'm so glad your daughter and family were okay. I felt like you were describing one of those fire scenes in a movie where flames start going up the walls and around the ceiling and then just spreading everywhere. Not being a cool cucumber like The Idiot Gardener, I would have totally freaked out.

    TIG: maybe the dragons will disappear if you turn the lights on in the bathroom?

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  14. TIG, dragons in your toilet are no worse then snakes under my bed. Mr. Granny had bears under his bed ;-)

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    Ribbit, she's still shaking from the experience of having the fire go right over her head.

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    Rachel, Kelly and Johanna, we're relieved the damage wasn't worse and Amy is OK.

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    Lori, the pictures were actually taken after they'd spent the night scrubbing the walls and ceiling. She didn't take pictures of the before and after.

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    Cheryl, that's for sure!

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    SB, Mr. Granny lives for fried foods. Me, not so much, but I do like home made french fries. I actually prefer mine made in the oven.

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    Erin, I get such a kick out of some of those verification words. I think we need a "use your verification word in a sentence" day!

    Shards of glass are almost as scary as fire. You're lucky you didn't get them in your eyes.

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    Thyme2garden, I would have freaked out, too. She's so lucky Bryan was home and had a fire extinguisher. My son John came over last night and installed an extinguisher in our laundry room, which is right off the kitchen. I'm not so sure I'd think to use it in a panic!

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  15. Kathy, trying to catch up with the comments tonight, and I almost missed you!

    I really like the design of that fire pit, too. I'd like to make one myself.

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  16. The same thing happened to a friend of mine while she was cooking french fries. Scary!!!

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  17. Peggi, maybe we should all just give up French fries. They're not really very good for us, anyway. Of course, most delicious tasting things aren't very good for us, LOL!

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  18. Hot oil is a pretty dangerous affair. So glad no one was hurt and the house suffered minimal damage compared to what it could have.

    The concrete paver outdoor landscaping is brilliant! Great design and ideas!

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  19. Sorry to hear about the fire...luckily no one was hurt and the damage was not extensive.

    I miss all of you bloggers!! We are still at the lake and will be home on Tuesday. At least 20 lbs of tomatoes have been harvested since we left!

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  20. That was a close call! If it wasn't for Bryan's quick action it would have gutted the kitchen pretty fast.

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  21. Granny, I am so thankful that Amy is OK. I can understand how she feels. I had an iron skillet heating with oil to make cornbread and left the kitchen to do something for a child that took longer than I anticipated. I returned to find it in flames. Thankfully, I remembered to put a lid on it and only had smoke damage to clean. (As a teenager, I created a fire similar to Amy's while making French fries and not knowing better threw water on it! Not Good!!)

    On another note, I love their backyard!! Very creative!!

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  22. Sorry to hear about that Granny. Fire is about the scariest thing that can happen. John

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  23. Your patio looks fabulous!

    Too bad about the fire :(

    Happy blogoversary :)

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  24. I'm so glad the fire had a 'good' ending... so scary... i once did the same thing, last time i cooked with any amount of oil... as for the neighbours i can't believe they did nothing... what a world we live in :(

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  25. How scary! I always wonder if how I'd react in a situation like that... Would I do what I know I should, or just freak and run around flailing my arms, screaming "fire?"

    Glad to hear (and see) the damage isn't too bad, and fixable. BTW, I love Bryan's garden/yard decor...

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  26. Perhaps Amy's decision about cooking is a wise one. She can explore the large variety of salad possibilities out there. I'm so glad they were safe.

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  27. I absolutely love the pavers stacked to form end tables. How scary about the fire! I'm glad the kids weren't inside. Happy to know everyone is alright :)
    - Kimmi

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