Happy List: #182 – A Pretty Happy Home

Hello, hello! Welcome to another edition of the Happy List!

This week on the blog I shared a fall centerpiece idea that made me very happy. Fresh flowers always make me happy, but it’s the first time I’ve used an antique nail caddy as a vase!

I also wrote about the new ceiling fan in our bedroom, which sure brought out all the opinions! It also brought out questions about the electrical situation in our house. Updating the wiring is one of the big things we are saving for and hope to be able to tackle in the next year or two. However, I never know which thing around here is going to become a bigger priority or crisis at any given time. So plans could change! Old houses always keep us guessing!

I’d love it you join me on Facebook and/or Instagram. That’s where I share the more spontaneous happenings around here. Last week I shared the forge the boys built and something I started making out of piano wire.

Here’s the Happy List!

A VORACIOUS READER

Theodore Roosevelt was very well read and he is finally getting a presidential library! Cool, right? It’s going to be located in North Dakota and will hopefully be open in 2025.

Not all presidents have a presidential library. The tradition was started by Teddy’s nephew, Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, 20 years after Theodore Roosevelt died.

Here’s a rendering of the library’s entrance. Go seem more renderings of this space in this Architectural Digest article.

(image: via Architectural Digest)

If you want to read about our visit to FDR’s library, click here.

WALK-IN SHOWER

I’m very into the idea of a huge walk-in shower like this one that I spotted on the Phoenix Home and Garden site.

(image: Stephanie Studer for Phoenix Home and Garden)

EARLY PACK N’ PLAY

Pretty sure this woman invented the pack n’ play.

PUZZLES

If you like the designs of Rifle Paper Co. or know someone who does, they now have puzzles!

This would make a fun Christmas gift.

(image: Rifle Paper Co.)

SWEDISH GRANDPA PIRATES A BIKE RACE

Handy Husband shared this story with me of a 66-year-old man who, in 1951, won a 1,093 mile bike race that he wasn’t allowed to enter because he was over the age of 40. Not only did he win, but he crossed the finish line 24 hours before the second place finisher.

You know the story by Jeff Moag is going to be good when the first sentence in the article starts like this:

“Gustaf Håkansson had a falling out with his barber in 1933 and never had another shave, which is one way of saying he was a stubborn man.”

(image: via Adventure Journal)

TRANSPARENT TOILET

Did I make you recoil in horror at the idea of a transparent toilet?

Ha!

Tokyo has some new transparent toilets. Don’t worry. No one has to do their business in front of anyone else. The toilets are constructed of smart glass that turns opaque when the door is locked.

The idea of a clear toilet is so that people can see if it is clean and to also keep them safe from predators. When viewed through that context it’s pretty smart.

(image: Nippon Foundation via Forbes)

Paris has self-cleaning public toilets. After every use, it somehow cleans the floors and I’m not sure what else. That means you can’t lock the door until the bathroom is done cleaning itself. Except, we didn’t understand french well enough to know that the toilet was yelling at us to get out so it could finish cleaning. Eventually, we did figure it out!

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“I’ll Be There For You” by Louise Cuddon

I’ll be there, my darling, through thick and through thin
When your mind’s in a mess and your head’s in a spin
When your plane’s been delayed, and you’ve missed the last train
When life is just threatening to drive you insane
When your thrilling whodunit has lost its last page
When somebody tells you, you’re looking your age
When your coffee’s too cool, and your wine is too warm
When the forecast said, ‘Fine,’ but you’re out in a storm
When your quick break hotel, turns into a slum
And your holiday photos show only your thumb
When you park for five minutes in a resident’s bay
And return to discover you’ve been towed away
When the jeans that you bought in hope or in haste
Just stick on your hips and don’t reach round your waist
When the food you most like brings you out in red rashes
When as soon as you boot up the bloody thing crashes
So my darling, my sweetheart, my dear…
When you break a rule, when you act the fool
When you’ve got the flu, when you’re in a stew
When you’re last in the queue, don’t feel blue
’Cause I’m telling you, I’ll be there.