Today I stray ever so slightly from the homebuilding topic, although it relates to a post in which I wrote about tree faces some time ago. That particular article has been a fairly popular post over a long period of time for a number of different reasons. Tree faces make great year-round landscape decorations and folks like to go crazy with them in some very creative ways around the Halloween season, too.

Am I out of my mind?! ....well, let's move on. I know it may seem a bit odd that I'm writing about tree faces and Halloween in late April but I happened to see something this past weekend that you don't see every day that made it relevant.

HGTV's 2008 Dream Home, located in a private development dubbed The Shore at Islamorada on Plantation Key, FL, is a beachcomber's dream (and a fisherman's dream, for that matter). I was finally able to sit down and take in the "TV tour" of the home the other night and saw one desirable feature after another hit the screen that should suit many dreamers/planners who long for a home by the sea.

photo courtesy HGTV

Choosing to live in an underground home isn't for everybody. Some might say it's a little extreme! On the other hand, a certain percentage of homeowners may wish they had the opportunity to live in an underground home to save on the high cost of utilities these days.

Woody and Wilma Ravenscraft of Greenfield, Ohio (between Cincinnati and Columbus) chose to design and build an underground home for a very simple reason that you might not have thought of.

The world is full of interesting people but extraordinary people are few and far between. I recently met and befriended one of those extraordinary people through my workplace and she's got quite a story behind her.

Hard times, courage, determination, patience and dreams are some of the elements that have made Sipaphay the person that she is today. She's also the extremely proud owner of a very nice home in her native country of Laos...but that hasn't always been the case.

What the...!!!
It's a GIANT picnic basket! The world's largest picnic basket...as a matter of fact. Located in Newark, OH, this behemoth of a basket is a dream come true for Dave Longaberger, founder of The Longaberger Company.

It happens to be the Longaberger Home Office in Newark, OH. Yes, it's the world's largest picnic basket and it doubles as a way cool office building.