Modern Home Design

I’ve written about my friend, Flip’s house a few times… here and here. She’s got incredible taste and an unerring eye for amazing pieces.  She and her husband took a 19th century townhouse, formerly divided into numerous flats, and pulled it back into one amazing home. She’s even been featured on Apartment Therapy where she won rave reviews from their hyper-critical commenters! Now Flip has started her own blog, an off-shoot from one she was doing with a shop here in Baltimore.  Her blog is called The Caledonian Mining Expedition Company. I am sure that there’s a fascinating explanation in there somewhere, but I haven’t heard it!

Here’s one of my favourite posts to date. It features some jaw-droppingly fabulous images from le Château de Moissac-Bellevue, like this, and this…Take a couple of minutes, wander over to the Caledonian Mining Expedition Company, say hey to Flip and then let me know what you think!

I think Flip’s fantastic!

The New York Times Magazine had a piece today about starter castles in Europe. Due to the current economic conditions, you can pick someone’s left-over castle for a song… This are just cheap little things, beginning at about $1 million! 

Killahara Castle, County Tipperary, Ireland 
Original asking price: $1.53 million. Current asking price: $1.25 million.The Irish writer Tom O’Neill and his restoration-specialist friend Noel Ryan bought this 16th-century Irish castle in 2006 and undertook a thorough conservation effort — renovating the building to a comfortable standard while doing the minimum amount of structural change. Including the restoration, O’Neill and Ryan spent more than $1.25 million on the castle; at its current asking price, they would not quite break even.

Medieval chateau, Lot-et-Garonne, France
Original asking price: $4 million. Current asking price: $2.8 million.The medieval chateau was bought as a second home in 2002 by a financier and his interior-decorator wife. It has seven bedrooms and is an hour and a half from Bordeaux and Toulouse. It has been fully renovated and contains old and new touches: exposed-beam ceilings, chunky oak doors, high-end bathrooms with heated towel rails, even secret staircases.

Castle Altdöbern, Brandenburg, Germany
Asking price: NegotiableOnce the home of a Jewish cigarette manufacturer who fled the Nazis, this ornate castle with more than 50 rooms dates to the early 1700s and sits in a wooded area about 80 miles south of Berlin.

The building is now owned by a castles’ association, which is extensively renovating the interior with the hope of readying it for a potential occupant.

To see several of the other ‘starter castles’, please click here.

I love Connor dearly, and he’s worth every penny I paid for him. But here’s the world’s most expensive dog, from the Guardian, which provided the hilarious commentary. This is a Tibetan Mastiff.Age: As a breed, ancient; in dog years, incalculable.

Appearance: Oversized plush toy, fresh from being washed and dried with a Manchester United jersey.

Funny looking lion. That's because it's a dog.

Cute, though. How much for one of them? One million pounds.

A million! What's it made of? It's a dog. It's made of dog.

You mean that thing is real? Yes. He's Hong Dong (meaning "big splash"), an 11-month-old red Tibetan mastiff who was recently bought by a Chinese coal baron for 10m yuan (£945,000), making him the world's most expensive dog.

What's the world's second most expensive dog? Another Tibetan mastiff called Red Lion was valued at £915,000 last year.

Inflation, that's what it is. Perhaps, but Hong Dong has been described as a perfect specimen, and should be able to command stud fees of up to £10,000 a go.

Sounds like a business I should get into. Can I borrow a million quid? I'll get it straight back to you. In Britain, alas, Tibetan mastiff puppies sell for less than £1,000.

Why do people want these giant red dogs in the first place? They're considered holy and rather auspicious. Tibetans believed them to be the reincarnated souls of monks and nuns.

What else? For a million quid, there must be something else. Well, they're meant to be good with children.

Unless it can drive them to school, I'm not interested. Actually, even if it can I'm not interested. It seems that in China the breed has become something of a status symbol among the super-rich, a trend that has driven up prices.

I'm guessing they're also quite expensive to run. They do eat a lot. Tibetan Mastiffs have been known to reach 20 stone (280 lbs). And they live rather a long time, up to 14 years.

Do say: "Fetch boy! Fetch up to £10,000 per lady-visit, and quick!"

I found a group of limited imprints of six of the costumes that Cecil Beaton designed for the film, My Fair Lady, in 1964. Beaton won an Academy Award for Best Colour Costume for his designs, which remain classic today.

I thought it would be fun to look at the sketches and then the finished product. I think that this is the most well-known of the dresses from MFL. It’s the dress that was worn in the black and white scenes at Ascot.

Probably one of the most pivotal scenes is at the Ball, when Eliza dances with the prince in this spectacular dress.

This is the Prince’s mummy, who is wearing a gorgeous tone-on-tone purple gown with a green sash and elbow-length gloves. Of course the most incredible thing about her costume is her hair and headpiece.

I can’t remember the scene where Eliza wore this dress… can you?

There are two other sketches that I can’t find the film images for. If you know what scenes they’re in, or who they are, let me know and I’ll add them to the mix.

I do love this movie! It, along with Mary Poppins, is one of my all-time favourites! What are yours?

This is Georgian graciousness in historic Helston town centre. For £485,000 you get ornate arched windows and fireplaces, cornicing and alcoves, which glorify large wood-floored rooms. There are four bedrooms, with room for a fifth in the vast attic. It’s just a shame, or not, depending on your preference, that folk dancers cavort through the house once a year as part of the ancient Furry Dance. The origins of the dance are certainly pre-Christian and are connected with ancient spring festivals all over Europe. The youngest children start in the morning, and they wear the flower symbolic of their primary school.  Mid-day, invited guests dance in top hats, tails and gowns. At the end of the day, there’s the dance for everyone… all wearing a lily of the valley to symbolize the arrival of spring in Cornwall, just as they’ve done for hundreds of years. I think I’d take the house anyway. After all, it’s only once a year.