Six Feet Under and Bats in the Belfry...Happy Halloween!

Earlier this year, actually around mid-summer, a friend and I had dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in Atlanta, Six Feet Under.



They have the BEST fish tacos and their potato chips are beyond yummy.  I think they make them in-house. You may wonder how this restaurant got it's name.



Six Feet Under is located directly across the street from this.



Yep, it's a cemetery...but not just any cemetery. This is Historic Oakland Cemetery . Their online site describes it this way:

Oakland is much more than an outstanding example of a Victorian garden cemetery. It is also a magnificent sculpture garden, botanical garden, flourishing wildlife habitat, public park and picturesque setting for quiet reflection.

Georgia's most famous legends are laid to rest in Atlanta's oldest and most scenic cemetery. Visit the gravesite of Gone With The Wind author Margaret Mitchell and golfing great Bobby Jones. Explore the Jewish grounds, as well as the historic African American section. Wander through the final resting place of nearly 7,000 Civil War soldiers.


This pic was taken from the roof top of Six Feet Under...my favorite spot when dining there.



After dinner, it was such a beautiful day we decided to drive the short block or so to nearby Grant Park and walk around gawking at all the beautiful, historic homes in this Victorian neighborhood. I took a few pics of some of my favorites to share with you.



Adorable yellow cottage.



You'll notice a lot of neat exterior paint schemes. Isn't it beautiful how they highlighted the sunburst effect here...love it!



Check out the color of the porch ceiling on this house below. Here in the south, it's pretty common to see historic homes with porch ceilings painted a light blue that's affectionately known as "haint blue." Folklore has it, if you paint the ceiling of your front porch haint blue, it will keep any evil spirits or haints from entering into your home. It's also, thought to help by keeping annoying insects away. Why? Because they will think it's the sky and not land on it.



Don't you just love the south with it's quirky superstitions. I found some interesting information about the haint blue tradition HERE at Squidoo.com. I've copied and pasted a bit from their site, but there's a lot more about it at Squidoo, if you want to know more.

What exactly IS Haint Blue?
I discovered that Haint Blue is a spiritual and cultural based color especially in the southern United States. Back in the day, Haint Blue was mixed as milk paint formulas using lime and whatever local pigments were available. The color was mixed in pits dug on the properties where the painters were working. Hand-crafted Haint Blue translates into a range of colors, not any one specific color.

What does Haint Blue do?
Haint Blue is meant to look like water and keep the Haints out of your house making you safe from their influence. Speculation has it that the tints, tones, and shades from the blue-green to blue-violet part of the visible spectrum fools the Haints. Haints can not cross water. Using Haint Blue on doors, shutters, window trim, ceilings, the whole darn structure, can fool Haints and discourage them from "crossing" into your house.

It's believed that Haint Blue can fake out insects and birds as well. Using Haint Blue on exteriors supposedly looks like endless sky to the little critters and deters them from making themselves at home. No one can say for sure, but personally I think the key ingredient of lime in the milk paint formulas is what deterred the insects and birds, not the color itself. Modern paint formulas do not contain lime, so I'm not so sure painting your porch ceiling blue is going to help shoo the bugs and birds, but it certainly can be an attractive exterior color treatment.

This house makes me think "Christmas" with it's red and green color scheme. Is that Crossvine growing around the porch? Even the cute birdhouse coordinates!



Don't you just love all the ferns and that wonderful wrought iron fence?



Look at all the wonderful details on the trim of this Victorian home...especially around the turret and the peak...wow!  I keep hoping this house will be on the Grant Park Christmas Tour of Homes one year...I'd love to see inside. I love that quirky keyhole window.




A sweet, blue cottage with lovely gardens...



Wow...look at all those flowers! Is that a Snowball Viburnum on the left? This house was on the tour one year, so I've been inside and it is much larger than it looks here in this pic. It goes way, way back and has a large, beautiful, two-story porch on the rear.



Would you have ever thought of mixing pink and yellow together. It actually looks pretty good. I always find the homes that have these corner front doors so interesting. They are normally on corner lots, just like this house.



Why did we ever stop putting huge porches across the front of our homes? I know we have good ole air conditioning now...but wow, just look at the curb appeal!



Love these double front porches...


I've saved two of my favorite homes in Grant Park for last. I've been in both of these homes during past tours. The one below stole my heart because of the two-story front porch. After being on this porch, I totally understand the appeal of an upper, second-floor porch.

It was furnished very comfortably with several cozy seating areas. I found myself lingering, not wanting to leave this peaceful spot. When you are on this porch, you are partially hidden away from the world...high above in your treehouse. Yet, you could easily see up and down the street in either direction. It was a magical place. ~~~SIGH~~~



Here it is...my favorite Grant Park home of all. Would you just look at all those porches...I count 4 in this pic alone...and there are more on the other side!



Yep, this is definitely my "stalker" house...the one that I MUST stalk each time I'm in the neighborhood. :-) The owners of this house recently completed an extensive restoration. I was thrilled when it appeared on tour one year...and it certainly did not disappoint! The brick and stone work on the front is just beautiful...this pic does not do it justice!



We had a little company across the street.



One of the features I truly love about this home, are it's porches. There are 3 porches on the front of the home and at least two on each side. This was my favorite side porch because of it's size and it's second floor location.



When I was in the process of adding a front porch on my home a couple of years ago, I searched online for a hanging lantern. I already had one in mind that I had found locally, but, as is my custom, I was torturing myself by checking out every possible hanging lantern that existed at that very moment for sale in the world. Do you ever do that...feel like you need to see every single specimen available on the market, before committing to "that one?" It's a disease...you don't want it!

Anyway, I came across this one hanging lantern (below) that was veeery, veeery different from all the others. And, it had a jaw dropping price of almost $2,000! I decided I'd have a little fun. I sent out e-mails to 3 or 4 of my closest friends telling them I was sooooo excited because I'd finally found THE lantern for my front porch...and I attached this pic. The responses I got back were hilarious and we all had quite a few laughs over that e-mail once they realized I was just messing with 'em and wasn't really planning on a Gothic-style bat and snake lantern for my front porch.



Fast forward...six months later, and I'm on a Grant Park Home tour with one of the above mentioned friends. We were touring my favorite house below, ooohing and ahhhing our way through this beautifully restored, Queen Anne Victorian, and had just reached the upper most floor. Before long, we found ourselves standing in the turret, and as I was gazing around admiring the shape of the room, my friend began elbowing me and pointing up. Yep, there it was...my snake and bat lantern...I couldn't believe my eyes! We both burst out laughing and the other folks on the tour looked at us like we had bats in OUR belfry. And, you know what? The bat lantern...it was absolutely perfect in that spot...maybe even $2,000 perfect.



Check out this great "haunted house" pic I stole from Really Rainey's blog, The Project Table. Stop by and see her fun Halloween tablescape...and turn up your speakers for the Halloween music she has playing.