Holly St. Firehouse

Recently our local firehouse (built in 1913 and is the oldest working firehouse in Nashville) has undergone some renovations. Today I decided to stop by and see what the new building out back was all about. I received a warm welcome and a great tour from Jeff Crawford who was happy to show me around. Of course the first thing I asked was "so do you guys have a fire pole?" Answer- YES!

So-back to the renovations. The old bunk room which was above the garage is now a workout room with a great balcony. The new bunk room is relocated to that new building out back. Jeff showed me the old lockers which had been preserved by order of the historic commission because there is old firefighter graffiti deemed historic! Love that. They got a new kitchen and a living room area in that breezeway space that now joins the old and new parts of the firehouse. The only bad thing about the updates is now instead of jumping out of bed at the sound of alarm bells and sliding down that pole, the guys just get to run down a ramp. Oh well, it's not the first time progress has ruined a girls dreams.

Thanks for the hospitality guys, and keep up the good works!

House Tour Crashers

Today Heidi and I went on an awesome walk in the neighborhood. We noticed it was the Edgefield House Tour day and man-o-man where there a bunch of great houses to see. Unfortunately we hadn't known about it ahead of time, so no tickets were purchased. But when we passed this amazing rehabbed house on Russell St. I knew we had to crash the tour because I'd been in this house when it was for sale and the owners had had an open house. It is beyond amazing...poured concrete floors up and down, wood decking on some walls and some walls in the kitchen were tiled with this beautiful tile that looked like small cut stone laid unevenly and at slightly different heights..it made the modern layout of the house feel so warm...i love the finishes! The backyard has a separate artist's studio and garage...oh my, now Heidi wants to be adopted by a house. I told her I'll write her an excellent recommendation. Way to go to these homeowners and designers, what a wonderful addition to our historic neighborhood!

The Turnip Truck and Robert Plant

My friend Kathryn works at our local natural foods market called The Turnip Truck. (Just one more reason to love my neighborhood!) She told me an awesome story the other day I must share...It seems Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have been rehearsing their new album for touring purposes at the Woodland Studios across from the Turnip Truck. Well, Robert has been doing some shopping at the Turnip Truck and asks my friend and her co-workers if they recycle there. They said yes (all a-quiver), and Robert is pleased because now he has a place to drop off his recycling. The only problem is the Turnip Truck, just like the rest of East Nashville, has no pickup for glass recycling. What a pain, we have to haul all our glass to the recycling center at the dump over on McGavock. (Ahh the dump-another great idea for a post here)...anyway no one wants to tell Robert Plant that he's really causing a problem bringing all his glass over to the Turnip Truck, so sweet and lovely Kathryn has a basement full of Bob's old bottles and jars just waiting for that convenient time to truck over to the dump. She sent me this photo of Bob's actual bottles.