Empty Nester – Extraordinaire

creating, living, loving – all in a long black skirt

Welcome

Since our family appeared on the April 30, 2010 episide of Wife Swap, I’ve fielded many questions about our home – most focussing on “What does it REALLY look like?” It seems the perception from the general public is that we gothed it up for the show. Not the case. If anything, it lost some of it’s personality during filming.  Much of the art and decorations we have didn’t get media clearance and had to be pulled down and stuck in the den or the garage until the cameras were shut off for the last time.  It has been my intent since that time to offer a photo tour of the house, but I just never got around to it.

Naughty, Sheila.

For the next several weeks, I will invite you [each Sunday] to explore a new area of the house.  This will give me time to photograph each part adequately, but will also save you from sifting through a dozen photos in each sitting.  That does get old and, depending on your internet connection, could become really tedious.

PART 1: Welcome to the Schroeders

Friends at the front door welcome guests. Come on in.

After entering, you wait in our entry area. It’s mostly a short hallway. On the right side of the hall are two coat closets with a shelved cubby area between. On the left is a half bath and an entry to the kitchen.

The cubby area tends to be an area of special interest for family and friends.  It’s difficult to get a photo of it because of the width of the hallway.

The Cubby

 Shelf by shelf. 

The top shelf holds several of our Living Dead Dolls, large and small versions.

The top shelf

 The second shelf holds a few gargoyles, small ‘action figures’ from some of our favorite horror movies, a basket made by a friend of ours, and a Day of the Dead style candle holder.

The second shelf

 The third shelf holds some skulls [I wish I knew what they were from], candles, bottles, religious statuary [a cross and Confucius]

The third shelf

 The bottom shelf is also hard to photograph.  Each picture makes it look cluttered, but it’s not so much.  It holds more of our Living Dead Dolls, a cauldron, two smaller cauldrons/insense burners, candles, Ganesh, and items from our family Mabon ritual.

The bottom shelf, view 1

 An alternate view shows more of the Mabon items and candles.

The bottom shelf, view 2

 Wall by wall.

Directly across from the cubby hangs a print by the lovely NeNe Thomas, framed by two wrought iron wall sconces we’ve had for ages.

”]Another wall space in the entry area holds newborn photos of the four kids, a photo taken of me while expecting Ravynn, a Green Man sculputure, yet another cross, and other religious statuary [including a Buddha and a representation of Horus].

”]Join us next Sunday as we venture down the hall 🙂

~sheila

Share

Tags: , , ,

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 9th, 2011 at 4:54 pm and is filed under Home Tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 Responses to “Welcome”

  1. Amber Atrophy
    10:32 am on January 13th, 2011

    D’awww, I’m diggin’ the little knocker from the Labyrinth. He was my favorite!

  2. Bats! meow...
    8:41 pm on January 14th, 2011

    A lot of people refuse to use it 😉 Like it’ll bite ’em.

  3. Kari
    2:48 am on May 22nd, 2012

    Hello I wanted to say I admire you for going out there and just being yourself like in the show and everyday. Occasionally in school id wear the most bold things such as neon leggings with sparkly black tutus and a black heart chokers. Being around people who love black and being goth I know what the criticism and judging is like so i applaud you as a family :). I wanted to ask you to if your batsmeow website is still live and if we can still buy products from it. Some of my friends have being emailing and asking the same question but with no response. 🙂 Id love to hear from you so I can purchase some items as well.
    Thank You,
    kari

  4. Bats! meow...
    3:13 pm on May 22nd, 2012

    Hi Kari 🙂

    Thank you so much. So many people misunderstand us or judge us for the way we dress. It’s sad that they can’t just let people be who they are.

    The Bats! meow… website is still live and yes, you can still order from us. We have been going through some updates and should be finished with that soon. I would recommend checking on availability before ordering as the inventory function of the old site isn’t working so well. That’s one of the things we’re fixing with the new version.

    Hope you’ll continue reading 🙂

  5. Kari
    1:04 am on May 23rd, 2012

    😀 Thank You so much for replying :)!! I was on my ipod and didn’t see any new comments. I love your blog and your home from what I have seen 🙂 its beautiful, unique and different :D. I think it says alot about how strong of a family you all are. It is really inspiring. I can’t wait to see the new updates either :). Since I am here I wanted to ask I know that on the website it says quantities limited on the teddy scares but due to the popularity I was wondering if you still have anymore being that the inventory isn’t working well as you say :).
    Thank You so much for your time to reply
    Kari

  6. Chester
    11:02 pm on May 24th, 2012

    Hello Mrs. Sheila I was wondering the same as the above poster. I am sorry I know your blog isn’t really about your batsmeow site but are the mundy and Sheldon teddy scares available id like to know to. I ordered one but don’t know if you got my order. I emailed to @batsmeow.com to see if you has any in stock but haven’t received a response

  7. Bats! meow...
    11:34 pm on May 25th, 2012

    I did a quick search through inventory and we currently have Eli Wretch, Granger Evermore, and Granger Evermore International. I have not gotten an order from anyone named Chester… when did you send it?

Leave a Reply





XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>