# Does your home have a conversation piece? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 11, 2008, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117 "2008-02-11T04:14:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117/21 "2008-02-12T01:24:51Z")
For people who aren’t familiar with Montreal apartments, the incredible _length_ of our apartment tends to surprise them. It is a skinny apartment with one hallway running the entire length and all the rooms come off it to the right. From the front door, you can see the back wall. It’s a relatively pretty apartment too, or at least I like to think so! It also has a very large kitchen for Montreal, since the landlord had one tiny bedroom removed to make a large closet for the (also tiny) bedroom, put in the connections for a washer and dryer, and enlarging the kitchen. We have a steel countertop too, but that’s just something we bought at IKEA! Other than that, I suppose the conversation pieces are the cats, the Roomba or the painting on our living room wall that we bought in Haiti (of villagers doing laundry, basically!) ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117/22 "2008-02-12T01:28:11Z")
We have two car seats that we found in the alley a week after we moved in. My roommate put wheels on them. Inevitably when we have a lot of people over, someone manages to tip over backwards while sitting in them. The person is never hurt (the chairs are well padded) but it’s a miracle our cats haven’t been killed. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117/23 "2008-02-12T02:08:41Z")
We just moved but hopefully the conversation piece in my house will be my aquarium. It’s going to be a challenge, but it’s going to be open topped, heavily planted and CO2 fertilized, set up in the sunroom. If all goes well the plants will be able to grow emergent and bloom. I’ve done this before with artificial lighting and the tank is usually a hit with the guests. This will be more challenging with the amount of sunlight the tank will get, but it should be fun. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117/24 "2008-02-12T04:54:02Z")
[QUOTE=Muffin] 12 foot high, two person wide, ski area chair lift for a dining room chair. [/QUOTE] You have to post a picture of this. ---
**Author:** ![threnodyangelfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@threnodyangelfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threnodyangelfire)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117/25 "2008-02-12T04:58:21Z")
The view 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117/26 "2008-02-12T11:26:49Z")
I live in an apartment, so I can’t say we have tons of cool, antique or valuable things lying around. The closest I have to a conversation piece is [this](http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd85/olivesmarch4th/oneartplease.jpg) , which is hanging over my living room sofa. It is enormous, about 4’ x 5’ and I’ve been surprised how many times people remark on it. Since I bought it in Tonalá, Mexico, near Guadalajara, it gives me the opportunity to talk about my summer in Mexico… finding, purchasing, packaging and dragging that painting all the way to Office Depot to mail it home is a particularly vivid memory of mine. Particularly the dragging part… ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117/27 "2008-02-12T11:29:56Z")
[QUOTE=Astroboy14] Well? You have to share the story now… [/QUOTE] [Viva el Presidente!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_%28Young_Ones_episode%29) ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117/28 "2008-02-12T13:05:35Z")
I was somewhat surprised and disappointed to hear so many people comment that we have so many books in the house. We’re not terribly well read academically speaking I suppose, we just all like to read. I thought it was fairly sad not to enjoy a book or two. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117/29 "2008-02-12T13:42:07Z")
Geez, you all have a lot of interesting stuff. And to think I was going to pop in here and mention that my Les Paul is on a stand in the living room… **slinks away** ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117/30 "2008-02-12T16:34:38Z")
A few… When we got our first cat, we needed to separate the cat food and the pooches (else we’d have one lean kitten). Lots of thought went into it, and we started looking into spiral staircases to see if we could shrink plans or something. We unexpectedly found [_exactly_](http://catspiral.com/) what we were looking for. The pictures on that site don’t do it justice. It is floor-to-ceiling height, we stained it in contrasting (dark/light) colors, changed the traction carpeting to an oriental pattern, and it’s covered in lush plants (one vines around it). Set between two windows in the parlor, it looks nothing like a piece of cat furniture, and everything like a custom plant stand. The conversation starts when one of the cats trots toward it, then spirals up to the top platform to grab a snack. Then there’s the collection of African percussion instruments over the piano, the human skull nestled in the library, and so on… ---
**Author:** ![Kuboydal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecb155/32.png) [@Kuboydal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuboydal)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117/31 "2008-02-12T17:08:01Z")
We have a 33’ Airstream Land Yacht in the backyard. It was originally to be our temporary home while building a place, but it turned out easier to just fix a place than build one. Hopefully the Airstream will be gutted this year and turned into a combination guest house, pool house bar, and opium den. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117/32 "2008-02-12T17:43:19Z")
There’s a large poster of myself hanging on the wall from when I was body painted from head to toe at a Burning Man Festival, that usually turns a few heads. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117/33 "2008-02-12T17:46:50Z")
[QUOTE=Pushkin] I was somewhat surprised and disappointed to hear so many people comment that we have so many books in the house. [/QUOTE] I had assistance from some cousins when I moved out of my apartment. One was packing up the contents of a small bookcase from my bedroom – the books fit into 8 or so small boxes (about the size used to ship 12 bottles of wine). She repeatedly commented that she had never seen so many books in one place. ☹ I have a few pieces of Fiestaware that seem to attract a lot of attention, even from people unfamiliar with the line. One of my favorites is a yellow casserole (minus its lid) that was sold for $1 as a promotional piece when Fiesta was introduced. Another interesting little item that gets a comment or two is an engineering drawing book that dates from the 1920s…besides advice such as “do not use your T-square as a hammer,” one of the first chapters features an exercise in drawing what was, at the time, nothing more than a popular good-luck symbol. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117/34 "2008-02-12T17:49:56Z")
Also, our house has one room that came with built in bookcases on all the wall that we use as (surprise!) a library. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117/35 "2008-02-12T18:55:59Z")
This is in the kitchen: > **[Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos](https://www.yahoo.com/)** > > Latest news coverage, email, free stock quotes, live scores and video are just the beginning. Discover more every day at Yahoo! (Geocities, so you’ll probably have to copy and paste the link) We live in a second-floor apartment,\* sans \* goats. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117/36 "2008-02-12T22:51:43Z")
A painting my SO and I had made for us, during our first visit to Africa. It’s about 20" tall and 8’ long. We had it designed to go in a hallway we had. Now it sits nicely over the fireplace mantle. It’s a stylize village scene, black and white except for orange anyplace there is fire. In the background is Mount Kilimanjaro. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-home-have-a-conversation-piece/437117.md?page=1)