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You know, this one looks pretty good. Well, this one, not so good. They say an eco-friendly
house can't be built in 150 days for $150,000, and I say it can. I'm Allen Smith: Join me
as push the limits with time, budget and creativity with the Garden Home Challenge, exclusively
on eHow Home. You know, I love to bargain shop. And you never know when you're gonna
come across something really interesting. These are actually carriage lanterns–they're
not actually carriage lanterns, I shouldn't say that. They're patterned after a carriage
lantern that would have been mounted onto a carriage. And these have been wired for
electricity. But what's great is that they're made of copper. They're made of really high-grade
materials. If you look behind here, you see the reflective quality of yet another metal.
It looks like a really highly polished brass, which would reflect the light out even further.
And then if you look at the sides, you got this beveled glass on three sides, and a hinged
door here. Now the entire exterior is made of copper. And here, the bonnet, you can see,
is perforated, both here at the top, and here, with these tiny, little holes. The idea was
to not allow water in, and to have drawn oxygen in through here, because if you'd had a live
flame in there, you'd need oxygen for it to work. These things were completely wired.
And after I bought them, I had an electrician check them out, just from a wiring standpoint.
And so the wiring is just fine. So here's the dilemma: The idea was to use these here
on either side of the front porch. And, you see, our electrician, David, has already got
a place here for them. What they're gonna do is they're gonna mount, just like this,
on either side, which I think is just gonna look great. They're a really good proportion.
I just love the fact that I only paid $15 for them, when I found them in a second hand
store. I thought it was gonna be $15 a piece, but they were actually $15 for the pair, which
was a real thrill. So far so good with the story, right? You know, why not? Why wouldn't
you like it? Okay, here's the problem: Look at the other one. This is the reason they
were so inexpensive. So, you see, I've got this one, where it's got a piece of cracked
glass here, which is wedged in. Over here, well, the glass is virtually destroyed. Now
on the front, there's no glass at all. In fact, I don't even really have the little
door. I've got one side of the door --the hinged part-- but I don't have the framing
for the glass that goes here. And I've taken it to a couple sheet metal shops, and nobody
works with this sort of fine detail. So what we're gonna have to do is figure out a way
that we can maybe slide the glass on either side, and maybe slide the glass down, across
the front, so that the bulbs can be replaced from time to time. Anyway, I think they're
really good looking, and it's a great way to reuse something. Hey, if you're enjoying
following our tips on building this house, make sure you tell a friend about them. We
got tons comin'. Lot's of fun. Make sure you subscribe to eHow Home.