apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

seriously? anti-gravity? are we just going to gloss this over like it's not unusual to mention it? I'm thinking nobody should give a damn what his neighbors think if he's actually rigged that together (somehow).

Maybe it's a Canadian thing because this Toronto junk artist's yard is at least as bad: http://stylenorth.ca/blog/2009/04/werner-schmidts-junkyard-folly/

I'd be fascinated. :-D

If his inventing is so cut edge and successful, why doesn't he have enough money to rent a POD or a storage unit? I would be livid if I had to look at all that crap everyday.

John is "disenchanted?" I beg to differ. That guy is enchanted. Or just crazy.

I wonder if his balcony is structurally sound for all of that heavy equipment. Hmm.

Does he keep a slightly modified DeLorean in the garage?

Items floating in their apartment? I wish they would elaborate & show us a better visual than just his balcony. Apartment Therapy, is there any chance you can arrange a house tour??? A slide show would be fine--but video would be priceless.

Unless he was joking around about the "floating" complaints... yeeeeeeah, no. If any of his inventions had actually managed that then he'd now have more than enough cash to move out of the apartment, what with having broken all the known laws of physics and stuff.

The stuff has a neat, almost sculptural look to it, but I can't imagine living anywhere near him whenever he moved things around to tinker with them. CLUNK. SCRAAAAAAAAAAAAAPE. BANG BANG BANG BANG.

So Canada has a problem with tweakers as well?

I guess I'm looking at this from the safety side more than the aesthetic/nuisance side... if he had a fire in his apartment and couldn't get out the front door, that balcony could be his only means of escape (assuming there aren't any other windows or doors available). And it's completely blocked. And like someone else said here, is the balcony designed to hold that load? Could be a safety issue for the people living below. I haven't clicked on the Free Energy News link yet so maybe these questions are answered there.

He sounds like an interesting guy, but no, I don't think I'd want to live in any of those adjacent apartments.

dont like it....its fugly...

I'd love to be his neigbor.
I would be thrilling to have stuff flloating around my home!!

I got too excited thinking about floating stuobjects..
I meant to say "I would be thrilled to have stuff floating around my home"

I kinda like it, but he's getting to the point where I can see why the neighbors are complaining. :)

It reminds me of the instruments the Whos down in Whoville play--I'm certain there's a floo-floober in there!

The guy who owns this house is a friend of mine - his weekend property in the country is adjacent to ours - and I love his eccentricity. That said, if he was creating a fire hazard through hoarding, that would be a different issue.

I'm a hypocrite: I want the fascinating privilege of driving past it on a regular basis to check out metamorphosis of the mess (and the occasional levitating object?!), but I don't want it next door. Makes me a NIMBY, I suppose...

You dragged this up from 2003?
This guy is nothing more than a nutjob that posts on a website that covers things like Find UFOs, The Apocalypse, New World Order, Political Analysis, Alternative Health, Armageddon, Conspiracies, Prophecies, Spirituality, Home Schooling, Home Mortgages and more, in Rumor Mill News.
As near as I can tell he's incoherent in most of his posts and his blog, but he IS good at asking for money.

ANTI GRAVITY!?! THAT'S AWESOME!!! Yes, I would very much like to be his neighbor.

well, it makes the old sofa on the porch issue seem passe', wouldn't you say?

i'm a new west girl too, and love new west... figures our neighborhood's first mention on a.t. would be of a strange individual. i've driven by his place before, too. not as strange as it seems

Anti-gravity? Yeah, right. I'd be PO'd if I were his neighbor. Like others have said, if he could actually defy gravity, he wouldn't be living in that little apartment surrounded by junk. He's a hoarder.

If it isn't harming anyone else more than the fact that it's an eyesore, this man has the right to do whatever he wants with his balcony. Why does anyone even care? If the majority had the ability to decide what the outside of everyone's living space looks like the world would be a much less interesting place.

I say never criticise a man who appears to have a harpoon gun on his balcony.

Has this guy's name and the words "state institution" ever been used in the same sentence?

I think everybody has a right to their hobbies, and everybody else has a right to not have those hobbies smashed into their faces. It's one thing to be eccentric (I'm being nice) but another to create eyesores that are also dangerous. This reminds me of the (known to be heavily incestuous) family near me who covered the outside of their house with nailed-on stuffed animal toys... I'm not libertarian enough to support their bad taste.

So long as the stuff was all safely secured and the balcony was structurally strong enough to support it all, I wouldn't really care. I'd much rather have an eccentric pack rat for a neighbor than the loud, obnoxious white trash who've invaded my complex.