{"id":300407,"date":"2021-07-15T21:37:08","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T18:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-this-fun-house-became-the-eye-candy-eyesore-of-queens\/"},"modified":"2021-07-15T21:37:08","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T18:37:08","slug":"how-this-fun-house-became-the-eye-candy-eyesore-of-queens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-this-fun-house-became-the-eye-candy-eyesore-of-queens\/","title":{"rendered":"#How this ‘Fun House’ became the eye candy eyesore of Queens"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#How this ‘Fun House’ became the eye candy eyesore of Queens<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

What do 40 inflatable flamingos, a skeleton in a lawn chair and a human-sized T-Rex have in common? <\/p>\n

They\u2019re all on the lawn of the \u201cFun House,\u201d in Bayside, Queens, which has become the eye candy (or eyesore, depending on your tolerance for kitsch) of the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking for someone to blame, meet the effervescent and eclectic husband-wife duo, Lon, 63, and Joanna Blais, who says her age is \u201cbetween 40 and death.\u201d <\/p>\n

Together they run a personnel and concierge service, act on the side and most notably have transformed their otherwise unassuming, quasi-suburban, 2,500-square-foot family home into a full-time spectacle.<\/p>\n

The couple moved into the 1950 Bell Boulevard house back in 2004 after years of apartment living \u2014 a moment that happ<\/a>ened to coincide with Joanna\u2019s recovery from years of debilitating health issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis house is going to be about fun, celebration,\u201d Lon Blais said he proclaimed when they moved in.<\/p>\n

Soon after, they had an artist friend paint murals on their walls and turned the basement into a tiki bar. But when COVID-19 hit last year Lon decided he was going to extend the festive vibe to the exterior of their house.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to give people a reason to smile,\u201d he told The Post.<\/p>\n

\"The
Forty inflatable flamingos, a skeleton in a lawn chair and a human-sized T-Rex are all part of the fun.<\/figcaption>
Stefano Giovannini<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He gathered every last bit of decorations the couple had laying around from various holidays and parties and started to festoon his fa\u00e7ade.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked like Walt Disney threw up in my yard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Not long after, a little girl walked by with her mother and called it the \u201cFun House.\u201d The moniker stuck.<\/p>\n

Today, with NYC reopened and the worst days of lockdown in the rearview mirror, the Fun House continues to feature a rotating cast of inflatable and general<\/a>ly colorful characters of various themes.<\/p>\n

\"A
An artist friend painted the sidewalks of the Fun House with cheery images and messages. \u201cLove another,\u201d one note reads.<\/figcaption>
Stefano Giovannini<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the usual suspect calendar moments and holidays \u2014 Christmas, Valentine\u2019s Day, St. Patty\u2019s Day \u2014 are still celebrated with additional Griswold-esque decoration, any number of unrelated accoutrements may join the cacophony of kitsch. <\/p>\n

A snowman made entirely of tires, for instance. Or a shed-sized blow-up birthday cake. A Renaissance-reminiscent figurine has been delicately placed in a giant, inflatable T-Rex\u2019s mouth.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Japanese Maple tree in their front lawn died (the symbolism of which was not lost on the couple), so they honored it by fashioning a to-scale model of the tree out of cardboard wine boxes. <\/p>\n

\"An
The Bayside couple\u2019s bonkers abode honors the seasons. <\/figcaption>
Lon and Joanna Blais<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last Thanksgiving, they even reenacted the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade with miniature floats (balloons) and a line of vehicles, a police car in the lead and a sanitation truck at the end of the procession.<\/p>\n

Messages of hope are scrawled in chalk surrounding the Fun House walkways and an artist friend painted the sidewalk with cheery patterns. \u201cLove another,\u201d one note reads. \u201cStay strong,\u201d reads another.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018It looked like Walt Disney threw up in my yard.\u2019<\/p>\n

Lon Blais<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

The Fun House even gets a warm reception on prickly social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat job! As a former lighting specialist, gold star,\u201d one Facebook comment read.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour house is so nice to see when I\u2019m driving down Bell. It\u2019s true happiness during these times\u2026.and I love what you do for every holiday & season!!! Thank you!\u201d read another comment on a Facebook neighborhood group.<\/p>\n

Neighbors and passersby gawk and point at the fun scenes. Some add their own messages in chalk. Others leave contributions to the Fun House in the way of holiday or lawn decorations.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery once in a while I walk outside and find something that I didn\u2019t put there,\u201d Lon said.
When asked what his wife thinks of the exterior decorating fixation, Lon added that she just rolls her eyes at his efforts, \u201cbut in a supportive way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
The couple has a skeleton crew doing construction around the house.<\/figcaption>
Lon and Joanna Blais<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some might call Blais\u2019 pastime inane, childish or worst of all, in bad taste \u2014 though luckily they haven\u2019t had any Lampoon-style electrical meltdowns or neighbors angrily dialing 311 as of yet. If anyone has taken a dislike to the outlandish Fun House, they\u2019ve kept it to themselves. And luckily few rules exist on the city or borough level regarding semi-permanent lawn decorations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of the Fun House has been just to make people smile through a really hard time. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything wrong with continuing making my neighborhood a little bit happier even as we come out of the pandemic,\u201d he said.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n

If you want to read more News<\/a> articles, you can visit our News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#How this ‘Fun House’ became the eye candy eyesore of Queens” What do 40 inflatable flamingos, a skeleton in a lawn chair and a human-sized T-Rex have in common? They\u2019re all on the lawn of the \u201cFun House,\u201d in Bayside, Queens, which has become the eye candy (or eyesore, depending on your tolerance for kitsch)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":300408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/07\/funhouse-7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[111926,116,112004,75181,112005,11247,75182],"class_list":["post-300407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-7-15-21","tag-art","tag-bayside","tag-dream-homes","tag-fun-home","tag-queens","tag-surreal-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}