Our mural is the central one pictured, labeled, "This ocean oasis goes around the entire room and…read morethe full ceiling. It is an island retreat bedroom in dry hot Austin, TX." Bingo. Only you'll never know how much so. I've now woken up in that room for four years, and not one single day did I ever feel like I was coming to in a structure with walls. I sleep under a palm tree, with a bridge to my right, clear ocean straight ahead, and a bamboo structure panning left across windows now also framed in bamboo thanks to the artist. The ceiling blazes with a sunset in one corner, palm trees writhing almost as if on fire, and above us you can see the moon and stars. I marvel every day that some guy painted this - erased our walls and painted us our desert island. As an editor of two-plus decades at the Austin Chronicle, I walked through production one day and glanced at a designer prepping a cartoon of Bob Dylan and was immediately struck by both its whimsy and dead-on caricature. Soon, I was commissioning all kinds of music cartoons from this guy. (Google Nathan Jensen, Austin Chronicle and a whole page of them comes up). Even so, in the local art community - as a native Austinite - he was a much, much bigger deal because of all his murals around town, including a 3-D one on a water tower. He ended up on the paper's cover just like that. When I bought my house in 1998, one of the first things I did was point him to the largest wall in the music room and instruct him to, "Paint me Max's room out of 'Where the Wild Things Are' - the walls turning into forest." That sucker is ALIVE. Our 2-year-old Lazlo's crib rests against it and he sticks his feet up on the wall and stares at it wondrously. Next, I had Nathan paint a media closet as being undersea. The ceiling is the surface of the water. The creatures and treasures on its deep sea floor vibrate will all the colors of Mother Ocean. Our water closet was a BIG hit at that one Christmas party. Couples would go in there and close the door, the inside of which seals the piece and makes the illusion complete. Our master bedroom, then, was Nathan and myself taking that idea as far as it would go. (Less my real fantasy of him doing the whole house!) I will never, ever sell this house because of Nathan's mural(s). It lives and breathes with the elements, and I could never bear the thought of someone not treating it like the artistic feat it proves itself day in and day out. The day we upgrade to a bigger house - keeping this one as a rental and hopefully having Lazlo back in it one day - Nathan again will be one of the first calls we make, and he'll naturally begin on our room, then move to Lazlo's, followed by the music room. Once you have one, you'll likely want another, and visitors will marvel every time they see it. Investment in one's home isn't all bathroom remodels, backyard gazebos, and weed pulling. Allowing a wall or two inside to become a unique canvas of your design might be the ultimate nesting. Those are the places you imbue with love and art. I promise THAT is what Nathan Jensen can bring to your home.