Not for me, but I'm sure I'm not "kewl" enough to be in their target market. I have a white, wall-mounted fire extinguisher in my kitchen. I got it at Home Depot. It's only about 10" tall and is pretty unobtrusive. I don't have a picture of my current kitchen but here's my previous house's kitchen - the extinguisher is below the microwave. I left that one for the new owners and got another one for this house. There's also a conventional red one by the back door (for any grill incidents, and the back deck is also where the smokers go to indulge; I need to get a mounting bracket for it for better visibility), and currently there's one on the porch where DH is working with an infrared paint remover. When we had a fireplace, a fire extinguisher about the size of a 2-liter soda bottle stayed in the kindling box, and a large one hung in the garage when we had one of those. I've been lucky enough that I've never had a major fire but I've had some little ones over the years (cooking fires, cigarettes, candles) that without a fire extinguisher could have become major fires. I want any idjit :-) who happens to be in my house to be able to grab the fire extinguisher without having to think "is this a fire extinguisher or what?" while the fire alarms are screaming and maybe they've been imbibing a bit or are half asleep. IMO a fire extinguisher is such an important piece of safety equipment that I don't really care if it's not beautiful, I would never stash it away in a closet or cabinet - I think it defeats the purpose to have it hidden away where you have to go hunting for it. However, white fire extinguishers are becoming widely available, as are residential ones in a brushed stainless finish (I guess to coordinate with those stainless steel kitchen appliances). First Alert makes a silver and black all-purpose extinguisher. "The only other thing that it reminds me of is an oversized seltzer bottle, and you could probably put out a residential fire with that too." Only if it's burning paper, wood, cloth or similar combustible material. Water spreads both oil/grease and electrical fires (and you can also electrocute yourself by putting water on an electrical fire, since water is a wonderful conductor of electricity). It's most sensible to have A-B-C extinguishers, which put out all three kinds of typical home fires, especially since a class C (electrical) fire can spread to become a class A (combustible materials), or a class A can come into contact with combustible liquids (class B).

Thank you all! I can't believe I didn't get around to bringing back the fire extinguisher. I saw it in the hall closet last night and remembered. (It's pretty close to the kitchen but not the first place you'd look in a panic, that's for sure.) I looked at a website and also called my neighborhood fire station. The local firefighter said that under a sink is acceptable for residences; for foster homes etc it has to be mounted on a wall. He and the online site both said that the ideal location is in full view somewhere on the path out of the kitchen, so you don't have to go toward the flames to get to it. He acknowledged that people don't always want a fire extinguisher hanging on their kitchen wall and wasn't concerned about someone having it in a cabinet. The website was a little more alarmist than he was and said it should be out in plain sight so the babysitter could find it fast. (!) During all this I also ran across an America's Test Kitchen video review of fire extinguishers. Their online written review has a lot more information (including a description of the terrible performance of some of them) but I'm not a subscriber so I couldn't access the whole thing. The video review is helpful, though, so I'll link it. If you all see a fire extinguisher on the wall when/if I finally get around to posting finished kitchen pics, you will know that I took the babysitter thing to heart... (we pretty much never hire babysitters, but still). Here is a link that might be useful: Fire extinguisher review on Youtube

If you are concerned about your mom not being able to use a fire extinguisher, why don't you have her practice with a standard one outside? Yes, it isn't cheap, but it would be worth it if she ever had a fire. Having learned how to use one in a non-emergency might give her the confidence to use one in an emergency. Also refresh her about how to deal with different types of fires - like if she has a fire in the oven, keep the door closed, turn the oven off and let it burn out(being prepared to go to the next step if it doesn't burn out) .. If it's on the stove, put a lid on it to suffocate it(don't move it to the sink!). If it's a grease fire, don't use water! If you can't use a lid, use baking soda. However if your concern is relating to her accidentally leaving the stove on and causing a fire, there are other products that may be helpful, like timed stove shut offs, or automatic range hood fire extinguishers. I apologize if that's not the case, it's just where my brain goes because of my line of work!

Everyone has such a different take on this subject. I'm one of 8 children. When Dad was alive, we'd make an effort to get as many of us as possible together at his house a couple of times a year--he loved this. This would result in multiple cars at his house for a few days--two in the garage, three in the driveway, 2-4 more out on the street in front of his property (he had a double lot, so there was room enough). Some neighbors would comment to us that Dad must be happy we were all visiting. Some neighbors would nervously inquire if Dad was okay--all the cars made them think he must be dying or something. And the guy who parked all his cars in front of Dad's empty lot most days would complain that we were taking up all the street parking. Cars are part of day to day life. It strikes me as odd that seeing a car on a residental street could be seen as wrecking a "view." People have cars; they need a place to park them. If seeing a neighbor's cars really bothers you that much, then probably best you move someplace where that is regulated.