Wanna buy a house? :)

[Coffee]

Here's one a friend of mine designed. It's for an underground (semi-hobbit hole-esque) which would drastically reduce both heating and cooling costs.


I'd have to move to a hillier region than south-eastern England, but I could live with that.

*edit* Here's the other one I'm thinking about.

[JessieK]

This house would be WAY more expensive in a cultural area. The house is in the middle of horse and wine country (farmland), miles from anything.

Two of the rooms (the main living room and the master bedroom) are not at all cramped...they are very spacious. The square footage is calculated strangely. It is not accurate...there is more literal square footage than we are allowed to count.

The whistle vault has been moved already to the new location. So has the piano. And my yarn. And most of our clothes and other things.

I think the virtual tour shows the downstairs apartment too much...we don't even go down there much (my mom stays there when she visits, though). but I got a kick out of it (the virtual tour) when I saw it, anyway. There's a link to the specs.

I, too, love old houses. Dan had this house when we met. I really like this house, too, but I am not crazy about the location (in terms of culture and whatnot, or lack thereof).

[Jack]

Wow, that's a posh house! It looks like something you see in Martha Stewart magazines.

[beowulf573]

I like the view of trees outside the study area. And the computer in the baby room, gotta start them young.

Alas my wife has made it clear she is done with cold climates. Truth be told, I'd probably wimp out after a week in real cold.

[beowulf573]

And if you have money to spare, there's a great flat for sale in London:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6287375.stm

11ft by 7ft.

[Jerry Freeman]

And if you have money to spare, there's a great flat for sale in London:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6287375.stm

11ft by 7ft.

Don't they have occupancy permit rules? Anywhere I've ever been, a space like that wouldn't get a building permit for the alterations to try to make it into a residence.

Best wishes,
Jerry

[dubhlinn]

Nice on the outside but a bit cramped on the inside.

Too many rooms spread over too little room.

Dubious decorating can influence people....but they do add the redecorating into their budget.

Slan,
D.

This seems like the kind of thing one would think but not say.

Sorry,

One will submit future posts for approval.

Slan,
D.

[gonzo914]

Nice place. I have just three questions.

1. Why is all the furniture shoved up against the wall?

2. Where is all the guy stuff?

3. Why do you have a mirror at waist level in the bedroom? You could only see it if you were on the bed and . . . . never mind.

And you people from Texas and the midwest better quit telling people how cheap houses are here. They'll want to move here and will screw it up for all of us.

[brianc]

Here's one a friend of mine designed. It's for an underground (semi-hobbit hole-esque) which would drastically reduce both heating and cooling costs.


I'd have to move to a hillier region than south-eastern England, but I could live with that.

*edit* Here's the other one I'm thinking about.

I don't know... looking at these, I can help but think....


HAMSTER.

[DCrom]

And you people from Texas and the midwest better quit telling people how cheap houses are here. They'll want to move here and will screw it up for all of us.

No need to worry about me, at least, Gonzo.

As tempting as your housing prices may be, I need a place with lots of both high-tech jobs and Asian markets. And no tornadoes. Earthquakes I can deal with, but tornadoes scare me

[Wanderer]

Nice place. I have just three questions.

1. Why is all the furniture shoved up against the wall?

2. Where is all the guy stuff?

3. Why do you have a mirror at waist level in the bedroom? You could only see it if you were on the bed and . . . . never mind.

And you people from Texas and the midwest better quit telling people how cheap houses are here. They'll want to move here and will screw it up for all of us.

I wouldn't sweat it....one Texas summer and they'd move back, and look at all that dough they brought to the Texas economy in the meantime

[hyldemoer]

Nice place. I have just three questions.

1. Why is all the furniture shoved up against the wall?

I hadn't noticed so I had to go back al look for that. I still didn't notice anything unusually "up against the wall", but then there isn't a room in my apartment that I don't have room to dance in.

2. Where is all the guy stuff?

"Guy stuff"?
Please explain.

3. Why do you have a mirror at waist level in the bedroom?

That looked like a window looking out to vaulted ceiling of another room to me.

[hyldemoer]

Here's one a friend of mine designed. It's for an underground (semi-hobbit hole-esque) which would drastically reduce both heating and cooling costs.

I've been looking into having a semi underground house built for me. It all depends where I find my acre+ of land. I'm not sure if making it round would have come into the design unless we were incorporating a dome somewhere.
There's a guy here in Illinois who's firm travels the world putting in the superstructure for people and then the buyers tend to finish the interior off themselves.http://www.daviscaves.com/index.shtml

For that I'd probably try to recreate the interior designs of the house Cowtime suggested. I love the Arts and Crafts period but my days of rescuing houses are over.
I'd rather play with my grandkids, play the fiddle, or garden
than rewire, replumb, replaster, et cetera.

[cowtime]

I'd rather play with my grandkids, play the fiddle, or garden
than rewire, replumb, replaster, et cetera.

I'd rather do 'em all!! You should have seen us laying tile with the help of a three year old.

There are a few earth berm houses in our area that were built about 20 years ago. I don't think I could go it, but I'm thinking it would have it's advantages as I ponder the electric bill this month...

[hyldemoer]

I'd rather play with my grandkids, play the fiddle, or garden
than rewire, replumb, replaster, et cetera.

I'd rather do 'em all!! You should have seen us laying tile with the help of a three year old.

I used to think that way too.

Do you remember the reason why you had to lay new tile?
In my case it was because the then 80 year old bathroom floor had rotted away (and they only put one bathroom in a house back then).

At the time I was also having 3 layers of roofing taken off and replaced.
Then the village of Oak Park condemmed my garage.

That year the wooden storm windows (big big windows in every room) didn't come off the windows until July. I barely had them repainted to be put back up in November.

My brother still lives in Oak Park, Il. He just spent the last 3 years rehabing his turn of the last century 2 flat.
I don't care what the paint remover manufacturors say. There is no safe paint stripper.
My brother would have ripped the interior wood trim off and replaced it but its a custom order to get the sizes he needed.
For the floors I gave him the name of the Polish guy who sanded and polyurethaned my hard wood floors.

In the end he (as I did) resorted to having double pane windows installed (it isn't period but it doesn't have to be scraped and repainted every couple years and there aren't wooden storm windows to juggle twice a year) and vinyl siding put on.

He's 60 years old. It was either do that or move.
It looks nice.

There are a few earth berm houses in our area that were built about 20 years ago. I don't think I could go it, but I'm thinking it would have it's advantages as I ponder the electric bill this month...

Yeah, you'd still be ahead for not needing fuel to heat or cool the building.
Just making breakfast in the morning might be enough to heat the house for the whole day provided you also make passive use of the sun on one wall.

They also make ceiling windows that are long tubes lined with mirrored surface. You can have sun light three floors below the roof if you can angle the tubes through closets.
My daughter has been looking into installing one in a bathroom of her conventional house.

To keep humidity down there's technology for a passive means of ventilation.