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| Visit on 22 June |
The bad things: there seem to be two air intakes missing for the Nibe, which means, we think, that the warm air from the sitting room (where the wood stove will be) and the utility room will not be used. The kitchen lights and oily air extractor are still wrong or not there. The Legs really are a bit intrusive and we hope to become a hexapod rather than an octopus.
Outdoors, there are some cheerful signs of the devastation greening up.
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40 comments:
Green yes, but can you stand on it without it eating your boots?
I find it hard to believe that you only took one picture.
I walked all over the welly barrow safely, and I crossed the sewage outfall without getting gobbled up. There will be more pictures soonish.
did i miss something? is the welly barrow Scotland's answer to the wind lake?
i was waiting for more photos before commenting here and was worried about swamping Max with the march of the giant aunts, but will comment on his classy new scheme
correction - wine lake
There was a reference ages ago to the way in which the howe of peat behind (or in front of) the house swallowed wellies, people, small furry animals and so on.
It is true, we do have an excess of wind here.
I realise that I don't know how heavy your brise soleil is, but there seems sufficient space above it and below roof to have a series of wires/cables attached under the guttering and running out to the outer edge of the BS, forming a nice triangle with the BS and the wall. These would be invisible from indoors, and not obvious from outside. Whether it would work depends on the ratio of the width of the BS and the height of wall between the BS and the eaves. It would look neatest to have 1 from the outer end of each supporting beam of the BS.
PS I was joking about slabs.
Interesting exercise bike in the main bedroom.
Oh I thought it was a rowing machine. For having rows on or in. Necessary in the private part of the house.
The engineer is considering the Leg Question. On the whole I don't favour wires. I imagine they might howl or twang in the excess of wind (qv).
I am disappointed that the slab remark was a joke.
as you are in Scotland, turn the legs into Doric columns and add a pediment with frieze with bacchantes, nymphs, klarg etc
PS if Cecilia is puzzled by my email, it was because I misread Klang for Klarg
I did wonder about Klang and came up with the Klarg explanation for myself. I have never quite understood the connection between Aberdeen-speak and the pillars. Rather than a frieze, I quite like the idea of a line of gesticulating statues like the ones on the outside of the pediment of the Gesuati or is it the Gesuiti, in Venice. Livy will remember how they loom out of the mist when one is on the Fondamenta Nuova side of the island.
I like the idea of "cheerful signs of devastation".
Nibe and Klarg, possibly with his brother Klang, are happy warriors who rush about devastating.
devastating = slimming therefore cheerful
Brise (s) soleil (s) are popping up on several modern office buildings round here (E1W 3PQ) but they seem to be cantilivered rather than suspended or legged
Tricky things, Brises Soleil. My office is enveloped in bars, cleverly designed to break the sun and keep the office cool.
link
Except for the slight problem that the office they were designed to do that for is somewhere in Germany, where the sun is at a different angle. So in Scotland, it doesn't do an awful lot of good.
Except seagulls can sit on it.
My office window faces north with views of Barr Beacon (when it isn't raining... or worse). Brises Soleils don't come into the equation at all.
The window behind me sides onto The Yellow Box storeage depot. There is no view except for a bright yellow wall which is OK for me but gives everyone else a headache.
The other window looks out onto the ring- road; very handy for traffic updates.
Windows in courts nowadays have to be placed so that there is no chance for snipers to get at the sheriff or the judge. When there are old fashioned windows of the sort that show views, they tend to be covered with blinds. Which keeps one's mind on the job.
I think Livy's bars are rather beautiful; and I think it is a foul calumny that Foster designed them for Germany. Or was that an example of the lead architect not quite controlling the other disciplines such as those ungovernable engineers? And do they actually get covered with bird droppings? I am quite surprised they are not either shrouded in fine netting or lined with little spikes to hurt birds' feet.
Perhaps it's an urban myth about my office and Germany. We do know that it's the same design as was used in other parts of the world and given that the bars don't do much to brise the soleil, we are perhaps extrapolating the theory.
The (subcontractors) put the wrong diameter of pipe (too narrow) for the coolant to circulate in, in the south-facing part of the building where the cool is needed most. We complained for YEARS that the training rooms were too hot before anyone actually did a proper investigation.
Alas it's too late to fix them as the pipes are laid in concrete.
Mary has just told me I must not have ultramarine blue doors downstairs. I am sad.
Does that mean you are allowed to have them upstairs, or did you only want them downstairs?
I only wanted them downstairs; and now I can't have them anywhere. I am holding out for grey rather than white, though.
how about a little assertiveness training - repeat after me "this is our house, these are our doors, what do we want?" "blue doors" "when do we want them?" "now"
or you could always repaint them later
Have white doors, let Mary take photos for her website, then paint the doors the colour you want.
Everyone is then happy.
Perhaps she took the wikipedia entry a little too literally and wondered where she would source lapis lazuli and an L L smith in the Highlands?
I wouldn't mind synthetic ultramarine if the lapis lazuli mine could not be opened in time. Craig and Rose have nice kind men who will make enough paint for my doors for £60 - rather good, I thought.
But we have compromised on grey for the time being, though Mary is feeling rather old fashioned about it, as she thinks doors should read as walls. I think they should read as holes in walls; and if they don't, claustrophobia may ensue.
Now, who is LL Smith?
A Mitteleuropean workman formerly known as Preults. His first name is either Lloyd or Llewellyn.
L L smith = lapis lazuli smith
I hope that is not " old fashioned" as Ma uses the phrase. ( As applied to Isaac)
How does ma use it with reference to Isaac? I meant old fashioned in the giving old fashioned looks sort of way.
I think workers of lapis lazuli are hewers or crushers rather than smiths (and by the way, only members of the family will get Janet's reference, and maybe not even all of them). But if anyone has a better generic term I would be pleased to hear it before I get in touch with Highland Enterprise with this suggestion for a new and exciting industry for the Highlands.
By the way, where does lapis lazuli come from?
two shades off peculiar.
the formula is available on Wikipedia - a holiday task for the family pharmacist?
Two shades off peculiar in which direction?
How many tons of Na, Ca, Al, Si, S, Sl and Cl (not to mention O) does the family chemist require?
" At The Mercy of The Architect".
Scene one. End of academic year party of home of Dr and Dr Deacon ( Pierce Brosnan And Meryl Streep)- lovely summer evening - lots of shiny happy people ( "with these pastry trilobites you are really spoiling us etc") . Enter strangely magnetic Fr Karswell ( Christopher Lee )- little seen Prof of Ancient Runes and small whistles, recently returned from sabbatical cataloging the libraries of lesser known MittelEuropean Counts .On hearing their plans to build house invites Dr & Dr to spend week at his retreat in the Western Isles where he will introduce him to protege, up-and-coming must have architect Tanith Lee .
Scene two. Ferry to Isles- Warning from Ancient Ferryman ( John Laurie using CGI ). First inklings that Things are Not Right ( girls dancing naked/ goat in churchyard/ gulls flying backwards etc) Meeting with Tanith ( Winona Ryder ) she is (suspiciously?) eager to take on their scheme.
Boat back to mainland- new ferryman- old man crushed by untethered bicycles in a freak storm !
Scene three.
Work on site. All Dr & Dr 's plans are constantly thwarted .Alignment of house subtly shifted. Strange accidents , workmen swallowed up by barrow. Number of legs on the brise soleil never the same twice. Delays mean completion delayed until late October.
Scene 4- 31st October- house warming party.
Shiny happy people in welly boots. Lots of food and drink. Laughing guest points out that when seen from main road- layout of house resembles pentogram. Midnight -lights go out , thunder / lightning/ crashing storm -something has been Summoned from the Loch. Guests fend it off with wild boar sausages and blini bites . Enraged , beast seizes Fr Karswell and drags him back into the watery depths.
End
For those who don't know, "Preults" is how the wonderful people at Ancestry.com transcribed the name "Smith" from the 1891 census as applied to Pa's mother's family.
I have posted a correction.
It took a lot of tracking down, but thankfully great-grandfather Albert Smith was one of only 2 boys named Albert born at Alton, in 1860/1. When I unearthed the Preults family, the father's job, the children's names and dobs, and the location all matched the information we already had. So Preults=Smith!! When you look at the original handwritten entry, you can just see how someone might get Preults. But Smith is much more obvious.
Steve is not being allowed a holiday this year as he doesn't have a passport. Please do not encourage him to blow up the house whilst I am away.
I am taking Rose and Tom to Amsterdam as respite from writing up my MSc thesis. Perhaps it is as a reaction to roads. Other possible locations: Venice or Bruges or may be a cruise.
I am off to Switzerland at crack of sparrow tomorrow. Roy has been there for two weeks already grr gnash. I have just realised that actually I would quite like the sort of holiday I had with Jubi in Madeira a couple of years ago - sitting by a pool a lot, rather than my usual energetic walking around old towns. Sign of age.
It will be quite nice not thinking about the house for a week.
I do hope Mary isn't reading this blog and wondering if Kate means her as the spooky architect.
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