Not everything is perfect. There are bound to be compromises and oversights. So for the sake of completeness here are the things that are not quite right.
The stairs are rather steep. We have been spoiled by the luxurious ones at Park Street. Janet would say the ones at the Wood are very laid back.
The utility room is very small.
Perhaps more food storage space would have been a good idea: a proper larder.
The Nibe controls require a degree in heat engineering. So far, we find the heat difficult to control. This may be our fault but we think not. Still, Graham Moss the Nibe man is tremendously obliging.
There are skirting boards. Originally, I passionately wanted shadow line skirtings. (My devil master James has them in his house extension; why can't I have them?) Then Mary said skirtings are unnecessary; and I agreed. Now we have skirtings. I am not sure why. Oh well.
Three lights over the table is perhaps too many.
Roy would prefer a joy stick shower control. I am perfectly happy with the taps we have.
Roy wishes there was more light in the bathroom and the small bedroom and slightly less in the main bedroom. I rather like the cosy dim feel of the bathroom. I agree we could have done with one window rather than two in the main bedroom.
The replacement lavatory seats (see earlier top secret posting) are not quite the right shape. We are probably the only people who have noticed this.
We are not quite sure that we specified the right locations for the telephone sockets. There are three (or is it four?) and not one of them is in the main bedroom or the study.
There are some fascinating misplacements of light switches. But we are getting used to them.
The multitude of legs on the canopy is still a little disconcerting. It would have been nice to cantilever it; but that would have meant more steel in the main structure. It would have been nice to manage with fewer.
It is fiddly to open the casement windows fully. But perhaps this will deter all our burglars. It would have been nice if the full length windows would open wide, like doors.
Roy would have liked a wine cellar.
The grey of the doors is not quite the same grey as the blinds.
The deck is not big enough. And it doesn't drain properly. (We are well into crumples in rose leaves territory now.)
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Things I like about the house
The observant will have noted, perhaps with faint regret, that I have not posted anything for some months. Now that the house is finished, this blog is beginning to show its redundancy, and banging on about how pretty the wood and the house are may seem boastful and rude. But there are a few concluding comments to make before deciding whether to keep this page alive for other purposes.
The house works very well. (Should I add “so far”? No.) It has few redundant spaces; pretty much all of it is useful, unlike, for example, the hall at Park Street, which as I have already bored some of you by pointing out, is a perfect example of the point Frank Lloyd Wright made about the immorality of certain sorts of house design: making a show for one’s public face whilst consigning the important parts of the house, such as the kitchen, to an actual or metaphorical basement. I am pleased to say that coming more or less straight into the kitchen is a very nice way to enter a house. The big landing is good, too, even though we have not furnished it yet, and so it is not really operating as it is intended to do. The only rooms we do not regularly use ourselves are the spare bedroom (for which guests may be grateful) and the study, the latter because it has no furniture yet. But when the weather gets warmer I mean to keep the study door and the spare bedroom door open, for the views.
The vistas are probably the best thing about the design. You can see all the way through each floor, into every room except the utility room, the study and the upstairs spare loo, when all the doors are open; and when the study door is open you get an immediate view through to the back (or front) of the house as you come in the front (or back) door.
You do hear quite a lot of what is going on in other parts; but when that is music from the sitting room that is rather a good thing (depending on the music). Also, as I type this at the table, I realise that it is convenient for someone quietly doing difficult sums to Mozart in the sitting room to be able to ask the person in the kitchen, without shouting, for a vital cup of coffee, please. Hang on whilst I deal with that.
One more thing about the layout: how like it is to some of the vicarages we have lived in - the study near the front door so that the parishioners can be ushered straight in to see the vicar, and the family's places further in.
Other things I like: the kitchen. Well, it is a stronger emotion than mere liking. The wood; the height of the bench tops; the storage drawers; the lighting; two sinks; the taps; an extractor fan (first time since Poffley End where we had an industrial strength one that blew both ways, because we thought the Aga would like it); the space. I would write an exclamation mark here, if I had not taken a vow against them. And having a separate utility room.
Continuing with the list of the things I like: the sitting room. This means its shelves, though there are not enough of them and the top shelf requires the reach of an ape and the legs of a giraffe; and its windows, though I am not sure if the ones for the piano are quite large enough. It is a good size, too, and our stuff looks nice in it.
More. (As Dornford Yates would say.) The bathroom, loos and shower: their oak shelves, the neat little taps, the monsoon force shower (a combination of water under pressure and a big shower head), the shower seat, cantilevered loos, elegant big tiles.
The oak floors upstairs and the tiled ones downstairs. Nice, plain, and (downstairs) WARM (unless Nibe is away for the time being).
No draughts. I really am tempted to write an exclamation mark here. Even without curtains, and when Nibe was sulking at New Year when the temperature never got above freezing and was mostly rather far below it, the house is not cold. Double glazing, Scandinavian windows and lots of insulation in the walls and roof do the trick.
I could go on, but I won’t. Do come and see for yourselves how it works.
Arty pictures
The house works very well. (Should I add “so far”? No.) It has few redundant spaces; pretty much all of it is useful, unlike, for example, the hall at Park Street, which as I have already bored some of you by pointing out, is a perfect example of the point Frank Lloyd Wright made about the immorality of certain sorts of house design: making a show for one’s public face whilst consigning the important parts of the house, such as the kitchen, to an actual or metaphorical basement. I am pleased to say that coming more or less straight into the kitchen is a very nice way to enter a house. The big landing is good, too, even though we have not furnished it yet, and so it is not really operating as it is intended to do. The only rooms we do not regularly use ourselves are the spare bedroom (for which guests may be grateful) and the study, the latter because it has no furniture yet. But when the weather gets warmer I mean to keep the study door and the spare bedroom door open, for the views.
The vistas are probably the best thing about the design. You can see all the way through each floor, into every room except the utility room, the study and the upstairs spare loo, when all the doors are open; and when the study door is open you get an immediate view through to the back (or front) of the house as you come in the front (or back) door.
You do hear quite a lot of what is going on in other parts; but when that is music from the sitting room that is rather a good thing (depending on the music). Also, as I type this at the table, I realise that it is convenient for someone quietly doing difficult sums to Mozart in the sitting room to be able to ask the person in the kitchen, without shouting, for a vital cup of coffee, please. Hang on whilst I deal with that.
One more thing about the layout: how like it is to some of the vicarages we have lived in - the study near the front door so that the parishioners can be ushered straight in to see the vicar, and the family's places further in.
Other things I like: the kitchen. Well, it is a stronger emotion than mere liking. The wood; the height of the bench tops; the storage drawers; the lighting; two sinks; the taps; an extractor fan (first time since Poffley End where we had an industrial strength one that blew both ways, because we thought the Aga would like it); the space. I would write an exclamation mark here, if I had not taken a vow against them. And having a separate utility room.
Continuing with the list of the things I like: the sitting room. This means its shelves, though there are not enough of them and the top shelf requires the reach of an ape and the legs of a giraffe; and its windows, though I am not sure if the ones for the piano are quite large enough. It is a good size, too, and our stuff looks nice in it.
More. (As Dornford Yates would say.) The bathroom, loos and shower: their oak shelves, the neat little taps, the monsoon force shower (a combination of water under pressure and a big shower head), the shower seat, cantilevered loos, elegant big tiles.
The oak floors upstairs and the tiled ones downstairs. Nice, plain, and (downstairs) WARM (unless Nibe is away for the time being).
No draughts. I really am tempted to write an exclamation mark here. Even without curtains, and when Nibe was sulking at New Year when the temperature never got above freezing and was mostly rather far below it, the house is not cold. Double glazing, Scandinavian windows and lots of insulation in the walls and roof do the trick.
I could go on, but I won’t. Do come and see for yourselves how it works.
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| What I did last weekend |
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| 1 Jan 2009 |
Arty pictures
Sunday, February 08, 2009
EPW in snow
First: getting there
(travel reports of snow and disruption however the roads were fairly clear all the way to the top of the drive)
C&L spent the weekend (well Sat pm and Sun am) at the Wood in the snow.
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| Travel to EPW in the snow |
(travel reports of snow and disruption however the roads were fairly clear all the way to the top of the drive)
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| EPW in Snow |
C&L spent the weekend (well Sat pm and Sun am) at the Wood in the snow.
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