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One of the things that attracted us (well, me particularly) to the place we've recently bought was the garage under the house which was described as a workshop (~3m x 10m) woo-hoo!.
Actually, it was never used as a garage because once the place was finished, it was realised that it's virtually impossible to manoeuvre a a car into it from the drive... Nice planning, architect!
The architect (maybe builder) also managed to get the roof timbers built before the end of the planning phase, so when the bloke across the road (about 100 feet away) won his complaint that the roof was too high, they'd have had to order new timbers, or simply drop the roof by a foot - which was what was done.
This didn't leave enough room for the loft, so two of the bedrooms' ceilings go 3.5m up to the roof line (which is nice and spacious). But this also meant that the ceiling meets the walls a foot lower than it should in the other bedrooms, which - at 30-odd degrees - cuts about twice that off the width. (Relations between the bloke across the road and our predecessors were frosty, it seems.)
To make the non-garage into a "workshop" the owner floored it with laminate - apparently without a vapour barrier, and now resembling a seascape - an effect which would not be so striking if the short board ends had been staggered - instead of carefully aligned as they are.
And how he used it as a workshop, I've no idea. Humidity is 80%, and all my tools are in the house until I can dry it out and seal it properly, which won't be trivial
The kitchen and hall were open plan, and - he believed - merited a dividing wall. So he decided to cut the stone floor tiles at its base and 'properly' sink it. After a change of heart they removed it - we now have a trench filled with polyfiller where the wall was, with a light switch embedded in it. (Handy if your arms are full, I can't deny it!)
They built a wall cupboard that covers one edge of the fuseboard/cabinet thing - making it almost impossible to remove. Rather than build it four inches to the right, it's cunningly positioned to also obscure the main TV and telephone points.
A few projects in the garden, too: there's a kitchen garden of sorts, thoughtfully placed to the north of the house, where the dropped roof mitigates the almost permanent shade...
They also built a couple of ponds, with a cascade - then moved one lower because only when they'd finished it did they realise that they couldn't see it from the conservatory. This has left a nice flat circle with a rocky border in a sloping lawn. They put the pump in the lower pond right next to the cascade, ensuring that oxygenated water remains in a nice tight circuit without risking more distant parts becoming habitable.
Knowing zilch about our new ponds, went to the library...
The *first* pond book we got suggests a minimum depth of 45cm to protect against thermal shock - ours are 20cm, so the Swiss winter will be fun for the fish. Oh, and apparently willow tree leaves are toxic to fish - can you guess what's looming over the ponds?
(Mind you, if we got rid of the willow, then we'd be better able to see the apple tree they planted 20yrs ago, because it's now underneath the willow.)
I could go on, but the catharsis is done.
Actually, it was never used as a garage because once the place was finished, it was realised that it's virtually impossible to manoeuvre a a car into it from the drive... Nice planning, architect!
The architect (maybe builder) also managed to get the roof timbers built before the end of the planning phase, so when the bloke across the road (about 100 feet away) won his complaint that the roof was too high, they'd have had to order new timbers, or simply drop the roof by a foot - which was what was done.
This didn't leave enough room for the loft, so two of the bedrooms' ceilings go 3.5m up to the roof line (which is nice and spacious). But this also meant that the ceiling meets the walls a foot lower than it should in the other bedrooms, which - at 30-odd degrees - cuts about twice that off the width. (Relations between the bloke across the road and our predecessors were frosty, it seems.)
To make the non-garage into a "workshop" the owner floored it with laminate - apparently without a vapour barrier, and now resembling a seascape - an effect which would not be so striking if the short board ends had been staggered - instead of carefully aligned as they are.
And how he used it as a workshop, I've no idea. Humidity is 80%, and all my tools are in the house until I can dry it out and seal it properly, which won't be trivial
The kitchen and hall were open plan, and - he believed - merited a dividing wall. So he decided to cut the stone floor tiles at its base and 'properly' sink it. After a change of heart they removed it - we now have a trench filled with polyfiller where the wall was, with a light switch embedded in it. (Handy if your arms are full, I can't deny it!)
They built a wall cupboard that covers one edge of the fuseboard/cabinet thing - making it almost impossible to remove. Rather than build it four inches to the right, it's cunningly positioned to also obscure the main TV and telephone points.
A few projects in the garden, too: there's a kitchen garden of sorts, thoughtfully placed to the north of the house, where the dropped roof mitigates the almost permanent shade...
They also built a couple of ponds, with a cascade - then moved one lower because only when they'd finished it did they realise that they couldn't see it from the conservatory. This has left a nice flat circle with a rocky border in a sloping lawn. They put the pump in the lower pond right next to the cascade, ensuring that oxygenated water remains in a nice tight circuit without risking more distant parts becoming habitable.
Knowing zilch about our new ponds, went to the library...
The *first* pond book we got suggests a minimum depth of 45cm to protect against thermal shock - ours are 20cm, so the Swiss winter will be fun for the fish. Oh, and apparently willow tree leaves are toxic to fish - can you guess what's looming over the ponds?
(Mind you, if we got rid of the willow, then we'd be better able to see the apple tree they planted 20yrs ago, because it's now underneath the willow.)
I could go on, but the catharsis is done.
