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Dream Homes from the Past Century

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Re: Dream Homes from the Past Century

#71
post #13
post #11

Chilean house is literally just some glass and wood. Scary to think how people sleep in that.

I imagine being on a lot large enough or remote enough that you have no visible neighbors probably helps.

Yeah, as long as you have isolation there's no reason to keep people from being able to see in the house.

That said, that design doesn't seem super practical and the photographs probably wouldn't look nearly as nice once all the electrical cords and general clutter is out. And I imagine it doesn't offer a lot of separation for visiting family, etc.

The Graham House looks like it has lots of glass while still having some separation between parts of the house.

Re: Dream Homes from the Past Century

#73

Recently my idea of a dream house would something in the traditional Japanese style with wood, tatami, shoji, and a beautiful garden. I remember being really blown away by the Nomura house [1] in Kanazawa many years ago. Of course I would probably want to update it with better insulation, air conditioning, and more glass/screens to let me enjoy the views of the garden while keeping the bugs out. The best part is you…

But it's in the middle of bumbfuck-nowhere, population steadily declining for 40 years. Even if you want to work remotely there's no guarantee the infrastructure will keep up with proper electricity, medical facilities, internet, mail and all the 1st world conveniences.

What's in the middle of "bumbfuck-nowhere" as you so eloquently put it? Kanazawa--which was the subject of the comment that you appear to be replying to--has a population of about half a million people. I've never personally been there but that doesn't seem to be a very accurate description.

Re: Dream Homes from the Past Century

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kotatsus are limited: they are ok if you are idle, but they don’t warm your hands if you want to get work done on a laptop. I can never get anything done MIL’s apartment in southern China in the winter (southern China gets no central heating, and it still gets cold).

Put a lump of butter in your tea. Sure it's gross but you'll be warm. ;-)

Doesn’t stop your hands from freezing.

Re: Dream Homes from the Past Century

#75
post #43
post #41

My biggest worry is, when i finaly have the money and the ground to build my dream, that i'm not allowed to due to building restrictions :(... Germany is densily populated and you can get a house + ground with 2-5 acres for 200-500.000k but they are all in the so called 'outter area' and apparently we don't want that. You have strict building restrictions. you can't just tear it down and rebiuld it (what you often ne…

google is telling me an acre is a bit more than 4000 square meter...You need 8000-20,000 square meter plot for your house & yard or am I reading something wrongly? The house my father was born in (& my grandmother still lived in till shortly before she died) was on a ~2500 square meter plot that seemed huge to me, so much that when my father & uncle sold the property 4 more houses were built on the same plot. From wh…

At least in the US, many towns have minimum lot sizes. My (admittedly somewhat rural) town has a minimum of two acres and that's not at all uncommon.

Re: Dream Homes from the Past Century

#76
post #19

First I was surprised to see how modern were these houses from the ”past century” . Then I realized that the past century is no longer the 19th century, as it was while I was growing up and got used to the term.

Same here. I was actually hoping to see lots of outdated dreams, like "look what they thought would be cool, but turned out to be completely impractical". Also, all such posts miss location. What good is a cool house, if the next supermarket is 50 miles away?

50 miles is not really all that far, especially if there are closer markets that aren't full-blown supermarkets. Under the right circumstances--and assuming Internet etc.--I would certainly consider living 50 miles from a supermarket.

Re: Dream Homes from the Past Century

#77
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can build windows that have sound attenuation greater than common wall construction. My office at home has a series of 62"x80" windows effectively forming the walls on two sides of four sides, and smaller windows covering on one side. I had the windows built as 3/16"-PVB_laminate-1/4"-1/2"_gap-1/4". The lamination and the different thicknesses detune the panes, and the large mass provides a lot of attenuation. Yo…

Can you explain what "3/16"-PVB_laminate-1/4"-1/2"_gap-1/4" means? Is that four layers of glass?

3/16" glass then a layer of PVB laminate then a layer of 1/4" class then a 1/2" sealed space of air then 1/4" glass.

So two glass panes, which are different thicknesses, one which is comprised of a laminate sandwich.

Re: Dream Homes from the Past Century

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put a lump of butter in your tea. Sure it's gross but you'll be warm. ;-)

Doesn’t stop your hands from freezing.

It suspect it would (unless you have circulation issues in your hands or something.) Your body burns the extra fat and whatnot to keep your core temp up. At least that's the theory I was told. I was camping in the mountains and too cold at night when a friend told me about this. We used hot chocolate, a cup after dinner with a tablespoon of butter in it. Sure enough, I was roasty toasty all night.

I'm not sure it would stop your hands from freezing but it might be worth a try.

Re: Dream Homes from the Past Century

#79
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds amazing. Do you have a link, by any chance?

Seafarers Getaway, along the Great Ocean Road, Victoria Australia: https://seafarers.com.au/ I went in winter. It's surrounded by the Otway Rainforest, a very unique ecosystem with some pretty awesome hikes and waterfalls! I live in Aus, so I just drove there, but there is a bus line that takes you from Melbourne along the Great Ocean Road you could use if you're coming from overseas.

Thanks! Australia is far for me, but I’ll file it away. :-)

Re: Dream Homes from the Past Century

#80
post #75
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

google is telling me an acre is a bit more than 4000 square meter...You need 8000-20,000 square meter plot for your house & yard or am I reading something wrongly? The house my father was born in (& my grandmother still lived in till shortly before she died) was on a ~2500 square meter plot that seemed huge to me, so much that when my father & uncle sold the property 4 more houses were built on the same plot. From wh…

At least in the US, many towns have minimum lot sizes. My (admittedly somewhat rural) town has a minimum of two acres and that's not at all uncommon.

That sounds pretty huge, even to me. The typical American suburban neighborhood is lots of 1/4-1/3 acre or so.
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