Valentine's Day In The Bedroom

Long-suffering readers of The Hedge are well aware that this 70's house is full of weird architectural foibles. Beams traverse every single room & when we moved in 8 years ago, they were still in their rough, raw, murky brown, untouched state. They aren't just one big piece of timber, which quite frankly would have been a dream to deal with. Oh no, they all are 2 big individual timber planks bolted together & that creates one major problem, they are open at the bottom, just as these images from the main bedroom illustrate.

This has given every spider & bug within a 20 km radius an open invitation to set up home & we are fed up. MOTH's given up counting how many times something furry has dropped into his open mouth in the middle of the night during one of his snoring sessions. So 7 weeks ago, after a particularly nasty incident, he had a hissy fit & decided to seal up the bottom of them all, starting in the main bedroom. Uttering those famous last words, 'I'll crack on Mills & get it done over the weekend', 7 weeks later he's just finished. 

  

And this is the reason the job has gone on so long......these windows. Again a foible of an architect smoking something not bought in a flip packet over the counter we reckon. Every bedroom & the family room upstairs has this weird arrangement, a bank of 3 windows which pull out for airflow. All well & good you may say, except over the years the timber has become water damaged, swollen & rotten & impossible to open. There is a big window at the bottom that is easy to open & lets in the cool breezes, so we could really do without the top 3.

And just like the open-bottomed beams, they have become an absolute haven for the extended family of the spiders & bugs already warm & cosy. So just as he was finishing, he came hurtling out of the bedroom waving his arms. 'That's it, I'm gonna shove a big piece of plasterboard over those windows & don't say a thing Mills!' 

And so he did, during the longest, most intense heatwave we've had in 120 years! 

The beams are so much better, these are the ones directly over the bed head. No more screeching MOTH in the middle of the night.

The bit over the curtains is much improved, good job mate. 

 Enclosed beams = happy Millie.

While he was on a roll, he also ripped out the glass window over the door leading to the dodgy en-suite (that baby's the next project!!) & replaced it. A fiddly project, but well worth the effort. Ta mate.    

And on a really exciting note to end, The Hedge has another engagement. Son #3 popped the question to his girl while on a trip to the Grand Canyon on Thursday & she said yes! So it looks like we'll have 2 weddings this year, yippee!! It's the weekend dear Hedgies, so go enjoy. xx

Earth To Millie?

Architect Robert Joyce created this exquisite masterpiece in the U.S. for clients who love all things French. It was conceived as a provincial farm village with the cluster of simple farm buildings housing various parts of the family's life. Sometime today you've got to find a few minutes to visit Joyce's website here - go to the Country Houses page & open the magical world of the Provincial Village house. There are 67 large, glorious images of this project & if my reaction yesterday to this visual treat is anything to go by, you'll be absolutely speechless. I'd love to hear your thoughts after you've come back to earth!

Image: Robert Joyce Architecture

2.5 Very Scary Words

Asbestos lean-to! Many of us have squared up to them during our renovation experiences & even MOTH puts his hands up in defeat & calls in the experts when demolishing one of these nightmares. Sam Crawford Architects got hold of this little beauty in Sydney for their clients & did a fab reno. The original house, a modest inter-war bungalow typical of the Waverley area was worth retaining. They removed the asbestos rear lean-to and created a new kitchen and living area which opens onto a covered outdoor entertaining space and added a plunge pool in the back yard for good measure. They retained the simple original facade of the house but it's now viewed through a translucent screen.....clever stuff!

It's no McMansion but I really like the vibe it puts out. A real little pocket rocket.

Images: Sam Crawford

SFC Love!

MOTH & I don't agree on too many things (politics, religion, footy team & exterior house colours for a start!), but one thing we are unanimous about is that the Single Fronted Cottage (SFC) is our very favourite architectural style! SFC's abound particuarly in Adelaide & Melbourne, with sandstone & brick being the favoured building material in Adelaide, with Melbourne doing the timber thing, due to plentiful supplies in country Victoria in the 1880's & beyond.

The majority of SFC's were built in the Victorian period (1837-1901), with a small number still being constructed during the Edwardian era (1901-1910). Long & skinny, with all the rooms leading off one side of a lengthy central hallway, the original floorplan was nearly always the same. The front room looking out onto the street was the parlour, then through an archway directly beind the parlour was the main bedroom, with a kitchen at the rear. A semi-detached lean-too often contained the washhouse (laundry) & sometimes a second small bedroom.

Often referred to as 'Workman's Cottages', these small houses were occupied by working & lower middle-class families & are clustered in the suburbs bordering the inner-city such as Parkside, Norwood & Eastwood in Adelaide & Fitzoy, Carlton & Brunswick in Melbourne. Generally, the majority of the cottages didn't have a driveway. The home owners of the time would not have the financial means to own a horse & buggy, so didn't require a way to access stables at the rear of their property.

However, most have rear access from a small laneway running at the back of the house. This existed for the Night Cart driver, who needed to access the outhouse (loo) near the back fence to empty the cisterns.

Over the years, the layout of the SFC's have changed dramatically.

The kitchen & old lean-to's have been demolished & extensions built to house a new kitchen, family room. bathroom, study etc.

This has meant that the amount of rear garden has diminished, so careful planning of the available outdoor space has occurred.

While some SFC's have a verandah & front door almost bordering the street, others have quite a set back, allowing for a substantial front garden area.

With the advent of informal living areas in new rear extensions, in nearly all cases, the master bedroom is now occupying what would have been the front parlour.

This is a wonderful example the typical configuration of the SFC, with a long hallway leading from the front door. Where the step down occurs would have probably been where the previous back door had stood.

Most of where this new extension is built would have originally been rear garden space.

So enjoy the SFC's on this tribute post. Lots of lovely ideas, clever design & use of available space makes my heart skip a beat. Not grandiose, the SFC is just perfect for MOTH & myself at this time of our lives.

Our goal is to live in one prior to our very last address on this earth - The Twilight Home For The Terminally Bewildered Renovator!