2011 Dreaming PART 2

The dreams described in the previous post continue here with a focus on the house

Verandah

We have always intended building an undercover area on to the front of the house where we can store boots, coats and umbrellas and enjoy a morning coffee or afternoon glass of wine when the weather is conducive. We have chewed over many different possibilities, and decided on an open sided verandah area that is roofed over with materials that let enough light in, without it getting too hot in mid-summer. This construction will extend around the side of the house and also provide space for the steam engine, boiler, heat exchange tank etc. This area will also have a small kitchen garden and an outside cooking area for those very hot spells we sometimes get in summer. We may even explore the idea of a wood fired pizza oven!



Our rough model of the shape of our verandah

One reason why our projects take so long, is we spend a lot of time mulling over different possibilities. It has taken us around 2 years to come up with the final concept. One of our problems was to come up with a design that fulfils all the functions we have in mind and at the same time fits in aesthetically with the house. This latter point is quite complex because where the verandah adjoins the building there are 4 different roof levels, 3 different wall corners and 2 different levels on the ground. Our solution is a bit complex so to make sure in our minds that it would work we constructed a rough real sized model. The model gave us the confidence to take the next step- which is to start getting quotes for the job.

The house

We moved into the house in 2001, so it really is time to finish off the sanding and staining of exposed timber beams and ceilings, sealing windows and rendering the mud brick walls. This will be our first project for the year. Hopefully we will report on our progress in a month or two.

Obviously we will not get every one of these projects completed by the end of the year (in fact we may not even get them all started). However we will be working on them as time and finances allow. By doing many of them concurrently we can maximise the use of machinery whilst it is here. Sometimes the hardest part is just making a start, and in a way, putting down our intentions in writing is the very first part of that. Anyway, it will be very interesting to see how far we get by this time next year.