forum ideas?

[robgil]

how about a members gallery? or a work in progress section?
a work in progress section would be a good way for people to follow jobs being done by other members and perhaps pick up on new skills etc in the process.
the work in progress doesnt have to be a full restoration , hanging a door perhaps or changing a roof slate.
it would also be a great way for the more experienced among us to comment and advise on works as they take place which would be very helpful to all.
what do you guys think?
the gallery doesn't have to be hosted here , we could use photobucket or a similar hosting site.

 

[Penners]

how about a members gallery?

Do you mean portrait photographs? All mine have a number hanging around my neck - would that matter?

 

[lou]

I like that idea. I can't get enough of other people's progress and successes. Ours is taking SO long, it would be very motivating to see the products of all the hard work it takes - and 'a thousand pictures..' etc. Someone suggested I put mine on Picasa - the google site, but I think you have to invite people to share them there. Would be good to have them all in one place

 

[Moo]

I think it would be a good idea for another reason, too.
In the past people like Jon Maine have posted inspiring pictures of work in progress, but I really don't have the patience to trawl back through five years-worth of threads to find them.

 

[JohnB]

I like that idea. I can't get enough of other people's progress and successes. Ours is taking SO long, it would be very motivating to see the products of all the hard work it takes - and 'a thousand pictures..' etc. Someone suggested I put mine on Picasa - the google site, but I think you have to invite people to share them there. Would be good to have them all in one place

I use Picasa to store all my photos on my computer, so it's easy to manage Picasa web albums. You can create web albums that are public or private, but you can share your private albums or photos in them with anyone you want, or put links on here. Here's an example to prove it

Sorry it's a new build barn, rather than a period property.

 

[philpjuk100]

Great carpentry and Staddle stones,wonderful!

 

[Penners]

it's a new build barn

D'you want to borrow a spirit level, John? :wink:

 

[Jill]

[
Sorry it's a new build barn, rather than a period property.

Which makes me wonder how many other users of this forum do actually have "Period Properties". I don't, just an old property that has been modernised badly in its time which we are in the process of making watertight, structurally safe and put some character back into it.

 

[philpjuk100]

D'you want to borrow a spirit level, John? :wink:

Did they use levels in days gone by? (The chap who built my house certainly didnt!) do they now?

 

[JohnB]

it's a new build barn

D'you want to borrow a spirit level, John? :wink:

I wasn't building it, but it was me leaning at a funny angle taking the photo .

 

[Feltwell]

Not a million miles from me:-

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/129423

 

[skier-hughes]

even closer to me and I've drunk in it a fair few times when I lived even closer to it

 

[JohnB]

even closer to me and I've drunk in it a fair few times when I lived even closer to it

Was it still leaning in the morning? :lol:

 

[skier-hughes]

it fell over a few times when we left it

 

[JoceAndChris]

[
Sorry it's a new build barn, rather than a period property.

Which makes me wonder how many other users of this forum do actually have "Period Properties". I don't, just an old property that has been modernised badly in its time which we are in the process of making watertight, structurally safe and put some character back into it.

Watertight and structurally safe is what all our period properties deserve ( and surely any old building is a period property, regardless of how it's been treated, or whether or not it's been listed? ) But I do think we need to be very careful of that phrase "put some character back into it" - sorry Jill. Character is so often a blanket term to mean make fashionable changes at the expense of the building in terms of its function, form, or authenticity. My house suffered at the hands of the sand blasters to strip the brick naked where it should have been left in its decent Georgian clothing, and prior to that suffered in the wake of the fashion for smooth and hide-all sins cement. I think we have no business to be deciding on the character of a building and "putting it back", particularly when typically it's a muddle headed version of the quaintly historical that never really existed.

 

[Feltwell]

Ohhh, that's a controversial one Joce. So I shouldn't be removing the 1970's skirting board from a room and replacing it with a copy of the original as used in the room next door? I shouldn't have patiently spent 3 years looking for fireplaces to match my one surviving original one?

I do know what you mean - exposing building fabric that was never meant to be seen - but ultimately it is your home and to expect no change is not realistic. I have stripped pine doors for example (done by a previous owner) and I like them, I know they would have been painted originally but I'm not going to paint them.

I'm lucky in that my house hasn't been messed about with too much, but my neighbours house - a little older than mine at 1850 - has been mercilessly hacked about over the years and has nothing original left, every room is a plain box with a plastic window and a 1960's hardboard door, even the stairs have been changed. He is in the middle of "putting back character" - wooden sashes, panelled doors, fireplaces etc - and if it was my house I think I'd be doing something similar.

The problem with inappropriate changes is that what is inappropriate is so subjective (apart from UPVC which is the work of the Devil! :evil: ).

 

[Flyfisher]

Always a difficult topic but I suspect we all know what Joce meant. If not, a swift half in a newly refurbished 'kit pub' full of 'character' might be worthwhile.

I suppose I could consider ripping out the completely-out-of-character Georgian sash windows from our originally-Tudor house but I somehow doubt I'd get LBC. :lol:

 

[Pford75]

I think the best changes are those which either do not touch the original fabric or which can be easily undone. When we purchased our home, 11 of the fireplaces were boarded up and many of the doors had hardboard panels fitted some time in the 70's. I have no problem with those changes, because they were easy to 'undo' and similarly if the next occupant wants flush doors, they can refit the hardboard we removed.

But I'm with Feltwell in some respects.....our porch is a 1930's aberration on a 1780 building. It's not even of good design, it's out of scale, cuts across the Georgian fanlight above the door etc. So we believe we are being true to the building by removing it.

Where I side with Joce is the installation of 'Georgian' cornicing (in rooms which never had it) or similar...but if (like Feltwell) changes are properly researched and consistent with the original design, then I'm fine with them

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh, it is a hard issue - and I'm not sure I even side with myself. I have considered removing original features, still am considering them, in order to take the house into a new butterfly phase. It can't really shine with the existing cornice, scullery, brick arches in the kitchen ( eating the space where a lovely housekeeper's cupboard, and wood burning stove, could go. )

I suppose I just have an aversion to the phrase "putting the character back in", the same as I despise the phrase " restored to former glory". Those phrases are arrogant, misleading, dishonest, dangerous. People should be very honest about their intentions and actions. "I have removed the 30s panelling in order to create a family bathroom",or, "I have knocked out a redundant game larder in order in order to fit heating and shelving" - there's an honesty to that- a recognition of letting go in order to make way for the future.

 

[Penners]

Features - gotta have features.

Our house is a classic case of "putting features back in" (features that, in fact, would never have been there in the first place). It's a simple, vernacular, red-brick Georgian cottage - originally two cottages. The previous owners obviously latched on to the term "Georgian" and decided that the house should have mouldings - lots of them.

So we're saddled with ornate cornices and picture rails in rooms only 7ft 6in high. The dining room has an enormous ceiling rose which hovers above the table like some massive flying saucer.

The mouldings etc. have been installed well, and quite frankly their removal is more work than we're prepared to undertake. So here we shall stay - in Georgianland.

But having said all that, we do love our little cottage.