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Post by sweetleaf on Sept 28, 2006 21:56:09 GMT
If I could design my own property I would have a house with an Atrium, solar panels, composting toilets, water purification system, and a vegetable /fruit garden.
In short an eco-house....any further suggestions for making my fantasy house even more perfect?
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Post by 4pygmies on Sept 28, 2006 23:17:12 GMT
Oooh, what fun! How about - a bore hole and windmill? A HUGE solar geodome with in built irrigation system, a rat and zap detection system, a strictly private beech wood with tree house and how about an underground soundproof music room? And come the revolution - a button to press which creates an impervious barrier around and above the whole lot....
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Post by sweetleaf on Sept 29, 2006 6:58:22 GMT
Morning 4P. lol Raise shields! v. star trek! love the geodome Idea,the Eden project would be great, but come the revolution it would be indefensible, being on low ground, your Ideal home sounds like a great place though.
Having given it some thought, wouldnt the impervious barrier ruin the windmill idea?
We could have a back-up system though, a solar powered water pump, the rat zap system would suit me too, as long as it could tell the difference between a rat and a cat....
The underground music room is good too, lets keep our noise pollution to ourselves eh? it could be vaulted so that perfect acoustics could be achieved brilliant idea!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2006 7:50:25 GMT
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Post by sweetleaf on Sept 29, 2006 8:20:30 GMT
Willow, are they still there? I read through and the history ends in 2005, I hope the bureaucrats didn't win!
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Post by Plocket on Sept 29, 2006 8:23:16 GMT
Oh what a fantastic idea! I often dream about fabulous houses that I've designed - I could sketch them out even now - but never such an eco-friendly one. It sounds blissful, but in the real world I'd be content to have a windmill or solar panels, and composting toilets - I'd need a much bigger garden though!!!
That round house is just beautiful. I wonder what happened this year?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2006 10:45:50 GMT
Oooh, a cob house with a 'green' roof, somewhere in Co. Wexford, with a couple of acres, on the outskirts of a town with easy access to Dublin. A stream running through it; an orchard where I could grow the old fruit varieties you can no longer get, bramble hedging so we could pick our own blackberries, next door to a farm where I could get regular supplies of manure. At the bottom of the garden, a bower made of growing willows where I could read and not be disturbed ... a huge vegetable plot ... inside the house would be made of reclaimed materials, lots of old wood and brick, and the aspect would be designed so that solar panelling could work efficiently. Huge kitchen opening into a conservatory which is actually used for plants (rather than for lots of high-end furniture with a lonely plant somewhere in the corner) ... sigh ...
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Post by sweetleaf on Sept 29, 2006 10:57:33 GMT
Canarycreeper, it sounds idyllic, the stream and the blackberries, yum and the conservatory with lots of plants...my atrium is to catch the sun and pipe the warm air around the house, and would help to keep the air healthy, but a conservatory could be used similarly ;D
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2006 11:19:26 GMT
... Ah, one day ...
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2006 11:48:55 GMT
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Post by sweetleaf on Sept 29, 2006 12:06:23 GMT
Thanks Willow, I read through, and what happened is pretty unclear, oh well!
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Post by Cheerypeabrain on Sept 29, 2006 13:34:13 GMT
We've got an Eco-House and garden here in Leicester, every year they advertise for a volunter to live in it for 12 months..lucky blighters.
I might have a waterwheel for power...maybe a wind turbine (apparently one can buy them at B&Q now) at the BOTTOM of my very big garden...solar panels for hot water.....
OR I'd like to have the house built into a hill so that we had thick earthen walls....bit like a Hobbit Hole....I haven't got a clue how practical it would be.
I'd also have a big..long glasshouse (or polycarbon-house) for growing tender crops, and hopefully 2 cows so that I could make my own butter and cheese...ooh so I'd need a cowshed, and a dairy.....and several servants.....and a lottery win. ''Let them eat cake''...who said that?
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Post by sweetleaf on Sept 29, 2006 13:44:39 GMT
CPB I dont think eco-house and servants belong in the same.. er, paragraph! but the polytunnel sounds good! ;D Cows might be useful, too if you had the space and could keep them out of the veg patch  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2006 14:04:35 GMT
CPB Here you are House in Wales by Future Systems <But if the numbers are not especially impressive, the projects certainly are. Aside from Underhill and Mole Manor, there has recently been a great deal of media interest in Labour MP Bob Marshall Andrews' underground house in Pembrokeshire, designed by cutting-edge architects Future Systems. Nicknamed the tellytubby house by locals, this is built into an 80ft cliff with stunning views over St Bride's Bay. But like Mole Manor, it is barely visible beneath its grass covered mound and blends perfectly with the surrounding landscape. This, indeed, is one of the great merits of the technique. The term 'low impact' has a literal connotation here, since earth-sheltered homes, especially those constructed using the atrium method (a sunken house with a central covered courtyard), often appear as a little more than a grassy knoll with perhaps a glass dome interrupting the greenery. Quarmby even considered introducing a flock of sheep to graze on the roof of Underhill. > For the full story and pictures see this website, its amazing and I would love the one in Wales with such a wonderful view. www.findaproperty.com/DisplayStory.aspx?storyid=0620&edid=00&salerent=0 Wx |
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Post by Cheerypeabrain on Sept 29, 2006 15:03:57 GMT
oh that would do nicely.... ;D I only put in the servants because I realised that I was adding so many outbuildings, stock and high maintenance structures like wind-turbines and water wheels that I wouldn't be able to cope on my own! Mind you OH is VERY handy...but he's getting on a bit...(like me) here...maybe I could employ some of them there unemployable people from Dee's Mrs Angry political thread....I'm sure that a few weeks working on my new-age-vegetarian-eco-farm would do them the world of good.  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2006 20:17:30 GMT
Wouldn't it just.
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Post by sweetleaf on Oct 2, 2006 10:04:24 GMT
All I need now is the money to move, and the motivation for OH of course, as he`d have to get rid of all (or most) of his motorbikes, which currently fill a double garage! Dream on............  |
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Post by sleepysunday on Oct 2, 2006 10:26:05 GMT
We could all sell up, and purchase one massive eco-friendly property with huge grounds for our gardening pursuits. It would have a sedum roof like that brewery on the news this morning, and solar/wind power, a massive compost area that we could all pee into, animals (a few cows, sheep, chickens, etc), a comfrey patch. We could grow all our own food. A few cats of course. Somewhere where we could have our own water supply, fresh from the mountains...
Any more to this wish list?
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Post by sweetleaf on Oct 2, 2006 10:38:11 GMT
As long as you milk the cows, sleepy, they are too big and scarey for me  |
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Post by sweetleaf on Oct 2, 2006 10:58:42 GMT
Actually we had a thread on the dark side about that, but we couldnt decide where to build our commune, CC did some research and it was decided we needed an obscene amount of money to buy a property big enough.
We decided to storm the Eden Project as I remember, and start our own republic!
4P wanted her own dome..................
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Post by sleepysunday on Oct 2, 2006 11:02:36 GMT
Ali could milk the cows. If she had to get up at 5am she might get to bed earlier.
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Post by sweetleaf on Oct 2, 2006 16:39:46 GMT
If we only had goats, 4P wouldnt mind, Im sure, only I dont know if it tastes nice in your tea....
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Post by 4pygmies on Oct 2, 2006 18:12:03 GMT
Oo, what's this then? Goats - give me an udder and I'll milk it..........and it was only a tiny tiny dome....ok, give me a hut and a little wall and I'll have a herb patch - I'm not proud.
Goats milk is GLORIOUS warm straight from the goat - nutty, nutritious and fat free.
I still fancy taking over Heligan. Then we could change all the road signs and it would be lost again......
I should just point out, in the interests of truthfulness, that life is too short to milk a pygmy goat. Can we have a couple of Jersey cows? And some Golden Guernsey goats? (Lovely milk...). And we must be a republic. And all females with PMT/ girly pains/ hormonal fluxes at any age are FORCED to retire to a silken bedroom with a library, TV and HUGE tin of chocolate hobnobs for a week (or two). The males are allowed one big garage with a pool table/ wrecked motor bike/ aging sports car which they can retire to for 3 hours per week.
Apart from that we grow, make, compost, recycle everything we need.
After that I'm easy......well, you know what I mean. Too old for that sort of thing...!
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Post by Cheerypeabrain on Oct 2, 2006 18:22:41 GMT
Are we going to live in teepees or what? I'm all for storming Heligan...they have an excellent farm as well don't they? We can't go ruining the vistas with horrible buildings so maybe we'll have to have a hobbit hole each after all ;D I don't mind milking the cows and collecting eggs...but can we be vegetarians? I don't think I could look after an animal and then kill it and eat it...ew ew ew ..  |
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Post by sweetleaf on Oct 2, 2006 19:55:21 GMT
suits me as long as I can eat fish, no-one can be sentimental about a haddock can they?
Hobbit holes are good too, as long as they are traditionally stocked... with wine.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2006 13:34:52 GMT
4P, the silken bedroom sounds just the ticket ... <visions of eating goat cheese from our own goats while reclining on cushions smiley> ... cheers ...
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Post by 4pygmies on Oct 3, 2006 21:19:44 GMT
Is silk eco friendly? Or are the worms forced into it to pay for their childrens schooling? Dunno..I've tried making goats cheese - erm, don't think I have the knack - it looked like a pile of cheesy vomit....and I'm NOT living in a teepee unless I have a proper bed! And how do you keep nasty ratty things out of a tent? We could eat rat kebabs over an open fire though.....
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2006 11:57:08 GMT
Well 4P, actually the nicest goat's cheese does look like <cheesy vomit> ... and we could organise the silk worms into a worm cooperative! Start a whole new movement with a logo just like Fair Trade ... <this garment was made by happy worm> ... oh dear, getting silly now ... cheers ...
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Post by sweetleaf on Oct 4, 2006 23:05:50 GMT
4P the poor worms DIE when they are ripped out of the cocoons that they have worked so hard on, and I believe they are processed into cattle feed or something, cant we have some really soft cotton ..........and the hobnobs. I dont fancy the cheesy vomit either  and the rat kebabs are very Ankh Morpork arent they? |
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Post by 4pygmies on Oct 5, 2006 5:37:22 GMT
No! Poor little worms - obviously this is the REAL reason I don't have silk! We'll have to have orgasmic cotton and support a small community in India instead. It's complicated trying to be ethical innit? Someone will be telling me next that Haddocks are as intelligent as men in pubs......or p'raps someone can invent a method of weaving couch grass into a fine material and we can all wear grass pants, they can be eaten by our Jersey cows when knackered and we'll all end up drinking our own underwear in our dandelion root coffee!
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and the rat kebabs are very Ankh Morpork arent they?