Everythingape

Am I a low person for wanting to chuck a reinforced-window-breaking-brick through those windows, pick everything up on a long stick and run off laughing like a madman? What's that blue Zenith to the left? It's gorgeous! ..and only $10,500 or so..

I don't know if "crazy" Bellamy cried.. but he sure wanted to punch something.. Maybe he didn't know how sensitive us Norwegians are about our karaoke..

Battlefield 2, the original. I don't play much, and in this I get to kill and annoy other real people. BTW: I play against a guy called Pugwash a lot, so I tried to ask him if he was our RWG Pugwash.. He kept going "FU*K off, fag!" back at me. ..So I just assumed it was him.

You're new.. I'm scared.

Pho.. if done right, you'll get a good charge!

Don't limit yourself.. ..it's just a watch!

..meanwhile, back at the farm..

JDKNO, too late for that I am afraid.. I don't really have a say in how it's supported.. The people selling me the house has to follow their rules and regulations. Getting them to calculate strength without any load bearing walls would be nigh on impossible. (I understand, of course, that steel beams would be as strong and stronger than load bearing brick walls) Norwegian building code is very strict, based somewhat on tradition, and I think it would be quite a hassle to get approval for anything out of the norm. I already had to fight them to avoid having a supporting column in my garage! They can be very anal. Just look at the two short supporting wall soles we've had to make on the back wall.. A total waste of material and space now we have the trench wall taking off any load coming from behind.. They refused to eliminate them.. -shrug- And under the master bathroom we have to have a beam spanning the supporting walls on the ground floor, just because we wanted the tub up there. The big column you saw going through the house is the chimney. It's an eyesore placed like that, and I am trying to work out a way to hide it inside a corner. The contractor approved the changes I made to the garage and the bathroom angle you pointed out. But I still had to make an air lock between the garage and the hallway. So that's an extra wall and door next to the stairs, but I am making that into a wardrobe, so it's no big deal.

A photo showing the trench behind the house, quite typical for norwegian houses that are dug into a slope. You're pretty much guaranteed not to have a raw or moisty ground floor now or in the future. Takes some extra work, but it's well worth it, in my opinion. A photo taken today after we took the formwork off the sole foundation. It's nice to see a litt progress every day, as this is basically what I am doing on the house myself. After we're done with the foundation and the block walls, I'm letting the carpenters move in (not the musical family) and do their stuff. After that, I'm not doing much before we start lining and decorating the interior. Edit: Added a pic before pouring the concrete.

Thanks three kinds of bunch, Eddhead

See? I KNEW there was a joke in there, Nanuq! I love you guys. BTW, I loved that map too.. And I love people with self irony

Ok, I tried to see the joke.. I couldn't. (this might be 'cause of the language barrier and my online english-norse translator acting up) So I'm now going to explain it in a way that won't seem lecturing (some of you might want to work on this btw): "I thought those were the loop and press-on button thingies for their goggle straps.." If I offended you Nanuq, or any of the others here on the board, I apologize. -TG-

OMG Cornerstoned! A norwegian's dream house!! (There actually ARE doorbells that play Take on me) @ JTB, good thing you cut down on those! Warning on the pack: STURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING; THESE THINGS WILL GILL YOU! Thanks for the good wishes, mates

I am also a big fan of Patrick O'Brian's books. I might start reading them for a second time. I was shocked that they cast that hobbit Billy Boyd as Barret Bonden, Aubrey's coxswain.. Reading the books I imagined him as a larger, tougher looking and more uneducated (but deck-wise) man. But then again, the movie took a lot of liberties with the other characters as well.. Did you ever read the last book, the unfinished journey?

OOH! A birthday band! Thanks a lot Kenbergie! ..I'm gaining on ya!

The floor heating is all the rage in Norway now, you can't really build a modern home and base your heating on wood and straight electric heaters, as the juice is getting more and more expensive now. Independent sources state savings as high as $1200-1500 a year compared to panel heaters. I do have free birchwood to my heart(h)'s desire though. The shower units go for around $2500 and up, depending on how much you want it to do. But the telephone/mp3/cd/fibre optic lighting isn't really what I am after. It's just a nice tub for relaxing, and letting the kid have a dip with her ducks. This particular one is $2800. I suspect they are alot cheaper over your end. Here you can see some details if you click the pics. http://www.dittnyebad.no/index.php?action=...amp;prevstart=0

Damn.. WHERE WERE YOU 3 MONTHS AGO?! I've been staring at the drawings for so long I've gone blind. ..stuck in a rut, you know? I appreciate your opinion, so don't take it as a rejection when I stick to most of my plans. I really like the look of the den when the hallway is gone, and I like the concept of a "great room", but I am very much for having the hallways in that area. I do like borders and divisions in a house, even though you are completely correct about them being mostly wasted space. I could never have a direct-access toilet from a living room like that. An option would be to have an angle in the room, allowing the private area to be distributed from a small hallway. Another thing about the hallways is that I want rooms to be accessible without having to go through another. That also applies to the movie room on the ground floor. It's meant to be a TV/fireplace/guy-room, and thus people walking through it to access the rooms in the back would ruin it. Same goes for the den upstairs. This being said, I have to say the hallways and how to access rooms have been one of the most difficult things I have done with this. Especially downstairs. We have to have some concrete supporting walls on the back wall, and this ruined my initial plan of having a hallway running the length of the house along the back wall. Some things are too late to change, but I'll talk some of this over with my contractor tomorrow. The smaller bedroom upstairs is intented as a baby room really, with the kids moving downstairs when they get older. (I have one child, 2 years old so far) But we've thought about moving the door to where you moved it opening outwards from the niche. Don't look too much at how the interior in the rooms is set up, as it's just fill to avoid naked drawings. My girlfriend really likes how you set the bathroom up, this will be considered! The tub will be a corner 140x140cm combined bubble bath and steam shower cabinet, thinking about making a tiled frame for the tub to blend it to the wall tiles: The window on the wall is stretched to 120cm and centered on the wall. Under the deck we'll have a workshop/woodworking/whatever room so we're putting in a door in the garage to access this. We're also building a large 2-car garage with a loft next to the house. Today I had a meeting with the plummers about fitting water-borne floor heating. Saves a lot over a few years, as heating around these parts is needed 8-9 months of the year. (also a reason for having separated rooms) The finished drawings will have quite a few changes to them, but I'll scan them or see if I can get a PDF to upload. Thanks! -TG-

@Jdkno Thanks for looking at the plans in detail It's actually interesting that you should mention the things you do, as most of the issues have been discussed and dealt with by myself and my architect! The plans I've posted in my first post are quite preliminary, and basically my sketches. I should post updated drawings, many of the professionals I've shown these sketches to have pointed out the same things you do. If I understand you correctly: The hallway you come up into when you come up the stairs is there to connect the rooms, so to speak. Or divide them, depending on how you see it. I think it would be weird to come directly up the stairs to a door. (This could be tradition and habit speaking). The hallway perpendicular to this is there to separate our bedrooms and main bathroom from the rest of the house. There's an arch drawn in those plans, but it's supposed to be a door. This is to create some privacy (and quiet for the kid) when entertaining guests. The L-shaped room behind the stairs is the laundry room, where we'll have a deep freezer, washing machine, tumble dryer and so on. It'll also contain a rough kitchen for preparing fish for cooking or whatever you want to keep out of the kitchen. It'll also be like a "wet" wardrobe. for when you come in from the snow or rain. The disp.rooms: These are my own projects, the hired hands will leave them with a smooth concrete floor and ceiling, and I'll start dividing them, and finishing them off myself when I am ashore from work and have 5 weeks off. I'm quite handy, me. The double porch doors have been moved to the center of the wall, just like you suggested. The sliding doors dividing the kitchen and dining room are traded for 180degree-opening double french doors. The sliding door from the kitchen to the laundry room is replaced by a normal door, and moved a bit closer to the center of the house on the wall. The garage is cut down to one, leaving a wooden deck on columns above the outer part. The "sport" storage is removed completely, as the garage would be too short to be useful. So the door now directly enters the hallway. I've added a door on the other wall of the garage to enter what will be a storage/workshop under the deck outside. From there I'll have access to the enclosed "airing-trench"-space behind the house foundation. I didn't think of straightening the angled wall out in the bathroom though! Thanks! Great idea. The toilet in the main bathroom will be moved, haven't decided where yet, we'll have to see how big a tub we can fit! The kitchen has a little window on the wall in question in these plans, but in the new one it's a lot bigger, so now it has two windows. The chimney has been moved a bit, and adjusted to a single stack type. It's funny how small it all looks now we've started the base. They say it's normal, that it gets bigger when you get the walls up. I hope it's true. I've opted for more rooms instead of very big rooms I think. Anyway, thanks a lot for your suggestions. Feel free to make more.

Well then! Last week we finally started building. The lot preparation started in mid january, ..a bit more work than we expected. Now we've set up the sole for the foundation, built a few walls around it and levelled it out pretty well. Hoping to start the basement walls in 10 days or so, hoping for dry weather and not too much frost. Not being used to this kind of labour, I spend nights aching and respecting builders a bit more. Anyway, I'll post a few pics when we've done something worth looking at, but for now, here's a pic of the view from my lot. The power lines and pole get taken down in a few weeks. It's expensive, but I know it'd drive me crazy to have them clutter up my sunset view.

I ain't down with ghetto, so I'll just say: Congratumalations!

Would that be the "JETMID" shirt? Sorry for your work that didn't "pay" off Pho, I know the feeling all too well.

A beautiful watch! The movement looks fantastic. Wear it well.

Ape stats: 186cm, 90kg, 43cm neck, 18,7cm left wrist. The right one is a bit larger..

Resist a toot?