House 'themes'; cool or naf?
Discussion
I don't mean in a Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen animal print kind of way. I live in an old school and have few old school chairs in the hallway, but am often drawn to buy old school tat on Ebay. With the exception of the chairs I have resisted so far but every time I see an old school bell, desk, old books, rulers , science kit or masters chair I can feel the urge.
So if you have an old church, shop, pub, mill, miners cottage, fisherman's cottage, coastguards house, vicarage or house with a 'connection' of some sort is it cool to have a few choice bits and pieces around which reflect that, or is it just NAF, NAF, NAF (or whatever the cool word for NAF is)?
Quick anwsers required as my finger is hovering over the 'bid now' button.
Nice find B&B - I like old stuff like that.
Maybe I should be turn our house into some kind of themed abode, I've always fancied a giant shark crashed into the roof. My last suggestion didn't go down too well with the Mrs. - I had the splendid idea of tiling the shed with flattened out beer cans of various sorts and growing hops around it, we have a golden hop in the garden but the withering look I got for the beer cans idea still makes me limp when the winds in the wrong direction.
Maybe I should be turn our house into some kind of themed abode, I've always fancied a giant shark crashed into the roof. My last suggestion didn't go down too well with the Mrs. - I had the splendid idea of tiling the shed with flattened out beer cans of various sorts and growing hops around it, we have a golden hop in the garden but the withering look I got for the beer cans idea still makes me limp when the winds in the wrong direction.
Brown and Boris said:
Now I just need to tell the OH we will have 40Kg of bell hanging 12 feet above her head in the porch, and find a way of getting it up there and making it stay put.
I was tempted to mount it on the gable wall or build a bell tower for it.
Just make sure you hang it where noone can ring it. My father has a huge ship's bell in his porch, the joke of people using it instead of the door bell tends wear thin after a while.I was tempted to mount it on the gable wall or build a bell tower for it.
Agree with the others that as long as you don't overdo it an end up with something akin to a themed pub, a few well chosen pieces can really enhance a character property.
Daisy Duke said:
Brown and Boris said:
Now I just need to tell the OH we will have 40Kg of bell hanging 12 feet above her head in the porch, and find a way of getting it up there and making it stay put.
I was tempted to mount it on the gable wall or build a bell tower for it.
Just make sure you hang it where noone can ring it. My father has a huge ship's bell in his porch, the joke of people using it instead of the door bell tends wear thin after a while.I was tempted to mount it on the gable wall or build a bell tower for it.
Agree with the others that as long as you don't overdo it an end up with something akin to a themed pub, a few well chosen pieces can really enhance a character property.
I would perhaps build the "tower" bit on an existing gable end. The thing is though, you'd need planning permission, and I can just imagine all the whingers and whiners complaining about how there's going to be this bell ringing all the hours of the day and night. You might need to build into your application that it would only be rung at specific times / occasions.
Zad said:
I would perhaps build the "tower" bit on an existing gable end. The thing is though, you'd need planning permission, and I can just imagine all the whingers and whiners complaining about how there's going to be this bell ringing all the hours of the day and night. You might need to build into your application that it would only be rung at specific times / occasions.
Bell arrived yesterday, fantastic!OH not best pleased about having 40KG of bronze and old iron above our heads in the porch but has agreed it can go outside. The gable is the obvious place but that is lime mortar rendered and I really don't want to be trying to sink rawl bolts into that for fear of cracking and letting water get behind it.
There is a spot high up on the wall where it would fit but it is off to one side so may not look right. The alternative is that we were planning to have the large roof light ion the porch replaced, we could have one built to house the bell
We are off to look at how another old school who we know has a bell have done it.
I think we will probably need conservation area consent but if they think it is the original bell (who are they to say it isn't?) it would be difficult to say No to, if we are returning it to how it should be??
The bell is counter weighted so won't ring endlessly in the wind. The pulley wheel pulls it ro ring and the weight takes it back to the start position. It sounds great (clear as a bell)
Back to thinking it could go inside if I can get the fixings right to be safe. The frame weighs about 17kg and is held with 4 bolts into the wall, and with two support struts which alos bolt in the wall If I use decent rawl blts it should hold, although the walls are sandstone which is the key worry.
I was just thinking about belt and braces when I hang the 25-30kg bell in the frame, perhaps by putting an extra chain or cable through the top of the bell, and the frame and bolting them separately into the wall so that if the combined weight of frame and bell pulls out the rawl bolts there is still an unstressed bolt stopping the lot from falling. The idea of 40 odd kilos of bell and frame falling the 12 feet down on to the dogs or us doesn't bear thinking of.
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