Der Schuh des Manitu

I love Bully movies. I recently saw 'Der Schuh des Manitu' again and now I'm going to dig up '(T)raumschiff Surprise' and watch it again for the umpteenth time... I really need the laughs. Here's a little taste of it.

Two for the road...

I tend to think about these songs a lot when I'm 'on the road'...

Apartment life...

I love this song and the video is just awesome. I remember the first time I saw it, it took me a long minute to figure out what was off. And then the little lightbulb went on... It's a very interesting concept. This is 'Protection' by Massive Attack featuring Everything But The Girl. Enjoy!

Our house in the middle of our street...

I always think of this song when I think of houses. It's madness, I know...

The Cape Cod house

I've noticed that the information about the Cape Cod houses is a bit spread about, so I'm going to tidy it up a bit. Here's what I've learned about these houses:

They were built in the New England area from the 17th century onwards. That's New Egland in red and the little hook is Cape Cod.

The first houses were small and later became known as 'half Capes'. As families grew, the houses grew, and two other types of Cape Cods came to be: the 'three quarter Cape', and the 'full Cape'. They basically looked like these:

Half Cape                     Three quarter Cape                  Full Cape

You can see some actual examples of these houses here:

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ma0049/

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ma0057/

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/ma0042

As for the inside, the layout was basically a hall and parlour in the first one, plus a keeping room and storage rooms in the other ones. Upstairs you had one or two bedrooms, plus storage in the bigger ones. Each room had a fireplace, which was connected to a large central chimney. Along with the low ceilings, this helped keep the house warm during the cold winters. In the full Capes the staircase was right in front of the door, nestled between the fireplaces. The walls had wainscoting, because of the humidity, and were painted white, and the trimming of doors, cabinets and fireplaces was painted in colours reflecting the Cape seaside: blues for the ocean, beges for the sand and reds for the sunsets. The floors were hardwood, except in the kitchen, where tile was used.

Some examples of how Cape Cod interiors could be

On the outside, Cape Cods had steep roofs to avoid snow acumulation, the walls where clad in clapboard or shingles, unpainted, and the windows had shutters to protect them from the stormy winds. They normally faced south to take advantage of the sunlight and warmth in the winter.

An original 'half Cape'

Hang on...how does that work?

Browsing through pictures of original Cape Cod and Nantucket houses, I started wondering about something.

Original Cape Cod house

So, theres's a big chimney in the middle of the house, right? But there's at least three fireplaces AND the stairs are inbetween two of those fireplaces and apparently leading to the third. How does that work? Since I couldn't just hop to the U.S. for a bit and take a look, I did the next best thing and rumaged through the Library of Congress archives. Here's an example of a house showing one of the sides:

Front room                       Kitchen          

Here's a cross-section of the same house showing the stairs and the chimney flues:

Front room                       Kitchen          

And so I had my 'Oh! So that's how!' moment. The flues are tilted at the same angle of the stairs. Wondering why I got to all this trouble for a silly little thing like this? Because it bugged me, and when something bugs me, I have to somehow figure it out or I'll obsess about it for weeks. Yes, weeks... I'm weird, I know.

Since I showed a floor plan of an original full Cape on my last post, I thought I might as well show a more modern floor plan for this type of house:

This one is from the old Sears Homes catalogue and they were popular during the 1930s, all the way to the 50s. A man named William Levitt even planned a whole community with Cape Cod style houses. It's called Levittown and it's in Nassau County, New York.

Levittown, New York

Meanwhile, back on Nantucket...

So, to go on with this dream of having a little beach cottage in Sconset, I've been wondering what kind of house I would prefer. I like the look of the cottages, that's a given, but you could have a modern cottage that LOOKS like it's been there forever, or a old cottage that HAS been there forever. A little research was in order...

Most Nantucket cottages seem to be like the traditional Cape Cod houses when it comes to architecture, although the fishing shacks appear to be more haphazard in their construction. Cape Cods originated in the New England region, back in the 17th century and basically look like this:

Half Cape                    Three Quarter Cape                    Full Cape

There are three types of Cape Cods: the half Cape, which apparently is how these houses were originally, the three quarter Cape, and the full Cape, which are basically half Capes extended to fit more people. As for the inside, a full Cape looks like this, basically:

The front rooms are the parlour (1), which back then was called the Hall, and the good bedroom (2), which back then was called the Parlour. In the back was the keeping room (3), which is a kitchen, a couple of smaller bedrooms (4) for the children or servants, and storage (5). In the attic, you could have more bedrooms and storage space. In the middle of the house is a massive chimney with several fireplaces and the staircase is between fireplaces and right in front of the door. I must say, I'm not particularly keen on this little detail. It makes me wonder about the Feng Shui...

Modern Cape Cods look like the original ones, but inside they are definitely modern houses, with layouts more sympathetic to our daily needs.

I admit, I like old houses. They have a history and character, and that's hard to include in a new house. It would need a couple of centuries to have that. That said. I think I would go for an original cottage. I could definitely work with that floor plan...