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#17107 01/27/01 02:59 AM
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Carpal Tunnel
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The difference between a pergola and trellis: Trellis is lattice that is often leaned up against a wall so plants can climb up. A pergola is often built with trellis but is a free standing structure. People often make vines grow on it so that the leaves create shade but do not stop the breeze from wafting through. You’ll see several on this page… http://www.lifestylepine.com.au/pergolas.htm

Now I would never ask my guests to step into the foyer as that is our word for fireplace (and I usually like the people that pop by )

Does no-one have a guest room anymore?

In my new home I will have a book repository [extremely excited emoticon here]. I can call it a library in English but not in French because a librarie is a place where books are sold. A bibliotheque is both a shelving unit to store books and a building where you go to borrow books.

ground floor is rarely used when speaking of residential houses. Laws require that all houses have at least a six-foot crawl space/basement to get below freezing line in ground. Homes are never at the ground level. When I go down to U.S. hotter states it always seems so odd to see houses sitting on the ground with people just walking in without going up some steps.

When we buy or rent a house we speak in terms of apartments, as in “the house has seven apartments” to mean it has seven rooms for assorted purposes. The bathrooms/toilets are spoken of in terms of half, if there is only one “house has seven and a half apartments” or specific quantities if it has several “the house has seven apartments and two bathrooms.” I know that in most of the rest of Canada they speak of houses and apartments in terms of square footage (yes even though we use metric system).



#17108 01/27/01 08:48 AM
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jmh Offline
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>Terrace------Some people call them patios or balconies

>Terraced Houses?

Yes, a terrace is sometimes a paved area, like a patio. It also a way of terracing a slope to make level areas, like the rice terraces of South East Asia.

Terraced houses, especially in the North of England, are joined up houses, built in rows. If you see "Billy Elliot" or "Coronation Street" you will see them. I can't see a good photo of one on the internet. More modern examples tend to be called town houses.

A Georgian terrace, found somewhere like Bath or Leamigton Spa would be rather elegant: http://www.leamingtonspa-index.co.uk/tour/tour09.html


#17109 01/27/01 08:49 AM
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>Well, I must be her generation, and not the mere stripling I thought myself

If you ever danced to "My Generation", then you are!


#17110 01/27/01 01:33 PM
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Oh my gosh, you guys! So many cool postings! Where do I begin?

Flatlander: we have mud rooms in Michigan, too, and plenty of mud to go with it. On a related note, my last house had a boot drop in the entry area. Do you have boot drops? (A boot drop is a built-in bench, enclosed on the bottom, adjacent to an entry. One sits on it to take off one's boots, and then opens the hinged seat and drops the boots in the bench.) What a terrific convenience; I wish there had been a good space for one in this house.

of troy: I like the term, "hi ranch." We call them raised ranches here.

McMansions is hilarious. There are also subdivisions here which have large houses perched precariously on tiny lots. (I don't know why -- plenty of land available. Some people have a strong swarming instinct, I guess.)

Bobyoungbalt: we have a rec room, too. Also in the basement, and it has the usual contents: TV/stero/sitting area, game table and storage, pool table, bar. But, because of the boys, we usually call it the "wreck room."

Similarly, our family room has changed in the months since we got our Newfoundland puppy, and is now known as the dog's chew toy.

bel: what terrific info! I have learned that we have a foyer in our book repository. You will love having that book repository; I can finally find a book when I need it!

And yes, we have a guestroom. As twusm noted earlier, I just forgot to mention bedrooms. Also, we have a master bedroom and master bathroom. And, the boys have a jack and jill bath -- a bathroom sandwiched between the two bedrooms and accessible from both bedrooms.

Apartments here only refer to rented dwelling units in multi-unit buildings. Apartments are never purchased, and are never in single-unit buildings. A purchase of a unit in a multi-unit dwelling is a condo.


#17111 01/27/01 03:45 PM
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We had "cubby-holes" in the fininshed attic (I'm refinishing it right now). On the top "floor" of many early 20th century homes (mine was built in 1909) the walls are the insides of a 45 degree angled roof. Since one can't walk closer than 4 feet (or so) from the vertical exterior wall, there was a triangular storage space about 4' x 4' x 5.6568'...(Pythagoras to the rescue) built in with little doors for access. Talk about play time!


#17112 01/27/01 04:49 PM
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Just as an aside, my retired Navy pal calls the shower "the rain room."
Does anyone recall or even use the word REFECTORY any more? In my boarding school the refectory was the large room with multiple tables where we gathered for meals.
In New England the phrase "Great Room" is coming to mean that the house has a huge living room ... sometimes it is a live/dine room. The phrase is becoming an Up-Market catch phrase and real estate agents and Realtors are becoming very fond of it, even when it's not particularly applicable.
Now, about "yards" and "gardens" and the differences in definition by US and UK users.
Around here when someone says we are in the yard they mean somewhere on the land around the house that is owned by the home-owner. The garden is the part with flowers or blossoming trees or any area set aside for repose and not just a swath of grass.
Patio -- cement pad or flagstoned area, uncovered, near the back door generally with chairs for sitting.
Porch - integral part of house construction and attatched thereto ... sometimes ornate ... can be large sweep across front or back of house. It can be modest in size but to qualify as a porch it must have room for a few chairs and table for sitting and watching the world go by on warm summer evenings.
I have gone on long enough.
wow


#17113 01/27/01 06:13 PM
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This is extremely interesting----thanks Austrailia. In the USA a 'gazebo' is what you call a free standing pergoda and A 'covered patio' either open or enclosed is what we call the attached pergoda. It can either have a rafter/latice top or roofing material for the top, no railing for the sides or with a railing. Some are enclosed with glass and some with lattice/trellis or vines. It is usually 3 seasons as it is not heated for winter use----but in warmer states heat is not required.

A "guest room" --well most people either do not have the extra room if the kids are home and sometimes the "guest room" is all a multipurpose room with a day bed/sofa/couch/davenport or pullout sofa/futon so that the room can be used for other purposes in between guests.

A "foyer" well that is the area just inside the door of a house----and the "hearth" is what we call the floor of a fireplace and also the tile or bricked area in front. It is either floor level or can be a "raised hearth".

Apartment----well in Germany they call it a "Flat", which is what we call a housing unit that has several attached areas for individual families to live. Such has a unit with 6 apartments has attached or joining areas for 6 families to live(this including bedrooms, living area, kitchen, bathrooms dining room, depending on the price range.)Each single family house or multi-family house is listed by rooms, and usually only bedrooms and bath(such as a 4 bedroom house or apartment with 1 full bath and 1 half bath) FULL BATH meaning complete sink, toliet, bathtub and/or shower and HALF BATH meaning only a sink and toliet)
Except the high priced houses have huge bath areas almost many little "rooms" Sink area, bathtub or whirlpool area, private toliet area and powder room or dressing room all included in the term Complete or full bath.
Ground Floor is the term for first floor or main floor, basement is below ground. For example a 4 story building has a basement level, ground level/first floor/main level and 3 floors above that. I think in some area this would be a 3 story building.

Well Thanks so much for all this interesting info. By the way, we live a house which has a walkin basement and we have remodeled it for a family room w/fireplace. But it is still the basement and we only have a 1 and a half story house--the first floor living area with 2 bedrooms and a remodeled attic (which is now an open two bedroom or one large bedroom with a half bath) And we have a huge covered "deck" attached to the side of the house---it is a "deck" not a patio, as it is 14 inches off the ground--the patio is the cemented area next to the deck.
Thanks again for the interesting info.
jrj

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#17114 01/27/01 07:38 PM
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>boot drop is a built-in bench, enclosed on the bottom, adjacent to an entry.

We have something similar but it is called a deacon's bench in English and a beggar's bench in French. It has a back, and is not attached to anything so it can be moved around. People sit on it to take off their boots in wintertime.



#17115 01/28/01 08:11 AM
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I haven't seen anyone use the word "wardrobe" in this thread. Does anyone else still use this term apart from us godforsaken tangata Aotearoa?





The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#17116 01/28/01 11:25 AM
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In reply to:

Does no-one have a guest room anymore?


Guest room is another of those expressions that causes misunderstandings if you translate it literally into Indonesian. Ruang tamu is the literal translation. By the way,tamu can mean guest or visitor. How would AWADers like to explain the difference between a guest and a vistor?

The ruang tamu is an area at the front of the house where one receives visitors or guests; you may have to go through a door to the main house, or the wall may only come three quarters of the way across the house. Sleeping arrangements are somewhat more haphazard. Guests or visitors stopping over tend to just either share someone else's bed (fully clothed I hasten to add before we descend to the gutter) or sleep on the floor. Space is at a premium in most Indonesian houses and so the idea of having a special room kept for guests to sleep in is totally impracticable.

Bingley



Bingley
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