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#31344 06/06/01 03:38 PM
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In the thread on Airing Cupboards we went off thread to discuss hobs, elements and burners..

In the same vien (and down Ponder Avenue a bit) what does your water come out- tap, spigot or faucet?

and what do you call the large thing in the room with all the plumbing fixures? (and the other things... sink? basin? or lav? ) and out side, when there is a fire, to what do the firemen attach their hoses? (in NY alone, there are 3 correct answers to that question!)

A riot? in what are the protesters/rioters hauled away in?

we have had fun with this sort of thing with closets/ wardrobes, silverware/cutlery..

we might even discuss what is under your house-- (an other flat? an apartment? a floor through? a basement? a celler? or ?????) Or being us-- we might just go off tangent immediately!

Oh, yes--How do you get the water for house hold use hot? --Anyone still do it by the shilling (or new pence equivient)?


#31345 06/06/01 03:56 PM
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In our kitchen (and bathroom, for that matter), the water comes out of the faucet and into the sink (the kitchen sink has two basins, though). The firefighters (not all men) attach their hoses to a fire hydrant. [hydrant tangent] My father once had a summer job painting fire hydrants for the Town. I can't imagine a duller job, but he said it was easy money. Also, in Vermont fire hydrants often have long metal poles with a "flag" on top attached to them so you can find them in the winter. Every year the fire dept. reminds everyone to shovel out their local hydrants for easy access if there is a fire.[/hydrant tangent] Protesters (much more common than rioters in Vermont) get hauled away in handcuffs (or "paddy wagons" if you are looking for the politically incorrect name for the van they get thrown in for transport to the station). There's only a shallow crawl space under our apartment, but a basement/cellar under the rest of the house (I use the terms interchangeably). Whew! Back to work!


#31346 06/06/01 04:22 PM
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Our water comes out of a tap or faucet.
the large thing in the room with all the plumbing fixures?The bathtub? The thing for washing your hands is a sink.
You attach your hose to a fire hydrant (what other words are there, of troy?).

[to Flatlander] I always thought the poles were to keep the snowplows from running over the fire hydrants during the winter. The hydrants would be invisible without them.

Under our house is an "unfinished basement" meaning it has a dirt floor, the door is outside (you can't get to it thorugh the house), but you can store things in it and someone has attempted to make a little workroom there. There's a work bench and some electrical outlets.


#31347 06/06/01 07:11 PM
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Dear of troy: In New England a hundred years ago, a cellar was very desirable as a place to store vegetables, fuel for the heating system, and protect the first floor from moisture while tending to insulate it also.The cellar was also the location of utility inputs. An attic, usually unfinished provided protection from the summer heat, and somewhat decreased heat loss in winter. Bathtubs had not yet had showers added. (Horrid idea, sitting in your own ablutions.) Woodstoves were just beginning to be replaced by gas stoves. My mother was glad when an electric stove replaced the gas stove. Insulation was virtually non-existent, which made houses harder to heat. But the new houses, so well insulated and energy efficient, are less healthful. There was an article in NEJM right after WWII, describing the bafflement of French pediatricians trying to explain why there fewer children hospitalized because of pneumonia during the Nazi occupation than before it or after it. Their conclusion was that an unheated house was healthier for children than a heated one. The rugs in today's houses get heavily contaminated with all sorts of infectious and allergenic substances, which easily become airborne, and there is too little air exchange to clear them. Just as airplanes have terribly unhealthy air. Maybe I should get off my soapbox at this point.


#31348 06/06/01 07:22 PM
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You attach your hose to a fire hydrant (what other words are there, of troy?).

Fire plug.


#31349 06/06/01 08:00 PM
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Thanks Faldage-- I have 2 other words... and I'll send them private for now.. I bet when you read them, you'll recognize them.. even if they are not the names you commonly use...

and what do you have in your Plumbing room (and is it a water closet, bathroom, wash room.. Lavatory...?

H


#31350 06/07/01 01:07 AM
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I get water from the faucet, and it goes into the sink. I have sinks in my kitchen, and also in the bathrooms. The firefighters around here would probably get water from the pond, since there are no fire hydrants here in the boonies.

The hot water in my house comes from: (get ready) the hot water heater [ta da!]

Most people around here have a basement, but our house is a walk-out, and I tend to call the bottom floor both the basement and the lower level.


#31351 06/07/01 03:28 AM
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Water comes out of the taps into a sink in the kitchen and into a sink or washbasin (same thing, different names) in the bathroom, which has, alas, no bath, only a shower, and a loo or toilet (again same thing, different names).

When I was living in Bandung, there was no washbasin or shower in the bathroom, just a big tank of water filled from a tap. To bathe, there was a scoop (like a child's beach bucket but with a saucepan handle) and I would just pour water over myself with that, soap up, and then repeat. As the water was very cold, coming straight from a mountain spring, this was much the best way.

Larger houses (and quite a few restaurants) here also have a washbasin in the dining room, much more convenient for washing your hands before and after meals.

Bingley


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#31352 06/07/01 09:14 AM
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our house is a walk-out

Sparteye, what is a walk-out? Oh, unlike your neighbours who have drive-ins, jump-offs, fall-outs, etc. ?????

I have a bathroom which has a bath (it would not be a bathroom in UK without one) and a basin/sink, bidet, toilet/loo and the water comes out of taps, the hot having been heated by the boiler. We also have a downstairs cloakroom with a toilet and sink, and incidentally the stopcock. The kitchen has a sink and a draining board. No one in UK has a faucet that I know off (Though we do have a pub in Fawcett Road with the name Fawcett Inn)

We have very few fire hydrants in UK. In Swiss viallges, they are common because of the wooden chalets, but they are often painted as little men; a waiter outside the cafe, a soldier, etc.

Quiet a few houses in Portsmouth have basements which are habitable half underground levels, and some have cellars, usually completely underground and storage (for spiders).

Rod


#31353 06/07/01 10:54 AM
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a downstairs cloakroom with a toilet and sink,

Umm...here the cloakroom is where you hang your coat, at school, or at church, or at some other public function. A bit too public for toilets!


#31354 06/07/01 12:05 PM
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the cloakroom is where you hang your coat

We have that meaning in UK too, but its use as a euphemism for toilet is probably more widespread. Or dropping into the sewer (literally) it was a corruption of cloaca-room

Rod


#31355 06/07/01 12:57 PM
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Sparteye, what is a walk-out?

A walk-out is a house constructed on a slope, so that at least one side of the bottom floor is at ground level. The walk-out level has the construction attibutes of a foundation floor, but is (usually) finished and is used as living space. So-called because one can walk out of the house from that floor through a door directly to the outside.

Example: my house appears to be a two-story house when viewed from the front, with the first floor (called ground floor, I think, in the UK) at ground level, having the main entrance to the house and the general public living areas of living room, dining room, kitchen and so on. But, when viewed from the back, due to the slope of the ground, the house has another, lower floor. From the back, entrance to the backyard is from the level below the first floor. That lower level/basement has a finished recreation room, a bar and a bathroom, and doors and windows to the outside. To access the first floor from the backyard, you must go up steps to a deck and then to doors which go into the sunroom or garage.


#31356 06/07/01 01:01 PM
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the cloakroom is where you hang your coat

We have that meaning in UK too, but its use as a euphemism for toilet is probably more widespread.

And the Brits cracked wise about the Merkins' euphemism, bathroom.


#31357 06/07/01 01:06 PM
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A walk-out! Just what our house in the woods is. The front door is around back and leads into the living room. It is at ground level but that floor is one story above the ground level in the back of the house (which is in the front as seen from the road if you can see it from the road which you can't in the summer because the trees are all leafed out and which you can't in the winter because it's snowing too hard {Sorry E}). The door at ground level in the back of the house leads into the basement. Don't usually go that way in the summer but in the winter the slope down from the front door can be treacherous so I go in and out the basement door.


#31358 06/07/01 01:29 PM
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A walk-out is a house constructed on a slope

Thanks for that Sparteye. We have houses built on slopes too (and sloping houses come to that) but I don't think we have a word for them. My Aunt's house is built into the side of the Malvern Hills with the kitchen wall almost just plastered rock, and you can walk out of the upstairs bedroom to the garden (which is a 1 in 4 slope!).

And yes the floor at ground level is the ground floor in UK. The first floor above that is the first floor. We didn't think of naming the first floor you came to as the first floor

Rod




#31359 06/07/01 04:26 PM
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" And the Brits cracked wise about the Merkins' euphemism, bathroom."

Dear Sparteye: Since when are pubic wigs capable of voicing euphemisms?


#31360 06/07/01 04:36 PM
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Dr. Bill asks: Since when are pubic wigs capable of voicing euphemisms?

Oh, please Dr. Bill. It's bad enough listening to the English school boys giggling, but when one of US'ns falls into this parochial tittering it's time to speak up proudly! US'ns is Merkins by gar and plane tree! And US'ns ain' gone let no fourth rate economy say no differments!




#31361 06/07/01 06:04 PM
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tap, spigot or faucet?
Most common is faucet but tap fairly common and spigot mostly for water source outside like for watering the garden or washing the car.

the large thing in the room with all the plumbing fixures?
Toilet, sink and bathtub with shower called a bathroom. If just a basin and toilet then it's a half-bath or powder room especially if on ground floor for use by guests.

Lav to me means a lavatory which is a holdover from my convent school days ... more commonly called a Ladies Room ... toilets in cubicles and a bank of wash basins.

firemen attach their hoses to a hydrant for municipal water

protesters/rioters hauled away in Black Maria, Paddy Wagon.

what is under your house My house is slab-built which means I have no basement (old fashioned word) or cellar (more common) and tho I sometimes miss the storage a cellar offers, other times I'm glad I don't have the temptation to amass yet more "stuff!"

the water for household Hot water heater with "Quick return" ... which means my guests and I can take showers one following quickly upon another, without my having to bath in frigid aqua. Heavenly!


#31362 06/07/01 07:15 PM
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well in NYC-- and i think in some other east coast cities--Hydrants can be
Fire plugs
Fire pumps (recently saw one with this label, brooklyn side of Brooklyn Bridge)
Johnie pumps
Jonhie plugs (rare)
and fireman also connect their hoses to Stand pipes (to feed sprinkler systems)-- No one else uses these terms? or now having heard them-- can you think of some that have slipped your mind?

there is (was) a NY street game Johnie on the pony that uses a fire hydrant (never just hydrant) as an anchor for the game.

and Wow tossed out basin for a bathroom sink-- with out so much as a thought.. (and I hadn't even thought of the word till she tossed it out!)

I thought it interesting that Cloak room exist as a term for a toilet area-- and then remembered the old garde-robe-- which in time past, when england's system of drains was less refined--there were areas next to what we americans would call a closet-- (a small room for clothes) that also included an open shaft for "facilities" (a US Highway euphemism for bathroom-- "Rest Area --Facilities available" ) -- so a garde -robe morphed into a cloakroom-- which, i suspect now, as in times past is actually 2 seperate Rooms-- One for cloaks, and one with "facilities".

I tend to use tap and faucet but my parent more often used spigot-- (water came out of the spigot, after you turn the tap.. what about water spout (like the one the itsy bitsy spider goes up) or is that what I call a leader?

My house has gutter to catch the run off-- the water is then lead down and away from the house by a leader...Or is a water spout like a simple stone "gargoyle"-- an extention that direct the water away from the house-- (but lets it fall freely from the roof line?


#31363 06/07/01 07:23 PM
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"it's time to speak up proudly! US'ns is Merkins by gar "

With so many choices of nicknames for Americans, why not choose one less susceptible to ridicule.


#31364 06/07/01 07:26 PM
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Yankee Doodle went to town.


#31365 06/07/01 07:32 PM
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And remember, it's the same Brits that go around casually knocking people up in the morning.


#31366 06/07/01 08:05 PM
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#31367 06/08/01 06:43 AM
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But "septic" is just so appropriate.


#31368 06/08/01 08:02 AM
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"split-level" houses

To me at least, (but I may be in a minority of 1) split-level houses are where the house is built on a slight slope so some of a single (or each) floor is at a different level (maybe 3-5 feet) from the rest, rather than where the ground floor is different depending on which side of the house you look at.

Rod


#31369 06/08/01 10:34 AM
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casually knocking people up in the morning

Hey, you've been seriously misinformasticated. This takes years of trainin' and you gotta supply your own long pole


#31370 06/08/01 10:58 AM
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In California we call a drinking fountain a drinking fountain or a water fountain, but I have a friend from Rhode Island who calls it a bubbler. Are there other names for this?


#31371 06/08/01 12:24 PM
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In Brooklyn NY USA, a fire hydrant was often called a "johnny pump"


#31372 06/08/01 01:02 PM
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Just as airplanes have terribly unhealthy air.

Have you ever considered outside seating?

Some people call "The leaders of the dogs" (Robin Williams' term for a fire hydrant, because the dogs all salute them) a fire plug. This dates from the very early days of fire departments when water lines had tapered wooden plugs driven into them at various points for hose connection.


#31373 06/08/01 02:29 PM
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split-level houses

Around here, a split-level is a house with levels half-stories apart. Usually, there are three levels. The main entrance is on the first (ground) floor, and from there, one does up or down five feet or so to the remainder of the living area. Because the lower level is finished living area, it is partially exposed at least on one side, but not necessarily because it is built on a slope; access to windows and doors can be from dug-outs rather than gradual slopes. Split-levels, most of which were built in the 70s, have their own architectural style - limited to quasi-modern-colonial-revival-mixed-with-contemporary - while walk-outs can be just about any style.


#31374 06/08/01 07:44 PM
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a garde -robe morphed into a cloakroom-- which, i suspect now ... is actually 2 separate Rooms-- One for cloaks, and one with "facilities".

Isn't it interesting that a place to check your coat is a "Cloakroom?" Anyone else wear, or even *own, a cloak?



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#31376 06/08/01 08:02 PM
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well--actually--i do own a heavy black wool irish cloak-- It has a deep hood, and is fastened at the neck with a broach-- It about 15 years old-- and i wear it a couple of time a year-- (you need long gloves-- and you can't drive a car in it)

but i don't own any frocks!


#31377 06/08/01 10:59 PM
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I, by contrast, own a clook, made of woal, with a hoad, fastened at the neck with a brooch.


#31378 06/09/01 01:40 PM
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i do own a heavy black wool irish cloak-- It has a deep hood, and is fastened at the neck with a broach-- It about 15 years old-

Ah HA ... a Kinsale cloak ?? I have one, of heavy wool melton, made in Ireland during my 1971 visit at a shop succinctly named "The Cloak",a duplicate of the Kinsale Cloak owned by the Grandmother of the lady tailor.
The cloaks are still worn by women in Kinsale, Ireland.

If you go to Ireland it's a lovely town, much larger and more modern than the Kinsale I visited in 1971 but the cloaks do remain as do the "Spanish" steps between houses, up the *steep hills. Kinsale was well known even in '71 for its fine food!

P.S. Max : Superman wore a cape ... big difference!

For a photo: http://www.wingsandroses.com/kinsale.htm or go to Google and type in "Kinsale Cloak"

#31379 06/10/01 07:48 AM
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In reply to:

Anyone else wear, or even *own, a cloak?


Alas no, but it was something I always wanted as a teenager.

Bingley



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#31380 06/11/01 01:56 AM
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I, by contrast, own a clook, made of woal, with a hoad, fastened at the neck with a brooch.

My dearest Centalian advocate, I hate to broach this subject, but now that you've lost your r's, you seem to be cornfusing your o's and a's. (Did you notice that I (re)
covered your r's?)


#31381 06/11/01 02:33 AM
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I may have occasional trouble with my r's, a's and o's, but at least I dot my i's, cross my t's, and mind my p's and q's, as distinct from my y's, which, together with my wherefores, I never mind. Time [yawn emoticon] to get some z's I think.


#31382 06/11/01 08:36 PM
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In this part of the world, the firemen hook up to a fire hydrant (formally) or fire plug (informally). A standpipe is a large pipe with big connectors like a fire plug which is found on the side of a building -- a sport of horizontal fire plug which happens to be jutting out of a building wall.

Water in the house comes from the water heater through the spigot (pronounced 'spicket') into the sink (pronounced 'zinc' in Baltimore), bathtub, shower, or laundry tub (a large deep sort of sink found in the basement, or cellar, and used for laundry purposes), sometimes, if plural, called by older persons 'laundry trays'. (These were originally used with the old wringer washers to rinse clothes in.) And if you are a navy or sailing type, the bathroom/loo/cloakroom/toilet may be called the 'head', where you will find the commode, or toilet. [An aside: when we were children, we sometimes had pie a la mode for dessert, which we would call "pie out of the commode" and screech with laughter for a good half hour.]

Here's another set of words for the same thing: in our living room we have a couch, also called a sofa, or what my father would have called a davenport. There is also the recliner, but that's not quite the same thing.


#31383 06/11/01 10:05 PM
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You closet goth you.


#31384 06/12/01 08:27 AM
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pie a la mode for dessert

I am not trying to turn this into a food thread, HONEST. I know the phrase "a la mode" means "with ice-cream" in US, but why? Does the phrase have that meaning in other English speaking nations?

Rod


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Here's another set of words for the same thing: in our living room we have a couch, also called a sofa, or what my father would have called a davenport. There is also the recliner, but that's not quite the same thing.

The very Canadian word for couch is chesterfield. Also, if you say couch, it has the Candian pronunciation of the 'ou' dipthong, that is, uh-oo instead of aah-oo! (Think Scottish accent.) We don't use "sofa" much.

To Rod: I think we understand that "a la mode" is "with ice cream" but you only see it on menus. I would just say, pie and ice cream. Yum.


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I can remember very vividly as an eight year old being told I must ask for "apple pie ala mode" to get my pie with ice cream on it. The serving person ignored my request for " apple pie with ice cream." Evidently snobs were so proud of knowing the French phrase that they ignored peasants who did not. My guess is that the phrase was intended to mean " in the fashionable manner ".


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And there I was, imagining a pie shot full of holes by Mexicans...


#31388 06/12/01 01:47 PM
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Dear maverick: It took me just long enough to get that contrived pun, that I almost wished you had been riddled at the Alamo.


#31389 06/12/01 01:53 PM
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Thanks, Dr. Bill. I *had been blissfully unaware of what mav had been driving at.


#31390 06/12/01 04:40 PM
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I also have often wondered where the expression came from. When I first learned French, the question arose, pie a la mode de quoi? In the case of, e.g., tripes a la mode de Caen (tripe, Caen-style) you know what is what, but we don't know what style the ice cream is. I think your supposition is correct.


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Besides the sofa, there is also the smaller version known as a love seat, or settee (old fashioned term here). Thanks to one of my wife's strange notions of interior decoration we were, at one time, the only people I ever heard of who had a living room with a sofa and a love seat but no chairs.


#31392 06/12/01 06:47 PM
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Allegedly-- Ice cream-- is an american dessert-- there have been "cool" or Iced desserts going back to antiquity-- but none other than Dolly Madison is said to have "introduced" ice cream to the world-- and putting ice cream on pie was the "all american dessert" (so the missing word is a la mode american.) This, while the US government was still in Philadelphia. Philadelphia style ice cream is a custard (cream and milk* cooked with egg till it thickens, and then instead of being baked--it is chilled and frozen.) Most ice cream today does not have this "custard' base. (*more cream than milk in the mixture)

and thanks Bob for spigot-- i was beginning to think i was the only one who had ever used the word! I would say SPIG (like pig)ott.


#31393 06/13/01 09:19 AM
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And what of the divan of 70's and 80's fame?

Which reminds me of the only line I could ever understand from Plastic Bertrand (the rest of them being in French):

"I am the king of the divan."

http://users.skynet.be/sky69302/music/pb-plane.html

or for easier reading

http://hjem.get2net.dk/Ridder/sang19.htm




#31394 06/13/01 02:43 PM
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Helen dearest, not being in a curmudgeonly mood this morning, I shan't say anything about your use of an English word in a French phrase, but I have to ask you, in the interests of historical veracity, didn't Mrs. Madison spell her name Dolley? I have often wondered about that. [apologizing for nitpicking emoticon]


#31395 06/13/01 04:37 PM
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oh-- i think the commercial ice cream is Dolly but i could be wrong about that, too.

aside from ice cream-- she is famous for saving the portait of George Washington when some of our neighbors across the pond burned the capital building in 1812...

and i already mangle spelling in english-- i am not even going to pretend i know the correct ending for american to make it french-- but i do remember reading the style that pie a la mode refers to --is to pie american style (ie with ice cream)


#31396 06/15/01 12:45 AM
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the only people I ever heard of who had a living room with a sofa and a love seat but no chairs .
How about living room with only chairs.. Currently I'm not willing to spend the time or $ right now to get a couch/loveseat/futon etc (whatever). Tommorrow we will be in the house 1 month.



CJ


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#31397 06/15/01 03:03 PM
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Thanks to one of my wife's strange notions of interior decoration we were, at one time, the only people I ever heard of who had a living room with a sofa and a love seat but no chairs.

If that's strange, I'm positively bizarre. The TV area of our rec room as a sofa and a loveseat, but no chairs. The living room has a loveseat and chairs, but no sofa. The library has a loveseat and chairs, but no sofa. The garden room has a settee and no chairs, sofas or loveseats. The sun room has chairs, but no loveseats, sofas or settees.

The family room has (TADA!) a sofa and chairs, but no loveseat. I'm thinking that this is the official configuration?

Remotely tying this in with language - let's discuss decorative terms.

The exterior of my house is traditional Tudor, and the interior is traditional traditional. The dining room is Queen Anne, but the living room is closer to French Traditional, while most of the rest of the house is Eclectic. I have a friend who built a Craftsman house, and has furnished it in that style as well.

Jackie: I know that you have a split-level house. Let me guess: American colonial-influenced interior?



#31398 06/15/01 03:24 PM
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Sparteye tells us about:

rec room
living room
library
garden room
sun room
family room


And you don't think the first part of your post was about language? I could never keep all those rooms straight (much less clean).


#31399 06/15/01 03:36 PM
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Too true, Hyla! My sitting room not only has no sofa, no love seat and no chairs - it even has no roof!


#31400 06/15/01 03:46 PM
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Ah, the joys of the big room with no walls!


#31401 06/15/01 04:09 PM
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Yeah - unparalleled views of the sunsets as the sun makes midday for Helen, but damp when raining

OTOH, there are five families of sparrows and others making their nests in the stone gable destined to be the sitting room wall, so I don't feel too bad about the delay right now. Ask me again by Christmas...


#31402 06/20/01 02:04 PM
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A-ha! My neighbor's house is for sale, and there is an online tour of it available, which shows a walk-out construction. In this case, the house is build in farmhouse style.

Go to http://www.tomieraines.com/listings/details.asp?mls=59497&type=RES

See how the front of the house looks like a two-story? Now, click on the button on the right of the screen which says "virtual tour." The first view you are given is a 360 from the front exterior. (Note the house far in the distance, viewed just right of the lamp post by the driveway - that's home!)

Then, using the dropdown menu, select "backyard." The 360 view of the exterior from the rear shows a three-story house, the result of a walk-out lower level. (Also note the pond, which a certain son found irresistible until he was grounded but good for running away to it. Harrumph.)

You can also get a glimpse of the walk-out aspect from the interior by selecting the family room view.


#31403 06/20/01 02:59 PM
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too bad Mav-- as the sun sets in your sitting room, i am sitting (at least on weekend and holidays) in my gazebo out of the mid day sun.. It has sconces for the cintronella candles, and tables and chairs, (no couch, but it does have a lounge chair) a windchime, and 4 hanging planters.. the sunny side has 2 ivy geraniums, the shady, 2 fuschia. the shade is from (depending on the time of day), an giant oak (at least 75 feet tall) an maple (not even 20 feet tall) or a elm-- about 40 foot tall-- but a bit down hill-- so its seems only a few feet taller than the maple. and the gazebo has a small shelf with a resin copy of a Degas sculpture.. (what room is complete with out art?) around the gazebo are plantings of hosta, sweet williams, tiarellas, ferns, iris, and spring bulbs. It is one of the nicest part of my house!

I think about buying a portable heater so i could use it more in the winter.. but i do use it on sunny days in the winter-- leaveless trees admit more sun, and the concrete floor soaks up the heat from the sun.


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