On cleaning and decks.
One thing that I have learned from my experience of owning a third story brownstone, is that cleaning the outside of the windows is a major pain in the *ss. This is mainly speculation, since I have not done it on most of the windows, but frankly, I don't even have a sporting chance when the best opportunity for reaching them involves hanging my fragile noodle out over Tremont street by 50 or so feet. If, as Le Corbusier says, a building is a "machine for living", my machine has some serious design flaws, like a Bavarian Motor Works vehicle, that drives like a dream, but requires a plumbing tool, a contortionist, and a quart of astroglide to get in to repair.
I am trying to avoid this limitation as best as possible with the Plan B. repair and maintenance should not be a surprise, but part of the design.
My first area of concern is, strangely, not the vertical element, but the horizontal house. The living room, if I am reading the proposal right, has two massive windows facing the ocean, which, according to Guillermo, are going to be operable through means of a pulley system. They will open outward. Now, unless I miss my guess, or I befriend a 18 foot tall Tico, I cannot see how I am ever going to be able to clean the monsters. Or, for that matter, the windows/doors in the bedrooms. The windows on the other side of the house, even those not at ground level, are very approachable as there is a deck from that side below them. It allows easy access and I could, and will no doubt, be able to walk outside, stand on the deck, and clean the tall glass.
I wonder if the solution is as simple as a deck on the other side of the house, mirroring the street side deck. It is an approach I know that DZ and I have spoken about before. That would certainly take care of the bedroom windows, and perhaps I can clean the living room windows by closing one, and opening the other, and leaning out with a long handled squeegee.
We have the same problem in the kitchen also though, and we have not even gotten onto the tower. On the tower, I expect cleaning difficulty. The windows open, and so perhaps there will be vantage points from which they can be reached. Perhaps the Zendo can be cleaned from the terrace on top?
Does this all seem picky to you? I am trying to imagine not only what seeing the house will be like, but what it will be like to actually live in Plan B. As things arise, I write about them. Stimulus, response. Nothing terrible sophisticated here.
One thing that I have learned from my experience of owning a third story brownstone, is that cleaning the outside of the windows is a major pain in the *ss. This is mainly speculation, since I have not done it on most of the windows, but frankly, I don't even have a sporting chance when the best opportunity for reaching them involves hanging my fragile noodle out over Tremont street by 50 or so feet. If, as Le Corbusier says, a building is a "machine for living", my machine has some serious design flaws, like a Bavarian Motor Works vehicle, that drives like a dream, but requires a plumbing tool, a contortionist, and a quart of astroglide to get in to repair.
I am trying to avoid this limitation as best as possible with the Plan B. repair and maintenance should not be a surprise, but part of the design.
My first area of concern is, strangely, not the vertical element, but the horizontal house. The living room, if I am reading the proposal right, has two massive windows facing the ocean, which, according to Guillermo, are going to be operable through means of a pulley system. They will open outward. Now, unless I miss my guess, or I befriend a 18 foot tall Tico, I cannot see how I am ever going to be able to clean the monsters. Or, for that matter, the windows/doors in the bedrooms. The windows on the other side of the house, even those not at ground level, are very approachable as there is a deck from that side below them. It allows easy access and I could, and will no doubt, be able to walk outside, stand on the deck, and clean the tall glass.
I wonder if the solution is as simple as a deck on the other side of the house, mirroring the street side deck. It is an approach I know that DZ and I have spoken about before. That would certainly take care of the bedroom windows, and perhaps I can clean the living room windows by closing one, and opening the other, and leaning out with a long handled squeegee.
We have the same problem in the kitchen also though, and we have not even gotten onto the tower. On the tower, I expect cleaning difficulty. The windows open, and so perhaps there will be vantage points from which they can be reached. Perhaps the Zendo can be cleaned from the terrace on top?
Does this all seem picky to you? I am trying to imagine not only what seeing the house will be like, but what it will be like to actually live in Plan B. As things arise, I write about them. Stimulus, response. Nothing terrible sophisticated here.
posted by warnerk at
6:21 PM
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