Thursday, December 31, 2009

A house of cold with seven gables......



When I added the front porch, I succeeded in adding one more gable. It made the total add up to seven.  I don't quite know how to photograph cold, but we are certainly headed for Arctic cold.  The weather man said the 0's will be our high tomorrow.  I have never seen it described that way before.  It is miserable to be out side as the wind chill is - 13 degrees, F. 
My bird feeders are so busy when it is so cold.  A squirrel knocked one of my feeders on the ground yesterday, and the birds and rabbit are having a great time with the pile of seed on the ground.





My design of this porch is a bad design in the winter.  It is a flat shed roof and the ice and water collects on my steps. It is a continual battle to keep a least a part of the steps safe.  I actually sat our garbage bin on the right side to prevent anyone from trying to go up the stairs.  In case you are wondering how I can fix this problem, it is easy.  Old farm houses have a gable built into the roof so that the triangle shaped roof will steer the ice and snow away from the steps.  It looks a little like gilding the lily on some houses, but at this time of the year I know why they put them there.  This spring, the eighth gable will be added to my house.

8 comments:

Jimmy said...

What do you do about your pipes?

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

Your house is lovely and an eighth gable will only add to the loveliness.

It sure looks bitterly cold there. It is 74 at a little after 8 p.m. It's only supposed to get down to 63 tonight. We've had a couple of really lovely days. It's what we wait for all summer long. A welcome relief after the heat and humidity we go through.

Wishing you and your DW a wonderful 2010.

FlowerLady

Far Side of Fifty said...

Hi Larry..back to building again in the spring! I have seen a board thingy on flatter roofs..right above doors or steps to push the snow sideways away..I need one of them on my garage above the side door because of the snow sliding off the steel roof..luckily the garage doors are on the gable end. Design for all seasons.. Happy New Year! Your house is just beautiful..I love the color:)

Valerie said...

I feel guilty that the sun is shining where I am. I popped in to wish you a Happy New Year. May your personal sun shine brightly in the coming months.
Love that house, oh yes!

L. D. said...

Most every house has a basement. The pipes stay warm enough that they don't freeze. You see business buildings that are built on a slab that have a lot of problems with pipes in the ceiling on in the walls freezing and then bursting. We do have water main breaks as the earth shifts from hard freezes to slow warming. I had to move a plumbing job in my house so that the north bathroom has all it's pipes running through an inside closet rather than in the crawl space that kept my pipes too cold.

Sunny said...

I love the design of your house and such a pretty setting.
It has been bitterly cold here with windchills in the minus degrees.
With the new year here, can spring be far away?
Stay warm.
Sunny :)

L. D. said...

Ok, let us count the months, January, February, and March makes three. If we are lucky the first two will turn a little more mild that what it is now. We can't plant for sure until the 15th of April. I will take a day at a time I guess.

The Retired One said...

We have icicles even on our new house...we have some gables upstairs and I think the design may lead to some ice backup...even though the log home plan was made in Wisconsin.ha

Big and Small...

 The miniature daffodils are so petite compared to the normal sized daffodil. I don't think I have ever brought the small ones inside be...