HOUSES OF WOOD

Evening Star, Issue 22248, 28 January 1936, Page 2

HOUSES OF WOOD

ATTRACTING ATTENTION IN ENGLAND

The timber house is attracting considerable attention in this country, says ‘ English Homes and Gardens.’ Many examples have recently been built, and their owners find that these houses are economical, thoroughly weatherworthy, and comfortable. A house of this kind, called “ Grey Timbers,” has just been completed for Dr Rose-Clarke on a site at Pluckley. The house stands high up on a plateau with a wonderful view over the Kentish weald. Being so exposed, it needed to be very soundly constructed. The walls, therefore, have a timber frame clothed on the outside with a double covering of British Columbia red cedar, with bitumen sheeting between, to prevent any wet reaching the framing; the inside of the house being lined with. “ Insulwood ” sheeting, partly distempered and partly painted. The roof is covered with red cedar tiling, and under it is a large space (made accessible by a loft ladder) which can be used for storage or a children’s playroom. The .rooms are of a very generous size. The sitting room, for example, is 25ft by 17ft, and the principal bedroom is almost as largo. There are five bedrooms and two bathrooms. A double floor is laid over the entire ground floor, formed of tongued and grooved hemlock over lin red cedar boarding. Tlie panelled dining room is furnished with old pieces, the dresser being decked with an old Spode dinner service. There are several fine portraits in this room, including one of the owner’s great-great-grandfather, Hugh Bose. This hangs above the fireplace, -which is lined with picture tiles of scenes from ‘ Tlie Pilgrim’s Progress ’ and the Bible. A hatch is provided in the recess to the right of the fireplace, for service from the kitchen, which is fitted with a gas cooker and a boiler for hot water supply and radiator heating. The staircase is solid panelled in Columbian pine and covered with a blue carpet. Interior doors are of red cedar.

The garage, like the house is built of red cedar, all of which timber is left untreated in its natural colour, the only painting being on the shutters and the “ trim.” The all-in cost of the house, for moving in, was about £2,500.