22 February 2023 - SPANISH ARTIST BUILDS CASTLE

 SPANISH ARTIST 

BUILDS CASTLE

 

G'day folks,

 People spend their whole lives looking for whatever it is that makes a perfect home. For some, it’s as simple as a walk-in closet or space in the yard for an herb garden that looks just so. For others, nothing can compare to grandiose dreams of a seaside villa or a mountain chalet. Not so for Francisco Gonzalez Grajera.

Francisco Gonzalez Grajera was an artist and he did not want a normal home.

 

So Francisco set about building something special, with his bare hands, that would satisfy his creativity both while he lived there and while he built it. Before long, he had created a startlingly unique estate – one that fits right in with the whimsical outsider art sculpture house of Peter Buchs, or Ed Leedskalnin’s coral castle.

Clad in elaborate mosaics built in the trencadis style of broken tiles, the house of Francisco Gonzalez is a sprawling castle-shaped villa, flanked with towering ramparts and spires made to look like the points of a massive royal crown. Tourists now drop by the Gonzalez home, still a private residence, just to see the odd house the locals always talk about.

If you were to speak to Francisco himself, he would tell you there’s nothing odd about this place. To Francisco, it’s just home.

 

13 January 2023 - MAYMAND - ANCIENT CAVE VILLAGE - IRAN

 

MAYMAND

 - ANCIENT CAVE VILLAGE -

- IRAN -

G'day folks,

This 12,000 year old Iranian cave village has been continuously inhabited for over 3,000 years. 

From an American point of view, where very few settlements have been around for more than a few hundred years, its hard to fathom just how long a village like Maymand in Iran (which is thought to have been established around 12,000 years ago) has been around. But the still inhabited cave dwellings help.

 

The staggering age of the settlement at Maymand was determined by fragments of stone etchings that established the existence of human settlers. However the defining characteristic of the village, namely its 300+ in-ground cave homes are not nearly so old, only dating back 3-4,000 years. It is thought that the cave dwellings began as religious sites, but slowly evolved into permanent houses as settlers stayed on the spot longer and longer. As the locals tell it, their ancestors carved out the simple cave homes using a type of hard, sharpened stone that can be found in the area as opposed to traditional tools. The single room dwellings are stacked atop one another four and five tall sometimes, yet each of the barren caves has room for its own stove area. 

 

Miraculously for such an ancient and stark settlement, the array of caves that make up the village are still inhabited today. Some of the homes are thought to have been continually inhabited since their creation thousands of years earlier. The population as of 2006 numbered 673, but tends to fluctuate with the seasons. The caves may have a sort of barren beauty, but they are not exactly luxury accommodations. 

Iran is a country rich in history, and the village of Maymand is one of the oldest places there, as well as one of the most beautiful.

12 October 2022 - BILTMORE ESTATE'S SECRET PASSAGEWAYS

 

BILTMORE ESTATE'S 

SECRET PASSAGEWAYS

G'day folks,

The enormous 250-room Vanderbilt mansion conceals hidden doors and secret passageways. 

With 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, and nearly 180,000 square feet, the enormous Biltmore Estate has plenty of places to hide.

The Biltmore Estate was built as the ultimate indulgence of George Washington Vanderbilt II, a descendant of Cornelius “The Commodore” Vanderbilt, the builder of Grand Central Terminal in New York City and a pioneer of the Gilded Age in America. It was designed with several concealed doors, hidden passageways, and secret rooms, which blend in seamlessly with the decor so that they are not noticeable to the untrained eye.

 

In the late 19th century, these behind-the-scenes spaces were used to provide the Vanderbilts and their guests with some added privacy or to conceal the movement of servants moving in and out of the mansion’s common spaces.

In the Breakfast Room, the mansion’s “informal” dining room, there is a camouflaged door hidden in the wall behind the table. It leads to the butler’s pantry, which servants would slip in and out of while carrying meals. You can just make out the door frame behind the two Renoir paintings that hang on the wall. A doorknob sticks out below the right-hand corner of Renoir’s Child with an Orange.

 

The estate’s massive library, apart from being a bibliophile’s dream, also houses a secret passageway that leads to the guest bedrooms. A balcony wraps around the second story of the library, and on it are two doors to the hidden hall. The library also hides a tiny room known as the “Den.” The easily missed door is obscured by a carving of St. Peter the Martyr. It leads to a mysterious room that may have been used as a quiet place to read and write, a special little oasis within the giant home.

Another hidden space is found in the Billiard Room. A wooden door beside the fireplace leads to the Smoking Room, where the men would retire for brandy and cigars. Additional hidden treasures include a trap door in the floor of the Winter Garden (where tropical plants were housed in the wintertime), and a concealed closet in Vanderbilt’s own bedroom, decorated to blend in with the rest of the wall so as to not disrupt the careful decor.

 

The estate also boasts one underground tunnel in Antler Hill Village (located three miles from the house) that used to be part of the Biltmore Dairy Barn. The stone tunnel leads to a winery.

2 May 2022 - CASTEL MEUR - FRANCE

 

CASTEL MEUR 

- FRANCE -

G'day folks,

Here, a small house sits between two huge rocks, with its back to the sea. 

Castel Meur, a small stone cottage in Plougrescant, France, was built in 1861 in a precarious position at the tip of the peninsula. At the time, construction was much less regulated and more riskily undertaken. To protect it from the  frequently violent coastal weather, the house was positioned with its back to the sea and flanked on either side by two giant boulders.

 The unusually located cottage became known as the House Between Two Rocks. It has been passed down through the generations and is currently a private home. Its use in tourism campaigns to attract visitors to Plougrescant, specifically one world-famous postcard, became a problem when the house gained fame as a tourist attraction and tourists treated it as though nobody lived in it, some even climbing on it and damaging its roof.

The owner took legal action and won image rights for the house, which can no longer be used in advertising to draw tourists to the region. A stone wall surrounds the property.

 

Clancy's comment: What a great spot for a writer, eh?

I'm ...

 

11 November 2021 - FAIRY TALE HOME BUILT FOR $5,000

 

FAIRY TALE HOME 

BUILT FOR $5,000 

G'day folks,

Everyone has always wanted their life to be a fairytale, right? Either way, you know those stories that just make you smile, yes this will be one of those.

Meet Simon Dale, a family man who lives in Wales. His love for design helped him with his dream.

 One of the main reasons Simon built this home is because, “It’s fun. Living your own life, in your own way is rewarding. Following our dreams keeps our souls alive.”

 The home is constructed from wood, stone, straw, and has a sod roof. It’s heated with a wood fireplace and has a solar panel for power. Most materials were scavenged and refurbished appliances. The effect, though, isn’t of a run-down get-by-with second-best . It’s creative, artistic, elegant, and cozy. It is, in fact, magical.

 The attention to making the home eco-friendly extends to a compost toilet, the use of straw over a plastic layer for insulation, and a refrigerator that’s cooled with air that flows from under the home’s foundation. Cement is a high carbon emitter, so the interior walls are finished with lime plaster instead of cement plaster.

 

Clancy's comment: Wow. What a cute home.

I'm ...

 

5 September 2021 - MILLIONAIRE FLATTENS VILLAGE AND REBUILDS NEW HOMES

 MILLIONAIRE FLATTENS 

VILLAGE 

AND REBUILDS FREE NEW HOMES 

G'day folks,

Oftentimes when you hear about rags to riches stories, you think that the person that made millions probably forgot where they came from. Well that is not the case at all in the story of Xiong Shuihua. 

 

He was born in Xiongkeng village in the city of Xinju located in Southern China. He always said that his family was well looked after in their small village and that the residents supported them throughout his childhood. Rather than forgetting where he came from when he made his millions in the steel industry, he decided that it’s important that he spends his wealth giving back to the community, and he did this all for free!

When Xiong Shuihua returned to his village, he decided to give everybody a place of their own to live. The area was very run down and many lived in a basic home.  He decided to transform this village, and ended up building 72 luxury flats for 72 different families in the village.

However, there were 18 different families that were extremely kind to the businessman and his family when he was growing up. For these families, he gave them their very own villas in the village. The project ended up costing over $5 million.

 

 Once the families moved in, he even promised the older residents and the low-income residents three meals a day so they wouldn’t have to worry about feeding their family.

One resident named Qiong Chu, 75, said, “I remember his parents. They were kind-hearted people who cared very much for others, and it’s great that their son has inherited that kindness.”

 Xiong Shuihua said, “I earned more money than I knew what to do with, and I didn’t want to forget my roots.” “I always pay my debts, and wanted to make sure the people who helped me when I was younger and my family were paid back.”

 

 What a truly amazing story and an even more amazing businessman. It’s so great to hear when people remember where they came from, especially when they spend their hard-earned money giving back to the community, helping people who are less fortunate than them.

 

Clancy's comment: Great story, eh? There should be more of it.

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