1. Teladan

    Teladan Contributor Contributor

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    Rural Houses & Wine Cellars

    Discussion in 'Research' started by Teladan, Apr 28, 2021.

    Despite having a love of architecture (in almost all styles) my writing progress is often impeded by not knowing how to describe certain house styles. Take this house. What would one call this? Is it a detached country home in an isolated rural setting? I suppose it is. I just have a habit of using the bare minimum of description when I'm not sure. I want to describe this building in detail as it fits perfectly with my intended setting. Secondly, wine cellars. I want to turn a wine cellar into a repository for rows of jars containing fantastical objects. Would a wine cellar "work" with this kind of house? I have no experience with wine cellars at all.

    [​IMG]

    Thanks.
     
  2. SapereAude

    SapereAude Contributor Contributor

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    The resident architect (me) says that house isn't any particular style. I would describe it as a French (or English) country house. It might have a wine cellar, although in general I would not expect one in a house with no distinct architectural style.
     
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  3. Hammer

    Hammer Moderator Staff Supporter Contributor

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    If it's in the UK, I would hazard that it is in North Oxfordshire, possible Cotswold stone with a stone or cut-in slate roof. We can't tell how isolated it is from that picture - I can see other buildings and chimneys which may belong to other buildings or may comprise wings and outbuildings of the messuage.

    I would balk at "detached country home in an isolated rural setting" - it sounds more like an estate agent's description than a writer's. When I describe things writerly, whilst I would concur that it might not be everyone's cup of tea, I tend to try to get into the character of the building - "shuttered windows hid the dark deeds that it had witnessed", "the flaking paint screamed neglect", or "gaily painted woodwork spoke of the countless parties the years had seen" sort of thing...
     
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  4. Teladan

    Teladan Contributor Contributor

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    Thanks for the info. I'd hasten to add that I most definitely wasn't going to put my little description in the story. I was just asking if this is how the house could be classified at a base level if that makes sense. More of a technical query than anything. I asked what one would call it. I know next to nothing about domestic houses so I didn't know if detached was even correct in this context. My architectural knowledge is mostly theoretical and covers the grander overarching styles, e.g. Gothic. Funny, by the way, that I live in Oxfordshire.
     
  5. SapereAude

    SapereAude Contributor Contributor

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    "Detached" is what our American building (and zoning) codes refer to as "single family." Moving on from there we have two-family (which may be side-by-side of over-and-under), then three-family (which also may be side-by-side or three stories), and then you get into row houses and apartment buildings.

    As for whether the house in the photo would be considered "isolated," I think we would need to see a view from a bit farther away, or possibly an aerial view in Google Maps so we can zoom in and out to see how near the neighbors are.
     
  6. Naomasa298

    Naomasa298 HP: 10/190 Status: Confused Contributor

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    I'm looking at the picture and the immediate thing that springs to my mind is that it's going to be called something like "The Abbey", "The Grange" or "The Priory".
     
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  7. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Define "wine cellar." Classically wine cellars were used to make wine because of optimal fermentation (and storage) temperatures. Wine grapes grow in warm places, like France, Italy and California, so before temperature control, you needed a nice, cool area. RI is full of Italians and old Italian houses. I've lived in multiple shitty apartment/houses that still had wine making equipment in a dusty corner of the cellar right next to the boiler or washing machine.

    Is your house in the UK as everyone seems to think? The UK is not a wine producing country but neither is the RI area of the United States (I mean, people do grow grapes, but they suck ass). I'm sure plenty of people there have imported their own grapes throughout history and made their own vine.

    Should you write a wine cellar thing, you should understand that wine cellars are dirty as hell. In fact, you can tell how good a bottle of Bordeaux or Burgundy is by how thick the layer of mushrooms growing over the bottles and shelves are (it should be noted that wine bottles and fermentation vessels are impervious to moisture, oxygen and contaminants of any kind). Here you can see the natural progression from "dusty" to "something bumpy" to "what the hell is growing over that?"

    wine1.jpg wine2.jpg wine3.jpg
     
  8. Hammer

    Hammer Moderator Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Interesting. For reference, in the UK detached simply means no party walls with other houses and we refer to the two family/ three family as semi-detached (one party --shared-- wall), or terraced -- party walls on both sides like most town-houses.

    Agreed - or The Old Rectory

    I agree about the cellars in warmer countries - in Italy many rural houses are built on rock and even small houses (if they are not adjacent to a cave) have a cellar at the base for the substrate to act as a heat-sink and provide a cold room for meats and cheeses as well as wine

    In the UK many houses are built on soil and the cellar is an integral part of the foundation - the mass of the void of soil removed provides a "raft" to support the structure. Often damp, cool, and great places to find newts. Larger buildings for wealthier owners may also keep a lot of wine down there, but the term wine cellar can be used to refer to a cold room built above ground in a more modern structure.

    "The UK is not a wine producing country" - ah, I didn't know. I had better inform some of the wine makers who are investing literally millions of pounds in vineyards and wineries in the Thames Valley and the South Downs, or my ex-brother-in-law whose sparkling blanc-de-noir pinot retails at the same price point (around fifty bucks a bottle) as a mid-range champagne... and have been on the menu in a triple-michelin-starred restaurant!

    To be fair we're probably not a big exporter - yet - but get yourself over for a few vineyard tours when you can. You will be amazed. We don't have the climate for the full-bodied reds from Burgundy, or the ass-kicking fruity wines of Cali or Oz, but you would be amazed at the whites and roses, and especially the sparkling wines (we have pretty much the same climate as the Champagne region). Fruity, light, and eminently drinkable stuff. Oh, and the ex-b-i-l's bonded wine cellar is a converted snail farm built with thick walls for temperature control.
     
  9. Naomasa298

    Naomasa298 HP: 10/190 Status: Confused Contributor

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    I can't wait to watch the British version of Falcon Crest, with Peggy Mitchell as Angela Channing. :D
     
  10. Teladan

    Teladan Contributor Contributor

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    Cheers. I should say this would be a converted/disused wine cellar. I imagine it as a kind of stone basement with an arched brick roof. There would be rows of shelves upon which sit maybe a hundred or so jars and other misc. containers. I'm not principally concerned with humidity and whatnot as it's really just a storage area that I have in mind. It was just a handy way of having a pre-existing area to keep these strange objects. I'm aware that wine production is primarily a Mediterranean affair, but I'd assumed there'd be a UK presence, perhaps in places like Devon. I suppose if it is a genuine converted wine cellar then I would actually need to write a house that existed in a wine-making locale at some point. Of course I could keep it vague--the house could be anywhere--but I also do want to have a nice bit of dreary English countryside in my story. That dreariness is obviously antithetical to wine making! The story is set in winter, but I can see there's a few contradictions in setting here. I'll have a think. Thanks.
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2021
  11. Triduana

    Triduana Member

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    I've had some very nice wines that were produced in the UK. :)

    Plenty of houses in the UK have wine cellars. You need only to check out the websites of some estate agents. For example :https://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/top-nine-wine-cellars/. If you look around, there's everything from modern terraced houses to mansions that have them. Not to mention restaurants: there's no reason why that house couldn't be a former restaurant.

    A lot of houses also have regular cellars: I've been in a house very similar to this that had one. No wine though: it housed a snooker table.
     
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  12. Teladan

    Teladan Contributor Contributor

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    That's a great resource. I'd vaguely known that wine cellars aren't only constructed and used by people who make wine, but I had my doubts for some reason. I mean, do people who merely enjoy wine go to such lengths to create large wine cellars? I suppose what I'm asking is, can wine cellars exist at distance from wine production areas? I'm not intending to write about wine making or anything of the sort in the story. It's literally just going to be used for storage. The question still stands whether the house in my picture could potentially have a wine cellar though. Judging by those images on Rightmove wine cellars are more often than not situated in vast stately houses. I suppose my cellar can be smaller in scale.

    Much appreciated.

    Edit: Also, I don't believe we've met before. Hello! I grew up just outside Edinburgh, in Tranent.

    Edit 2: I might opt instead for a dusty timbered attic/loft. Simple and suits my collector's disoriented mind, literally and symbolically. Thanks, everyone.
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2021
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  13. Triduana

    Triduana Member

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    Nice to meet you :)

    Yes, a wine cellar can just be somewhere that's used to store wine. It doesn't have to be near a wine production area! So I see no reason why the house in your picture can't have one.
     
  14. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    Totally reminds me of—what story was it by Poe, where he went down into his wine cellar and it actually was a series of caves with fungus growing on the walls and ceiling. Was it the Cask of Amontillado? He took somebody down there with him, and didn't bring him back. I think he walled the poor guy in behind bricks.
     
  15. Teladan

    Teladan Contributor Contributor

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    Yeah, that sounds like Amontillado. Very good short.
     
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  16. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    Do I remember right, that the fungus was exuding some kind of evil influence, like a hallucinogenic spore dust or something, that was making him insane? Lol, maybe that's why some wines are more powerful than others... :cool:
     
  17. Teladan

    Teladan Contributor Contributor

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    Oh, that is the strangest thing. My brain skipped over your references to fungus or I was mistaking it for something else. I think I just read "insane" and thought of how the characters get drunk, remembering a vague feeling of disorientation. Your fungus spore addition is like a Lovecraftian version of the story!
     
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  18. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    Ok, I misremembered it, Just looked the story up and it's not fungus, it's something called nitre, which turns out to be potassium nitrate. Lol, I did sort of Lovecraft it up!
     

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