Dream Monastery

[pieces o nine]

Very cool!



1. How many books can you fit into one of those?   
2. And high-speed internets? 

[Aggie]

Interwhats?

LOL, you don't want to see what I have in mind for full-time Sibling rooms in any prospective Monastery, which would be based very much on some of the oil camps I've stayed in (although properly constructed and not in some grotty modular sheet-metal unit).  5' x 10', with a single bed and desk built into the wall, small wardrobe for storage... well enough for the purpose of sleeping, provided you've got enough living space around the Monastery.  Paying guests naturally need a little more pampering.

[Opsa]

That sounds like Monastery-like accommodations, and a nice way to get away from it all.

There is a monastery not too far from here where anyone can go for a few days of quiet. Not that we'd be quiet!

[Darlica]

Advice noted - thanks!  

I'll admit that the 'last year's straw' thing worried me in terms of mould, and I did cast an eye to the lack of snow-worthiness (which could be a concern inland, but probably not on the coast).  I'm realistically thinking more along the lines of summer guesthouses than year-round residences, actually.  

Straw is fine, you just need to learn how to treat it properly, but one needs to know that about the chosen building material no matter what it is made of.

[ivor]

I vote Darlica for construction project supervisor!

[Darlica]

 

I'm not sure that would be wise...

For starters I'm on the wrong continent.

Then, I'm a sucker for redundancy so I usually chose thicker/tougher materials and constructions than actually needed so it's likely to end up rather expensive if I'm left to do things my way...  

I blame the choice of materials on my maternal grandpa who was a carpenter and liked whatever he built to last... and who taught me most of what I know about building materials and construction.
   

[Aggie]

Not a bad thing...  provided we can get our hands on the natural resources. 

Bamboo, I fear, is not a very durable building material, but logs are, and we have lots of 'em here, potentially.  Depends if the land's been logged or not.

[Swatopluk]

Don't underestimate bamboo, provided it is handled expertly.
But it is of course less squid-safe.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

 
Total agreement, have you seen bamboo kitchen chopping boards? As to how economical is to process it to reach that kind of quality I have no clue.

[Aggie]

The biggest problem that I've heard of is susceptibility to rotting in moist environments.  There are a few treatments that can help, but nothing that I've run across yet that would make it suitable for roofing, for example.  Interior and protected-exterior applications should be fine, but there seem to be limitations as a long-term primary construction material. I'd want main support beams to be made from timber, as far as I can tell. Supposedly it's vulnerable to insects and fungi as well, but perhaps not in a non-native (North American temperate forest) climate.

It's good strong stuff with a high tensile strength, otherwise, provided it's old enough (3 - 7 years) and seasoned correctly. I'm also going to poke around a little at whether it's possible to artificially petrify the stuff, given that the natural silica content is quite high (perhaps it'd work better than wood, which is a dream of mine).

[Griffin NoName]

Bags I don't dig out the moat.

[ivor]

I vote Grif to dig the moat...

[Swatopluk]

If we chose Norway, the fjord would be our moat. And we would not need a fourth wall since we would have the mountains at our back.

[Griffin NoName]

I vote Grif to dig the moat...

I vote MB to dig the latrines

[ivor]

Where's the shovel.... *sigh*