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The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread
- Thread starter The Mom
- Start date
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
I grew up being told that we were German. I was told that by my grandparents and my parents. We had been blood mongreling due to a large number of French (and others including native american). We lived on the border of Quebec back in the days when masks were not mandatory.It's a family rumor that we have Irish, but it would have had to have been during the revolution unless things just got lost in history. We do have people on the tree who popped out of nowhere (hence the African). The DNA test can't tell the difference between English and Irish, but I know for a fact I'm English.
What's funny is my dad's aunts used to insist that they were not German; they were English. Then I did the family research. There was one English person on their side of the family (most of my English is from Mom's side with one recent relative on my dad's mom's side). It was Dutch, French, and a whole lotta German.And I now have a DNA test to prove it.
About 5 years ago, I did a family tree for our entire family, my wife's and even my son in laws. I was quite extensive. To my complete surprise my surname traced back to London, England. The first one came here in the 1600's with a land grant in the Boston area from the King. (Ironically, after surviving the trip he died about 3 months later. Leaving his wife and three young sons to carry on. Over the years they splinted off and eventually ended up in Upper New York state within 10 miles of the Canadian Border. Even my wife came from Canada and her Father was born in London and her mother was 100% Irish. It was going to cost to much to explore the English connection any further.
Figgy1
Well-Known Member
MinnieM123
Premium Member
It's snow beautiful (and the aurora borealis ain't too shabby, either)! 
Figgy1
Well-Known Member
It would be much prettier if seen from a warm tropical beach
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1 day until spring
Songbird76
Well-Known Member
E would LOVE this!!!
Songbird76
Well-Known Member
Are those railroad ties in the first picture, holding up the overhang on the patio? I can appreciate a lot of different styles, though there are things that just aren't my particular style. Like...I think the railroad ties are pretty cool, and a good way to reuse old material so there's less waste, but it doesn't really appeal to me aesthetically. The house I mentioned in India in which the entire front facade was old doors....it's a cool idea, and used existing old doors, so there was no waste, but it just looked so ugly on the outside. On the inside, it gave kind of a cool effect with the light coming through the windows on those old doors, and they built it so some doors open up like a window to a balcony or whatever...cool concept, but I wouldn't want to look at that every day in my own home, you know?Cool…!!!
I’m actually a bit all over the place (which is actually a good thing for a designer
As far as pools go…
We had a client a while back that wanted three windows from his pool looking into his man cave at the same level. I know it went into construction documents after I worked on the design, but, I’m not sure of the status…we’re still so darn busy…thankfully.
I also did a design on Lake Travis recently where the wife wanted to research the cost of a glass bottom pool above a terrace below…yea, they didn’t have quite the budget for it, so we designed it where there’s an upper pool at the “Owner’s Retreat” level, that then cascades down into another pool at the game room and secondary bedroom level below.
Just a few examples below, from our residential portfolio, that I could definitely live in…again, all over the place…rustic, Mediterranean, a little mid-century modern-ish…!!!!!!!
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One thing I LOVE is the use of natural stone in combination with glass. Like in that first picture, the natural stone facade with the big glass doors opening onto a patio...if I could design my dream house, I'd want to incorporate that. I also LOVE bay windows.....my dream home has several of them, with window seats in them where I can cozy up in the window and read. I'd love to have like, a window seat with a sort of table like they have in airplane seats that can be folded away into the wall when not in use, but could be pulled out when I want to sit and read and have a mug of hot cocoa, etc.
Whenever we are driving somewhere, we like to look at houses along the way and imagine what it looks like inside. It's about a 3.5 hour drive between my home town and where I went to college and we had houses picked out in each town along the way that are "ours". There's one in Douglas, one just outside of Wheatland, well...I guess those are really the only 2 towns in between unless you count Bill, but Bill is really only a stop for the railroad workers and it has a hotel and restaurant, but the population is like...11, and that's nearly double from what it was when I lived in Wyoming. They built the hotel with the restaurant something like 5-7 years ago. When I was growing up, it was population 7 and consisted of a bar that was in the old postal office, and a church, and I THINK you could get gas there, but we never did, because it was only 35 miles from where we lived, and the gas was overpriced because it was the ONLY thing between Wright and Douglas, so if you didn't stop in Wright, it was another 75 miles before you hit another town, other than Bill. Anyway, I love looking at houses and wish I could see the inside of them.
Songbird76
Well-Known Member
There's a rumor in my family that we're related to President McKinley, and my Great Great grandmother's maiden name was McKinley, but we can't find the connection. Apparently, at some ralley, she was there and he greeted her and called her "cousin", but no one seems to know where the lines meet.It's a family rumor that we have Irish, but it would have had to have been during the revolution unless things just got lost in history. We do have people on the tree who popped out of nowhere (hence the African). The DNA test can't tell the difference between English and Irish, but I know for a fact I'm English.
What's funny is my dad's aunts used to insist that they were not German; they were English. Then I did the family research. There was one English person on their side of the family (most of my English is from Mom's side with one recent relative on my dad's mom's side). It was Dutch, French, and a whole lotta German.
I have some Irish, some Scottish, a bunch of English and a ton of German in my anscestry....and a very very tiny bit of french. One german guy married a french woman somewhere along the line, but the rest of my mom's family is thoroughly German....all German. My dad's family is mostly English, but he had a great grandfather who was scottish and married to an Irish woman.
Did your dad's aunts grow up during or just after the world wars, by chance? A LOT of people denied their German heritage at that time. It was not a very popular thing to be associated with anything German. The Windsor family actually changed their name because they wanted to distance themselved from their German heritage.
donaldtoo
Well-Known Member
Actually, those aren’t railroad ties, they’re rough-hewn 8”x8” wood columns. Not sure if they’re reclaimed lumber or not, but, we’ve done several projects that used such.
Yea, the door house sounds cool, in theory, but, I couldn’t deal with that every day either.
Wonder if it was inspired by “Monsters, Inc.”…?!!!!!
I appreciate stone and glass, as well. Makes for a nice combo.
We’ve also done many homes with bay windows, although, not many these days in the traditional angled bay. Mostly square/rectangular bays/boxouts these days…window seats, day beds, reading nooks.
And, yes, there are many houses I drive by every day that I wonder what they look like inside…also many I drive by each day that I know what they look like inside, ‘cause we designed ’em…!!!!!
Bottom line, architecture is fun to me, any way you slice it…darn you again, Mike Brady…!!!!!!!
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