(no subject)

[apocalypsos]

The more I watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the more I think Paige is really an Interior Designer Barbie brought to life, although it's less because she's blonde and always dresses in pink and more because she's nearly always doing a little girl's room and they all look EXACTLY the same in the end. "Well, I'm going to paint it pink, and I'm going to slap fairies/unicorns/princesses/butterflies on the walls!"

Comments

[jahura.livejournal.com]

I had another thought (http://www.livejournal.com/users/jahura/2005/08/23/) about that show recently - WHY would anyone in their right minds live in a house that was put up in seven days?

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

It's always primarily woodframe construction. Put enough people and gear on it (more than economically viable, in fact) and that's more than doable. Nothing needs to dry before you do other stuff, and such, unlike when building brick walls (you can only do about 3-4 feet of brick courses a day). As long as you start with seasoned wood for the beams (ie, you don't cut the trees down in those 7 days) it should be okay, at least in as much as wood frame construction is ever okay. But I'm prejudiced agaunst wood frame -- it barely exists over here (here here is not the US). I *have* noticed that people who live in predominantly wood-frame areas of the US say things with a straight face like "lifetime of a house is on average about 50 years".

But, technically speaking, even woodframe, when properly maintained (and that means keeping the roof, walls, and windows watertight), should last centuries. Before brick/stone construction became economically viable, whole cities were built on wooden frames (which of course is why the Great Fire Of London frex burnt down three quarters of the city, and why many locales have building codes that spec not-burnable construction).