Irish House Oddities

whisky_galore · 22-10-2015 3:00pm

The built-on additions, that make the whole house look lop-sided.

And converting the attic space with this crap sticking out of the roof.
http://c2.thejournal.ie/media/2011/03/Seaview-Clifden-Co.-Galway1-390x285.jpg

jester77 · 22-10-2015 3:03pm

The Backwards Man wrote: »

A wee yoke behind the fire/stove/range that heats the water pipes that feed the hot tank that distributes the water for central heating and taps.

Exact same system as you're using btw, except someone else is heating it for you.

ah, I know that system, didn't know the name of it. My parents have that in their house. They have this huge Stanley range taking up the best part of the living room (used to take turf, has since been converted with some sort of an oil burner that requires turning up the TV when it kicks in) and it heats the boiler.

Another great feature from my parents is that this range will heat all the radiators in the house. These radiators are mainly behind couches or beds and under windows. When you walk into the rooms they are ice cold while the radiator would burn the hand off you to touch. You could hold your hand a foot away from the radiator and feel no warmth, just the cold coming down from the window.

Thud · 22-10-2015 3:07pm

Candie wrote: »

OMG that reminds me while I'm at it! Those bits of carpet that don't even go on the floor, but on the toilet seat lid!

LIKE THIS!

Who need the lid of the loo seat carpeted???

gotta match it with one of these:

il_340x270.437875273_s0ry.jpg

22-10-2015 3:09pm

Thud wrote: »

gotta match it with one of these:

That's style, that is. :pac:

jester77 · 22-10-2015 3:09pm

Candie wrote: »

OMG that reminds me while I'm at it! Those bits of carpet that don't even go on the floor, but on the toilet seat lid!

LIKE THIS!

Who need the lid of the loo seat carpeted???

Have you never come home absolutely wasted and have had to spend the night hanging over the toilet, unfit to drag yourself back to your bed? You will be greatful for having this for resting your head on

22-10-2015 3:11pm

jester77 wrote: »

Have you never come home absolutely wasted and have had to spend the night hanging over the toilet, unfit to drag yourself back to your bed? You will be greatful for having this for resting your head on

*smug face*

I don't drink.

*smugger face*

TheNobleKipper · 22-10-2015 3:12pm

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

:eek:
I hope this is a joke, for your sake.

No it's not, why would it? What's the reason for not having sockets in the bathroom when it seems OK to have them right next to the kitchen sink? I really can't understand it.

KERSPLAT! · 22-10-2015 3:18pm

TheNobleKipper wrote: »

No it's not, why would it? What's the reason for not having sockets in the bathroom when it seems OK to have them right next to the kitchen sink? I really can't understand it.

It's not OK to have them right next to the kitchen sink, there are regs that give minimum distances with regards to sinks, etc and zones in a bathroom as to where and what electrical devices can be placed in that zone.

Each electrical device is IP rated. An electric shower would have a high IP rating, it would have measures in place to stop steam and water getting inside, a 13a socket doesn't.

Spray water on an electric shower and you'll be fine, spray water on a standard socket and you'll probably get lifted out of it.

TheNobleKipper · 22-10-2015 3:26pm

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

It's not OK to have them right next to the kitchen sink, there are regs that give minimum distances with regards to sinks, etc and zones in a bathroom as to where and what electrical devices can be placed in that zone.

Each electrical device is IP rated. An electric shower would have a high IP rating, it would have measures in place to stop steam and water getting inside, a 13a socket doesn't.

Spray water on an electric shower and you'll be fine, spray water on a standard socket and you'll probably get lifted out of it.

But that doesn't explain why other countries have sockets in bathrooms without fatalities being reported on a regular basis?

KERSPLAT! · 22-10-2015 3:28pm

TheNobleKipper wrote: »

But that doesn't explain why other countries have sockets in bathrooms without fatalities being reported on a regular basis?

Lower voltages, different regs, no idea tbh but that's the reason we don't have sockets in the bathroom. There probably is a zone where you can have one and sure you can have shaving sockets

jester77 · 22-10-2015 3:29pm

TheNobleKipper wrote: »

But that doesn't explain why other countries have sockets in bathrooms without fatalities being reported on a regular basis?

I have four sockets, a double on each side of the sink in my bathroom. Electric tootbrushes, razor and hair dryer are plugged in. Pretty much standard in every house here. Haven't heard of anyone being electrocuted from it.

Doesn't Ireland also have a funny rule regarding the light switch for the bathroom, that it has to be outside the bathroom and not inside?

Duggy747 · 22-10-2015 3:30pm

A wooden spoon that used more for beatings than making food with :pac:

Eutow · 22-10-2015 3:31pm

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Sink full of dishes and someone comes along with a cup to be washed that's half full of cold tea. What do you do?

asherbassad wrote: »

And what do you do with the cups that are still half full of tea or milk that are waiting to be washed? Do you just fcuk the tea dregs into the water that you are using to wash everything else or do you empty a perfectly good sink-full of hot, sudsy water, pour the dregs down the drain and then refill the sink to wash the cups?

Or do you yourself gulp down all the slops and then wash the empty cups? Most people don't want to do that.

Simple. Pour it down the sink beside the one that is full of dishes.

whisky_galore · 22-10-2015 3:32pm

Holy water fonts.

TheNobleKipper · 22-10-2015 3:34pm

Also, why don't Irish houses have cellars?

Cantona's Collars · 22-10-2015 3:35pm

"The good room". A firm staple for the older generation.A room where kids weren't allowed into as it was kept immaculate for visitors who also got to use the "good delph and biscuits".

whisky_galore · 22-10-2015 3:35pm

TheNobleKipper wrote: »

Also, why don't Irish houses have cellars?

Irish houses are damp enough built above ground...

KERSPLAT! · 22-10-2015 3:36pm

jester77 wrote: »

I have four sockets, a double on each side of the sink in my bathroom. Electric tootbrushes, razor and hair dryer are plugged in. Pretty much standard in every house here. Haven't heard of anyone being electrocuted from it.

Doesn't Ireland also have a funny rule regarding the light switch for the bathroom, that it has to be outside the bathroom and not inside?

You can have a pull cord switch inside with the correct IP rating but yes, for the most part you wouldn't find a standard light switch inside a bathroom in Ireland

mikeymouse · 22-10-2015 3:38pm

sticking stones onto walls to look like a stone built house

whiskeyman · 22-10-2015 3:39pm

No one mentioned 'the parlour' yet?
It's really more from the older generation I guess... the one room in the house that smells of rich mahogany, has all the wedding crystal etc... photos everywhere, and it totally out of bounds unless the local priest pops in for a cuppa.
The rest if the house could be falling apart, but the parlour is always immaculate!

EDIT - sorry, Zerks got there with 'the good room'

jester77 · 22-10-2015 3:41pm

zerks wrote: »

"The good room". A firm staple for the older generation.A room where kids weren't allowed into as it was kept immaculate for visitors who also got to use the "good delph and biscuits".

My parents had that as well growing up, was always locked except when guests were over. Actually, thinking about it, they had a very odd naming convention for the rooms in the house. They good room was called the "sitting room". The room that I would call the living room, was called the kitchen (technically there was range in it where you could put some pots on for keeping food warm), and the room where the cooking was done was called the "back kitchen". Probably because it was at the back of the house and it was a kitchen.

secondrowgal · 22-10-2015 3:42pm

Washing machines in the kitchen (where there is no utility room/space under the stairs).

My friends on the continent cannot understand this - dirty washing in the kitchen, with food, uggghhh.

Most of the houses that I have been in in Europe have the washing machine in the bathroom.

Buona Fortuna · 22-10-2015 3:44pm

redbel05 wrote: »

The compulsory sacred heart picture in rural homes. Extra Irish if it has a red light attached that flickers subtly. Just to give that homely feeling, ya know

That was the first thing to go on the fire when we first moved back here.

Mind you I'm probably still paying for it.

Bloody creepy things.

kylith · 22-10-2015 3:48pm

Eutow wrote: »

Simple. Pour it down the sink beside the one that is full of dishes.

Look at you; la-di-dah with your two sinks!

Separate hot and cold taps comes from the days before central heating and the cold water would be heated by boiling. When heating came in it was rare to see mixer taps so two single taps would have been used.

Radiators under windows: the cold air coming in the window meets the hot air rising from the radiator and stops it rising to the ceiling so it heats the middle range of the room. What I find bonkers is people who then have long curtains that hang down over the radiator which ensure that no warm air reaches the room at all.

LDN_Irish · 22-10-2015 3:49pm

secondrowgal wrote: »

Washing machines in the kitchen (where there is no utility room/space under the stairs).

My friends on the continent cannot understand this - dirty washing in the kitchen, with food, uggghhh.

Most of the houses that I have been in in Europe have the washing machine in the bathroom.

Clean washing in the bathroom? Where the dirty people wash? Uggghhh. I hope the toilet isn't in the bathroom in thise fancy continental houses. Otherwise there's **** all over the clean washing the same way there's dirty washing all over the food in our houses.

Only messing, I don't understand this being an issue at all but its not the first time I've heard it.

whisky_galore · 22-10-2015 3:51pm

In older houses, every single room covered in fcuking wallpaper, usually the floral/paisley pattern variety.

Net curtains, the precursor to the one-way-mirror.

The coloured bathroom suite.

ballsymchugh · 22-10-2015 3:53pm

gutenberg wrote: »

Have been living in the UK for 5 years, and no English house I've been in has had a hot press. I miss it...

the house i was living in in England had a hot press, it was built around 2001.
combi boilers have become more common since so the water is heated as you use it. it helps when the country has a widespread gas network though.
hence we have immersion heaters.

alias no.9 · 22-10-2015 3:54pm

Scipio_Hib wrote: »

Had visitor once remark on the lack of bidets in Irish houses - implication being that we all must have mucky arses!

Easily solved by doing a handstand in the shower

P0lygon Wind0w · 22-10-2015 3:55pm

whisky_galore wrote: »

Holy water fonts, Batman.

FTFY

kylith · 22-10-2015 3:57pm

secondrowgal wrote: »

Washing machines in the kitchen (where there is no utility room/space under the stairs).

My friends on the continent cannot understand this - dirty washing in the kitchen, with food, uggghhh.

Most of the houses that I have been in in Europe have the washing machine in the bathroom.

Do they think we rub the dirty clothes on the food or something?

I'd imagine this came from the kitchen being the only room with a water connection, toilets being either tiny or outdoors.

I've been in European houses with no sink in the WC. Now THAT is rank

Irish House Oddities

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