Our roof room sits deliberately low down inside what was the water tank. This is to stop it dominating the overall appearance of the tower and topmost structure. Several things were incorporated into its design to minimise its outward appearance.
From inside though the lowered floor of the roof room is disappointing in that all that a seated person inside the room can see is the inside wall of the cast iron tank. Impressive but frustrating. The view to the east is further restricted by frosting to the lower parts of of the roof room's glazed east wall. That was a planning requirement to prevent us overlook an adjoining garden. It doesn't work at all well as visitors always ask about it and on hearing the explanation they invariably stand on tiptoes and look over the frosting or go outside to satisfy their natural curiosity.
To the west though are much finer views stretching for miles into Lancashire, the Forest of Bowland and the hills above.
The roof room has had its problems - cold in winter, hot in summer and bedevilled by cluster flies in autumn - see recent posts. The fly problem seems to have been solved or drastically reduced - time will tell for sure. The room has been used as an occasional bedroom, dining room and TV lounge but it has lacked a main purpose. Yet there it sits overlooking a view-to-die-for, rarely seen. I have long wondered about building a viewing platform in that otherwise underused room. Well, at last I've done it:
Simple really - a modern see-through sliding two-seater chair, securely mounted on a spare table that was just waiting for a permanent use. Accessed by three steps, the seated occupant now looks straight out over that stunning view. Incidentally, the picture shows well the clever design of the massive steel verticals which form the window frames and support the roof. They are of T section with a very deep upstroke of the T and very small horizontal top strokes. That design enables very slender frames when viewed from outside yet makes for a massively strong roof support. Compare the verticals on each side of the viewing platform.
Sitting in comfort and in any sort of weather there it is in all its glory. Thanks to recent tree felling we can even see the trains. The only impediment is the horizontal black (purely ornamental) handrail. That will be made removable and we shall see if things look right with that arrangement. The inside of the tank will have a repaint while we are at it. Work in progress but hopefully the result will be an enjoyable and really useful roof room. The presently very obvious former dining table may yet be cunningly disguised. Standing head-height on that viewing platform is right up to the ceiling.
No dining tables were harmed in the making of this structure.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Do please leave comments. If nothing else it shows that there is somebody out there.