Ali's House with voice over
 

For those of you wanting to hear what I sound like and see where I live, here you go.

That's excellent and you have a lovely pleasant voice. I particularly like the cat cage. Also, that's a huge honkin' gas grill! Can cook a lot of minipigs at once on that thing.

lol...yeah, we've had a few bbq's in our time. We're actually going to have a large deck built out at ground level shortly and the bbq will either go on that or it'll have it's own slab. I'm looking forward to that.

And thanks for the compliment.

:applause:

What a lovely home, and a lovely voice. Very very nice, Aliantha.

oh, and I have to thank Jimbo for helping me with the youtube part.

Isn't he so lovely?

thanks V. ;)

Excellent! Thank you... great job too.

lovely, thanks. i'll do my house the day I get it even half tidy, promise....

It doesn't need to be tidy. lol Just go ahead and do it.

OH YES IT DOES

why?

That's a type of house often found at the beach, over here.

I guess that must be why I always feel like I'm on holiday then. :)

Ali T is in da house!

Thanks champ, loved the tour, the classic Queensland style house, and especially the accent. Why didn't we see under the house? Or is that where you keep the bodies?

And was it just me or did that feel like a first-person-shooter game?

lol....I could show you under the house, but then I'd have to kill you. ;)

That's Why....... ;)

Verry Cool Ali !!
I like you'alls little slice of heaven !!

The stairs Could be troubleing after a few beer though !!

Thanks Zippy. We like it too. Suits us pretty well.

I try to stay off the stairs when I've been drinking.

What a fun little guided tour that was. Love your house--it looks so comfy.

This is a neat idea, I hope more folks do this. I may, but my apartment is always an embarrassing heap.

Nice Ali. Very nice.

Ali Ali Ali
Oh I did enjoy my stay!
Thank you!

(in my dreams we end up with a Dwellars Dwelling thread but I know it would be too personal for most people to participate)

I love your voice - the rising inflection I expected of course, but it still made me smile. And you saying PRO-ject (where the pro rhymes with slow) took me back to when I worked with an Aussie project manager (our pro is short, like the o in top). And you say growen rather than grown (ours sounds like groan) I love it.

Your house is beautiful - reminds me of my Uncle's house in Brisbane about 10 years ago - I haven't been but I saw photos when the rest of the family did. Sadly they moved to a custom made bungalow which is far less attractive.

Notice you skimmed the bathroom to make sure you weren't caught in the mirror - as I did :)

I'm going to add "The Cellar: Is there anywhere else to be" as a tagline in homage to you.

Are the cats house cats? I admire the cat cage, but it that just for them to feel secure or is that their outside experience? Before I moved here my cats were house cats so it's not a loaded question.

I didn't hear the birds as you went in, but as soon as you came into the back yard (nice pool!) it made it clear this was as foreign a country as you can get (for Brits I mean). Wonderful. Except for the spiders of course. And the heat ;)

Thanks again - I love to tour other people's houses and hear their voices, spot on.

SG, the cat cage is supposedly thier 'only' outside experience unless they 'escape' somehow, which is usually due to visitors not closing the doors properly or so on.

The cage is also where they get put if they disgrace themselves by either stealing food or being generally annoying in other ways. When that happens we call the cage 'Pentridge' after one of Australias most notorious prisons. They do hop in there themselves when they feel like it though, so it's not like it's a prison for them really.

About your uncles place, a lot of people are now building 'new' old queenslanders which is the style I think you mean when you say bungalow. A timber house with verandahs on at least two sides. Lots of others are renovating old old queenslanders too and they're worth a packet because they're pretty much solid timber.

Nah, his is on the style of a British bungalow. A one storey, ground level brick built place. It's big but charmless.

Can you believe they decided against air conditioning? They've put in units in some of the rooms (not sure how this works, again I haven't been there) but thought it wasn't necessary for them all. And they're not short of money!

Ah well, unfair of me to judge I spose (except my Kiwi Aunt called my parents' house "pokey" and my parents' estate "a warren" so I don't feel too guilty!)

Maybe they're in an area that catches a good breeze to cool the house most of the time but have aircon in the bedrooms? That's fairly common over here because it's expensive to run.

Possibly. After all my Aunty was born with this level of heat and my Uncle had time to get used to it.

My parents (who love European heat), brother (more used to US heat) and Grandad (Irish!) found it an odd decision. It makes sense the way you put it.

ETA - it is ugly though ;)

I don't like lowset brick houses as a rule. In my opinion they lack character. I think it's what you grow up with though. That being said, I was raised in a lowset brick house. lol I always wanted to live in a highset timber with verandahs though.

Sweet!! That was SO fun!

Awesome job, thank you!! I need to look up Brisbane and learn a bit more about it's climate. Is your house on stilts? No basement? That is so weird to me. Your littlest dog was so hamming for the camera, lol.

I totally want to do this, but muct check with hubby to see if it's OK. So cool!

I always forget that people in the rest of the country have basements. Ain't no such thing as a basement in Texas. It's all limestone and granite underneath us. Do they count the basement as part of the square footage when they talk about the sizes of houses up there?

If they're finished, I think they do.

No basements in Texas? Where do you guys go for tornadoes?

Very cool, Ali, thanks!

If they are walk-out, have windows on at least 3 sides, and are finished. Otherwise no.
It's not just Texas that lacks basements - Jim's dad had a hell of a time getting his builder to to put a half basement in NC, and we didn't see any in CA either.

yeah...Mission viejo was apparently one big ant hill.

Depends. I'll ask a realtor what the 'rules' are, but on a listing there is usually a 'total' square footage and a 'finished' square footage.

I don't remember what our house was listed as...the main floor is about 1000 sqft, but the basement is 5/6 finished, adding about another 800 sqft of living space. The part that isn't ''finished" is the laundry/storage area that is underneath the steps and alongside a portion of them.


Florida didn't have basements either. Where do you people put all your STUFF???

I have to agree:) Ain't takin no camera around my house till it stops looking someone who needs a social worker lives there.

Lovely home.

I jinx posted some "rules" and I know she's a real-estate junkie, so i'm guessing they're pretty spot on. They're pretty much what i remember from when househunting -so two houses listed as the same size could be vastly different if one had a finished usuable basement.

I believe the rooms in a finished basement can be listed as long as they have a window and a closet. For example, a house with 3 bedrooms on the main floor and one in the basement that meets the criteria would be considered a 4 bedroom house. At least that is true in this state.

Doorways? Everyone knows they only hit trailer parks anyway, not real houses. :) Worst case scenario, I've heard that the advice is to lay down in the bathtub with a bed mattress on top, but I wouldn't really know. Flooding is really more our standard weather disaster.

The only houses in Australia that are underground in any way are those which are 'cut in' on a steep slope but I wouldn't call that a basement, or maybe the people who live in caves...but they're not really basements either.

The only people I can think of who have basement like structures in their houses are people with wine cellars, but even they are few and far between in these days of air conditioning.

There'd be more in Sydney I suspect, but I don't know of anyone in Qld with a basement. We like living above ground up here. :)

You have a very nice home - I enjoyed my stay.:)

Thanks Jester. :)

There are plenty of houses with wine cellars in Victoria.

I'd love to have one.

I'd just love to have a room full of wine.

They're not really people either ... ever been to Coober Pedy?
(FYI, this is an opal mining town in the middle of the desert where most people live in mines that have been modified into houses. Much cooler. But filled with people on the run from something else, its all a no-second-name cash-economy, watch-your-back scene.)

Lots of old houses in Adelaide have cellars, presumably for wine and other storage before air conditioning.

How long until your oldest moves out? ;)

Actually we were just chatting about this last night. I'd say my husband and I will likely move away from this house before either of the kids move out. The oldest is only 11, so a few more years at least before he should be going anywhere. :)

The idea is for us (me and dazza) to move out of the city and leave this house for the kids to live in while they're in uni or trying to get themselves set up as adults. That's a few years away though. We're looking for a block of land somewhere on the coast atm though. We figure that way we'll be able to find the perfect spot. :)

That's a really interesting idea, and a good one. Usually, I hear of kids "leaving the nest," but not the parents.

In Joe R Lansdale's Hap and Leonard series of books (set in East Texas) two of the main characters ride out a tornado in just this fashion. I've used this "tip" in conversation before, to sound more worldy than I am :)

I thought Texas had a lot of tornadoes.

But yeah, the tub thing or an inside wall is next best. Unless you're in a trailer, in which case you should just run screaming down the street and hope for the best! :)

Thanks Ali, very nice. It's amazing, from the sound of your voice I really couldn't tell that your toilets flush in reverse.

As a state, we probably have more than most, but they have a lot of room to spread out. Plus, they really only form in the big open flat areas, which tend to be much less inhabited. All the major cities are built on the more appealing land, i.e. hills. The last major one that I remember making the news was about 8 years ago, and it hit a little podunk town called Jarrell. It was mostly... trailers. :)

Ali. I finally got to watch it. Can't see YouTube at work.

Man you have one sexy voice.... anyway, lovely home. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, that makes sense. Ohio is so densely populated, you can't swing a tornado without hitting a cat.

Sorry, not mean to threadjack. I too enjoyed your home and your voice, Ali. :o

Thanks Merc and Shawnee. :) Go ahead and thread jack all you like. I've done a bit of that in my time anyway. Who am I to criticize?

oh and Merc...does that mean I'll be able to sweet talk you in future? ;)

Potentially. Only if my wife and I can come and visit you and your hubby for vacation. :p

Sure...if you like.