Cottage for well-being and aesthetic upliftment

Cottage concept for cultural recreation

1. Introduction - motivation of cottages
Nowadays (as it is sometimes called "modern" - or "postmodern"?) Full of hustle, ecological, sound, light, information and especially mental (thought) " smog ", many people naturally try to find Get some way to defend against these stressful influences and find physical and mental balance . Some people are engaged in travel, hiking in nature and in the mountains (many places, however, are overcrowded by tourists, which is the source of the devastation of the natural environment), spiritual directions and meditation, many hobbies and hobbies.

One of these ways is to harmonize lifestyle weekend cottages and country cottage . This phenomenon began to appear sporadically in our country even before World War II, but it reached almost mass development in the 1960s and 1980s. For some localities, it could even be said that one goes from the "city of tenements to the city of cottages"; however, it always depends mainly on the atmosphere of relations with the surrounding neighbors-cottagers. Since the 1990s, a partial retreat from this type of recreation (and self-realization) can be observed, caused by financial and economic difficulties of many families, as well as massive advertising and show business affecting lifestyle - a peaceful stay in modest cottage conditions is no longer enough for many people " attractive".

There have also been some criticisms of cottages (often politically motivated), according to which this phenomenon was only an escapein front of a "totalitarian" society into the "shell" of a cottage, and in today's market society it is no longer justified - everyone has to look for their self-realization in a successful business from morning to evening and then does not have time for such "robes" as a cottage or cottage; once or twice a year he can pay for a luxurious holiday, for example at the other end of the globe, so that he has something to show off in front of others. This criticism can perhaps be partially justified only by the "snobbish" variety of cottagers and cottagers who for stolen money build luxury residences, where they organize parties and "parties", without closer contact with nature and people in the locality where this "cottage" or " cottage "have. However, in relation to real cottagers, this criticism is completely unfounded and unfair.

Real cottagers devote themselves to this hobby and self-realization out of clearly positive motives. Fortunately, a certain part of people do not behave like "vending machines", they do not submit everything to the "economy" and the pursuit of money, they have their own distinctive lifestyle, which includes a deeper relationship with nature and people of a particular place, they actively realize their aesthetic feelings . After all, not everyone can "do business", "earn" big money and have an above-standard house built in an attractive location and move there. Everyone wouldn't even enjoy it. Many people want to practice their profession, which they control well and which they enjoy, they live in the city to which this work is tied, but at the same time they are related to a certain place.where they were either born or have friends there or love the local nature. Some then have grandparents or relatives in the countryside who visit and at the same time take care of their house and garden.
Our family was in such a situation in the 1970s. We regularly went to the small village of Boøenovicenear Holešov, where his wife's parents lived in his wife's birth house, already of an older age. Together with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, we helped them work in the large garden. The road ends in the village (only field roads continue), so there is relatively quiet. We also got along very well with the people living in the village, so we decided to "anchor" here more permanently and build an independent background. From an aunt living at the opposite end of the village, we bought a small house (1 +1) with a garden, which we decided to convert into a holiday cottage with the possibility of permanent housing (which we would use after retirement).

2. Cottage style solution
When starting to build or reconstruct a cottage, one should first think about and decide on the basic style of this cottage. There are a number of options, from a robust " rustic " style to a distinctly modernist concept emphasizing comfort with futurological design. How the cottager finally decides depends certainly on many circumstances, some of which are subjective and random (personal taste, inspiration ..., financial possibilities, advertising ...). However, if he wants to make a good decision , some objective facts need to be taken into account . The first is the size of the cottage and the land and its location . Another style is adequate for the outskirts of the city, another for solitude or a small distinctive village.

The most common style of country cottages is a rustic style with beamed ceilings, tiled stoves, plank floors, robust wooden furniture, typical props such as various tufts, butter churns, sieves, spikes, bread dough jars, car wheels .... This style is excellent suitable for larger cottages , where there used to be an agricultural farm. A cottage owner related to this style can build a very nice and pleasant environment here, evoking the feeling of "old peaceful times" before the era of technical development. However, they have to reckon with considerable demands on the maintenance of their own building part and land, which usually belongs to such a cottage.

When reconstructing our cottage, we initially also considered this rural style, because we come from the countryside and we grew up in a small farm. However, due to the small size of the cottage and the surrounding land, we eventually abandoned this method as inadequate. We decided to gradually build our cottage in a style where we could apply our aesthetic views and cultural orientation (as described below).

Cottage after reconstruction	Cottage in the winter evening

3. Cottage reconstruction technique
The initial stages of the reconstruction of each old cottage have many common features :

• 1. Floors
  It was necessary to remove old floors, choose clay to a depth of about 50 cm, put double insulation interspersed with concrete, connect to the wall insulation (in case of poor insulation "undercut" and re-insulate), lay a floor covering on a smoothed surface - we chose natural cork provided with a matt lacquer coating.
• 2. Roof
  - new roof beams, slabs, skylight, thermal insulation, new roofing - we insulated with ceramic expanded "perlite", we used red eternit as a roofing.
• 3. Attic and staircase
  The original land for hay was rebuilt into 3 attic rooms - living room-library, bedroom and a small children's room with a door to the terrace. Stairs made of solid beech wood, with railings, led from the hall to the attic.
• 5. Ceilings
  The original daub and the filling of the ceilings were removed, 14 cm "I" -shaped beams, reinforcing bars, concreting, laying a parquet floor in the attic rooms were built into the perimeter walls.
• 6. Boiler room, shed, cellar
  The original dilapidated economic part of the house towards the courtyard was rebuilt into a boiler room and a brick wood shed. Behind the boiler room and another room serving as a pantry and "must" was dug into the slope and bricked up a smaller cellar for fruit and wine, so far measuring about 4x2 meters, with the possibility of continuing further up the slope under the garden.
• 7. Heating of the cottage Good thermal comfort is the basis of a pleasant stay in the cottage. We have set up three ways for heating: - Large fireplace with cast iron fireplace, located in the main lower living room - library (see below). In this fireplace you can heat for comfort and heat, with the distribution of warm air through the grilles to other rooms. For several years, this fireplace served as the only source of heating for the cottage - during the day and in the early evening it was heated with wood with an open door (for comfort and warmth), at night in closed mode as a powerful permanent stove (heats all night, can be heated with coke). We also installed hot water central heating *) with the possibility of combined heating in two ways :
  - Hot water boiler for solid fuels . We used a powerful K58 boiler with two fuel shafts, connected in the lower part by a fireplace with a grate. One shaft poured fuel (especially coal), the other shaft burned itself. By a suitable setting, the air stream entrained the released gases, which were burned efficiently. There was practically no smoking from the chimney and the central heating thermometer was still over 90 ° C.
  Note: With the enormous rise in solid fuel prices, we gradually stopped using this hot water boiler.
  - Electric hot water boiler I had it made to measure according to my own design. I designed and made the electric control box myself. Power is switchable in the range 0-2kW-4kW-6kW -....- 18kW (in 2kW steps). However, we have never used more than 6 kW: in the autumn and spring months, 2-4 kW were enough, in the winter months, in severe frosts, 6 kW. Electric heating can be set using the "weekly" timer so that, for example, in winter, the heating is turned on as early as Thursday afternoon (to about 4kW), so on Friday evening you will come to a roughly heated cottage (if not, on Saturday in the morning the heating switches off again automatically). Then it is possible to continue with increased or decreased power, or. flood the fireplace ...
  *) A mixture (suspension) of mineral oil (we used hydraulic) with detergent is added to the central heating water. The mixture is dispersed in water, penetrates all places and a thin layer of oil settles on the inner walls of the pipes, radiators and valves shortly. It protects against corrosion and the valves can still be turned easily.
  A boiler with combined heating is used to heat hot water for the bathroom and kitchen: in winter it serves as a heat exchanger with water heating from central heating, in summer the water in the boiler is heated by an electric heater.  

  A hot water boiler for solid fuels (bottom) and an electric boiler with a control box (arrow above) *) are installed in the boiler room. There is also a pressure gauge, thermometer and pressure expansion vessel. *) Older analog timers (on the left, taped) have been replaced by digital ones (on the right of the cabinet).   The heated water is distributed through the central heating pipes to the radiators in the individual rooms and to the combined boiler for hot water heating.

• 8. Terrace
  The roof above the boiler room, shed and cider house was made of 16 cm "I" beams, hurdisks and reinforced concrete with insulation; equal to a very slight slope. It serves as a sunny terrace, it will also be covered with a "grass carpet", complete with railings. Attic rooms are connected to this terrace through the children's room. Here it is necessary to draw attention to the technical complexity of good insulation of a flat terrace against the inflow of rainwater and especially water from melting snow. Almost no one succeeds "for the first time", the insulation usually needs to be further improved based on experience with leaks in exposed areas.

4. Interior solutions, accessories and decorations
After completing the rough construction and renovation work, an important stage of building the interior can begin , which actually has the greatest impact on how we feel in the cottage. After considering the various options (mentioned in paragraph 2), we conceived the interior of the cottage and gradually built it in a way that corresponds to our cultural orientation and aesthetic sense - the concept of the cottage serving primarily for cultural recreation and counterbalanced to modernized urban lifestyle.

Furniture, lighting
Very simply put, the interior design could be described as a "slightly antique" style with eastern (oriental) elements. We are not orthodox proponents of "pure" styles. Only a small part of the furniture is really "antique" by the date of its production, most are made later while maintaining the style, or. manually reconstructed or modified.

Pleasant stylish lighting in the living rooms of the cottage is achieved by Chinese carved wooden lamps, on the glass of which are hand-painted Taoist motifs. The picture on the right shows a glow plug.

Indoor luminaires are mostly of traditional Chinese origin, painted with Taoist motifs, with adjustable brightness levels to achieve intimate lighting.

Passage between dining room and library with fireplace

The windows above the windows and entrances are carved (hand-made), with shaped decorative fabrics and lace. Candlesticks made of blackened metal are hung on the walls and columns. Oil "Aladdin's" lamps are placed on tables, cabinets and bookcases.

Chinese tea utensils in the dining room

In addition to a few pictures, carved shelves and other wooden accessories, Indian tapestries are hung on the walls , with hand-embroidered hydraulic motifs made of beads.

Attic room - view from the bedroom	Dining room at Christmas

Library-fireplace, listening to music
Our philosophical, cultural and aesthetic orientation is manifested mainly in two areas - books and music. At the cottage we have a very large collection of books (including old prints), unfortunately not very organized yet. Thematically, these are mainly books on nature (a number of pictorial publications and atlases), ethnography, philosophy, theology (eg missals, the Bible), history, etc.
On CDs, cassettes and minidiscs we have an extensive library of symphonic and spiritual music (masses, oratorios, Gregorian chant, Orthodox liturgical music ), traditional Indian , Chinese , Japanese , Islamic music ...

Library with fireplace where music is listened to	- view from the fireplace towards the dining room

Electroacoustic equipment
For the most perfect possible music listening (and recording), a powerful electroacoustic equipment is installed, consisting of high-quality components connected by analog and digital inputs and outputs. Comprising: receiver power amplifier connected to six speakers including a sub woofer ( s m Dolby Surround Prologic ) cassette ý tape (3 heads, three engines and the calibration pre-magnetization), CD player , minidisc recorder / player and digital equalizer .

In addition to this "large" electroacoustic system, the cottage uses a "mini tower" CHC-CL5MD (pictured right) containing in compact form a radio tuner, cassette recorder, CD player (with a 3-CD changer) and a minidisk. It is an ideal medium for regular listening of recordings from all common types of media; its advantage is easy and fast operation without the need to know the properties and interconnection of individual components.

Switch box allowing you to switch the stereo signal from any electroacoustic source independently to any listening place (room).

Listening to music or literary programs takes place mostly in a room called the " library-fireplace ", where the electro-acoustic equipment is located and where the speakers of the Dolby Surround Prologic system are placed "all around", enabling surround listening to music . Here (especially in the winter months by the burning fireplace) it is very nice to listen to eg organ and sacred music, but also traditional Chinese, Indian and Japanese music. However, the distribution of the stereo signal is by means of a special switch box (see picture) also implemented in all other rooms on the ground floor and attic, where there are always two speakers - dining room, kitchen, bedroom, living room, children's room, bathroom and outdoor area with terrace, yard and pergola. In the summer months, we listen mostly from outdoor speakers ; music from the Pacific, South America, Greece, Spain, or meditation music, is perfect for relaxing by the outdoor fireplace and smokehouse under the pergola. When sitting with friends over wine, folk music from South Moravia will also come into play....

Stairs to the garden in winter	Chinese lamp in the yard

Both dogs are happy to stay in the cottage - Edina (left - celebrates birthday) and Betina (right).

it is better to see from the photos than from the verbal description - others will be added...............
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Click:
5. Garden, fireplace, smokehouse, pergola ...

Lighting and sockets are distributed throughout the garden.	Bench with lanterns

Courtyard (atrium) behind the cottage (now there is a Japanese garden)	Our faithful friend Edina in a Japanese garden. Painted by: Zach Bolinger

The courtyard - atrium - cottages was transformed into a Japanese garden

Click: 6. Japanese Garden .................

Vojtech Ullmann