Any helpful life hacks?

[Olga]

Your house is 1500 square meters??? Is it a palace or mansion?

Дом кирпичный. Отец подарил. У него была своя строительная компания.

 

[DaveC426913]

1600 sq.m. plot, and 1500 sq.m. house on it.

1,500 square metres is a BIG house. That's 16 thousand square feet:

This is a 1,500 square metre house in the West:

 

[exchemist]

I wonder if the translator is not working again. The word "yard" in English usually means a grassy area, often a "lawn" plus a garden, and 16 acres would be about 100 times larger than an average residential yard. No one sweeps grass, or goes over it with a power washer, so I wonder if the Russian word you used meant some kind of concrete or stone or brick area?

That’sAmerican usage. In British English a yard is indeed a concrete or asphalt area. What you describe is what British speakers would call a garden. Perhaps our Russian friend is using a translator tuned to British English.

 

[Olga]

1,500 square metres is a BIG house. That's 16 thousand square feet:

This is a 1,500 square metre house in the West:

View attachment 6871

Ну да, достаточно большой. Отец сам его спроектировал. Только на этом рисунке 2 этажа и мансарда, а у меня 4 этажа и мансарда.

 

[DaveC426913]

Well, yes, it is quite big. My father designed it himself. Only in this drawing there are 2 floors and an attic, and I have 4 floors and an attic.

The blurb associated with this pic said it was four floors.

 

[DaveC426913]

In British English a yard is indeed a concrete or asphalt area. What you describe is what British speakers would call a garden.

Y'all Brits are so "odd fish".

 

[Olga]

The blurb associated with this pic said it was four floors.

Возможно, они считают мансарду полноценным этажом, и там ещё может быть подземный этаж.

 

[DaveC426913]

Perhaps they consider the attic to be a full floor, and there may also be an underground floor.

Almost certainly there is a basement.

And that top floor is probably less of an "attic" and more of a full floor with dormed windows, a little like this:


An attic would usually refer to a house that had had its attic converted to living space - not very spacious or well-appointed. But the house in the pic was certainly designed and built with that top floor to be used as living space.

 

[TheVat]

In the USA, basements and attics are not usually counted in the total square footage. Unless they are converted to living spaces that meet all building codes for such. I still think 1500 sq m is improbably huge. That is around nine or ten times the size of an average American house.

The average Russian house is around 600-700 square feet, according to the map in this:

House Size by Country 2025

Discover population, economy, health, and more with the most comprehensive global statistics at your fingertips.

worldpopulationreview.com

Your house would be around 16,000 sq ft. Can that be correct? How many rooms would that be?

 

[TheVat]

That’sAmerican usage. In British English a yard is indeed a concrete or asphalt area. What you describe is what British speakers would call a garden. Perhaps our Russian friend is using a translator tuned to British English.

I had wondered, as I did vaguely recall yard meant something different over there. And I knew the green areas were called a garden. We Yanks do sometimes use yard to refer to hard surface areas, as in schoolyard or jail yard. Or lumber yard.

I'm now looking forward to new Life Hacks from Olga on how to manage heating bills in a 16,000 sq ft house during a Russian winter.

 

[DaveC426913]

In the USA, basements and attics are not usually counted in the total square footage. Unless they are converted to living spaces that meet all building codes for such.

Yes. In the image of the 16,000 sq ft mansion I posted, the top floor and basement would certainly have been finished at time of construction, not after-the-fact.

 

[exchemist]

I had wondered, as I did vaguely recall yard meant something different over there. And I knew the green areas were called a garden. We Yanks do sometimes use yard to refer to hard surface areas, as in schoolyard or jail yard. Or lumber yard.

I'm now looking forward to new Life Hacks from Olga on how to manage heating bills in a 16,000 sq ft house during a Russian winter.

She seems to live in one of those Chekhov plays, with women in long dresses looking gloomily out at the birch trees and asking, “ Why can’t we go to Moscow?”.

 

[Olga]

Два десятка, 21, не считая подсобных помещений типа бойлерной и гаражей. В России обычно принято строить капитальные дома из кирпича и бетона. Модульные дома не особо "прижились", их потом трудно продать. Мы всегда удивляемся, когда видим в новостях сломанные ураганом дома в США, у нас ураганом может только кровлю с некоторых крыш посрывать, и то, в случае, если они сделаны с нарушениями.

 

[exchemist]

Almost certainly there is a basement.

And that top floor is probably less of an "attic" and more of a full floor with dormed windows, a little like this:
View attachment 6872

An attic would usually refer to a house that had had its attic converted to living space - not very spacious or well-appointed. But the house in the pic was certainly designed and built with that top floor to be used as living space.

I learnt recently that what we call dormer windows are in French called “chien assis”. Rather nice, that.

 

[Olga]

She seems to live in one of those Chekhov plays, with women in long dresses looking gloomily out at the birch trees and asking, “ Why can’t we go to Moscow?”.

Я не собираюсь ехать в Москву. Хотя почти вся моя родня и друзья живут в Москве и Санкт-Петербурге. Я живу на Черноморском побережье, недалеко от того места, где проходила олимпиада. У нас зимой на Новый год цветы цветут в палисадниках. Самый тёплый регион в России.

 

[Olga]

I had wondered, as I did vaguely recall yard meant something different over there. And I knew the green areas were called a garden. We Yanks do sometimes use yard to refer to hard surface areas, as in schoolyard or jail yard. Or lumber yard.

I'm now looking forward to new Life Hacks from Olga on how to manage heating bills in a 16,000 sq ft house during a Russian winter.

Там, где я живу, зимы почти не бывает. Россия - это не только Сибирь и Урал. На Черноморском побережье пальм намного больше, чем берёз. Берёза выглядит экзотикой в нашем краю.

 

[Olga]

I had wondered, as I did vaguely recall yard meant something different over there. And I knew the green areas were called a garden. We Yanks do sometimes use yard to refer to hard surface areas, as in schoolyard or jail yard. Or lumber yard.

I'm now looking forward to new Life Hacks from Olga on how to manage heating bills in a 16,000 sq ft house during a Russian winter.

Чтобы сэкономить на отоплении, нужны достаточно толстые стены. Их ещё можно утеплить. Есть такой материал(у вас он тоже наверняка есть в продаже), называется "Пеноплекс", он бывает разной толщины - 5 см. толщины заменяет 25 см. кирпичной кладки. Если вы обошьёте дом листами 10 см. толщиной, то это будет равноценно тому, как если бы вы добавили к основным стенам ещё полметра.

 

[TheVat]

Where I live, winter almost never happens. Russia is not only Siberia and the Urals. There are many more palm trees than birches on the Black Sea coast. Birch looks exotic in our region.

Sounds lovely. You are not far from Georgia, then. That would indeed be a mild climate. Like southern Oregon, possibly.

To save on heating, you need thick enough walls. They can also be insulated. There is such a material (you probably have it on sale too), called "Penoplex", it comes in different thicknesses - 5 cm thick replaces 25 cm of brickwork. If you cover the house with sheets 10 cm thick, then this will be equivalent to adding another half a meter to the main walls

Yes, I've used polystyrene sheets like that. I've done a lot of carpentry and remodeling, on four different houses. Where I live now has very cold winters, more like Moscow, so we use a variety of insulating materials. If attics are not used they are often filled with several feet of loose fill cellulosic insulation which is basically composed of paper pulp treated with a flame retardant. There are companies that also make insulation from old denim jeans or even low grade sheep's wool, which comes in batts.

 

[TheVat]

Your house description translated капитальные дома - kapital'nyye doma - as "capital house," which is also confusing. In USA, a capital house could refer to some place located in a capital city. Wait, okay, checked a Russian dictionary and it said капитальные means metropolitan. Ok, I get it now. Urban house.

За здоровье! (I learned this phrase from the musical Fiddler on the Roof.)

 

[Olga]

Your house description translated капитальные дома - kapital'nyye doma - as "capital house," which is also confusing. In USA, a capital house could refer to some place located in a capital city. Wait, okay, checked a Russian dictionary and it said капитальные means metropolitan. Ok, I get it now. Urban house.

За здоровье! (I learned this phrase from the musical Fiddler on the Roof.)

Нет, "капитальный" дом - это дом на капитальном бетонном фундаменте, который нельзя разобрать и перенести в другое место без значительных для него повреждений. Обычно он сделан из кирпича и железобетона.