There's a house in a German village where nothing's square

[John Stevens]

Can anyone here help me find a link on the internet? 

When I was a boy I saw a picture of a house in a village in Germany where not a single thing was square.  The story was that the man who built it was once an apprentice carpenter.  His master told him his work was awful, he couldn't make anything square, and he ought to quit.  He never forgot that, so when he built a home for himself, he built it so that not one single thing was square.  There have to be pics of it on the internet, but my google searches are turning up nothing.

Regards,

John

 

[Sparktrician]

You don't need to go to Germany for that.  You can go into almost any house built in this region in the last 40 years and find plenty of any aspect of out-of-square, out-of-plumb that your heart desires. 

[mad]

 

[woodwrights_corner]

I searched "crooked house" at Yahoo.  I found several. 

 

[Rob-GB]

Try looking up Hundert Wasser Haus/en, there are several: the one I did some work in was in Bad Soden. The walls were so wobbly the skirting boards were made from cork!!
Each tread for the stair was different in shape and had different inlaid designs. The architect I believe was Austrian.

Rob.

 

[fritter63]

Try looking up Hundert Wasser Haus/en, there are several: the one I did some work in was in Bad Soden. The walls were so wobbly the skirting boards were made from cork!!
Each tread for the stair was different in shape and had different inlaid designs. The architect I believe was Austrian.

Rob.

U.S. building code (and I.B.C too?) state that treads on a staircase cannot  vary by more than 1/4" to maintain "cadence" of the walker.

Perhaps this explains why the German word for stairwell is "treppenhaus"... [cool]

 

[nickao]

Heck with some of the inferior framing lumber companies use I have seen homes walls go out of plumb and square on new construction.

It seems one company I dealt with  did not use kiln dried studs and on 20 new homes the walls bulged and moved so much that the drywall tape at the ceilings  cracked and I mean badly. I saw the framers job, perfectly square and plumb when framed. 3 months later it was amazing how much that wood moved creating sticking doors, windows and out of plumb areas I couldn't believe.

The General used framing lumber form unknown origins to save a 1.00 a stud, it cost him big time in the end.

 

[John Stevens]

Try looking up Hundert Wasser Haus/en

That wasn't it, but man, what a cool building--

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mk_Frankfurt_BadSoden.jpg

What a time you must have had!

Regards,

John

 

[Tinker]

My Mom bought a house in 1945 right after the war.  Part of the house was circa late 1700's or early 1800's.  The main house had been added on in the mid 1900's.  There was not a level floor, or a perpendicular wall any where.  The old kitchen had been added on in the early 1930's, probably around Great depression time.  That part was not only way out of level and plumb, but it was falling away from the main house.  Every fall, before it strted getting cold outside, it was one of my projects to stuff rags into the space between the two structures.

Before I went into the service, I took about three months to tear off the old kitchen, construct new from footing trench up.  I did the addition perfectly level. plumb and square.  I knew I was going to go into construction when i returned form my stint in the Orient. 

When my Mom was dying, we sold the house to a man who did not really understand that the house, even tho not level, square or plumb was still quite livable.  We had been in the house for nearly 60 years.  I happened to drop by when the new owner and my son were trying to figure out how to level the old house to match the kitchen.  It took me nearly an hour to point out the problems in such a project.  Finally, they understood.  The house has changed hands again since then and as far as I know, nobody has tried to level anything up, but I am sure the don't have to worry about losing marbles when they drop.  They just need to look against a wall on the low side.
Tinker