I’m currently staying in a little village in Norfolk, UK, and I’ve walked past this house a couple of times, and something about it is really weird and striking to me.
I believe it was built around about 1970. At first glance, there might appear to be nothing very unusual about this house - it’s what is commonly termed a ‘chalet bungalow’ here in the UK - that is, a house whose upper floor is entirely within the roof space (and is built this way, as opposed to a converted bungalow where an upper floor is added in the loft space some time after construction). ‘Bungalow’ is the UK term for a single storey house (I know it just means ‘tent’ in some other places).
So what’s weird about this one? Well, several things: firstly, the roof is hugely steep and has two different gradients (flaring out to a shallower slope for the lowest 5 or so rows of roof tiles) - to the extent that there appears to be probably a person-high loft space above the upper floor - here’s a more normal look for a chalet bungalow.
Nextly, the window in the roof is really small - considering this is a house that appears to have been built to include substantial living space inside the roof, there’s really not a lot of window there. I can’t get a good view of the end walls, but I don’t think they have windows in them.
Finally, those end walls - they extend up above the roof line - creating an internal rain gutter - this is not normal for houses built in the 20th Century - it would be far more usual for the roof to overhang at the gables.
Not even really sure why I’m making this thread, but this house has really piqued my curiosity - is this a weird house, or am I the weird one?
It’s not just you; that is a very weird-looking house. The extreme height of the roof almost reminds me of Swiss-style A-frame houses, though those usually use the end walls for a fair amount of their window space/light.
It’s gotta be dark as heck in most of the living space in that place.
I managed to get a look at the end wall from Google streetview, looking over from one of the adjacent streets - there is a small window in one end (and I think it’s reasonable to assume the same at the other end): https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ar4eOUAx-yGwiKhqLLNx4MOef007og?e=5ydT7m
Well, the least you can do is knock on the door and tell the owner you have a huge extended family wondering about their house. There might be an interesting story behind it.
I would love to look around the place, but I think it would be kind of creepy and wrong to just go and knock the door (more creepy than posting this thread,that is). Most of the population in this place is quite elderly and I think there’s a fair chance the residents might feel threatened.
The first link and the last link don’t work for me, although I can see the thumbnail in the last link. I get a link to something called OneDrive, telling me my account has been frozen and I should unfreeze it by (coincidentally) this Sunday to avoid permanent deletion. Is this for real, because it sure sounds spammy to me, and I don’t remember ever registering for anything called OneDrive (although I forget a lot of things over the years).
It is a link to OneDrive, and I don’t have to log in to see the picture. Many people have unused OneDrive accounts associated with MS office or Hotmail or Win10 or something: I think (this is just a theory) that what you are seeing indicates that your browser has remembered you name and password, and is trying to log you into OneDrive.
Over the years, MS has offered free OneDrive storage, then reduced the amount and changed the connection method, so it has been common to see warnings like you report. It has always been safe to ignore unless you have actually used the storage for something valuable. The only strange thing is the odd coincidence of ‘you must do something by this Sunday’.
There’s a couple things I see.
The change in pitch is due to the roof coming far below the top of the front (and presumably) back walls. It looks like this was done to add additional protection to the front door and windows from rain and sun. Sorta like a built-in awning of sorts.
The windows in the roof appear much smaller than usual because they’re not part of a dormer. They’re just the window cutouts. I’m not sure why this would be done, other than for the fact that the extreme pitch and height of the roof makes a dormer unnecessary.
As for why the side walls extend up passed the roof…I got nothing.
To my completely untrained eye, the roof looks like it could be a “Dickey roof.” This architectural website defines that like this:
A Dickey Roof is a style of hip roof that is characterized by deep, shallow-pitched eaves combined with a steeper upper roof. They often feature Dutch gables or gable dormers and are sometimes referred to as “witches hats” as a result.
Other than that, I got nuthin’. And I’m not even sure if that roof is a Dickey roof; they are fairly common in old buildings in Hawai’i but the ones here are a bit more pronounced.
Is the house occupied? Are there lights on at night? The part of the structure at the far left looks like a garage, with the garage door overgrown with weeds and no driveway quite leading to it.
That does sound weird, but the files are just in a onedrive share - you could try right clicking the link and opening in a private/incognito tab - that will open them without any account context at your end.
It does look vacant, but recently so - could be the owners are just away for a short while. The weeds that appear to block the garage are actually in the foreground - as far as I can tell, the garage door is unobstructed.
The double slope is not uncommon in house construction. It’s a style, though I don’t remember the name or the reason. That “bungalow” style is known more as “Cape Cod” or “Cape” style in the US, post-WW2 Levittown housing.
Looking at your “Dickey Roof” webpage, it looks like the main roof lands on the exterior walls, and the second flatter slope extends out beyond the wall to cover the perimeter porch. A little searching found Victorian houses with the same double roof, again extending out from the exterior walls. I’m sure I could find others. It’s an added expense (extra lumber and labor) so not that common.
The end walls? I’m not sure. I’d put it as “Merrie Olde England” but it is a type of construction. Mason builds a (side) wall and carpenter puts the roof into pockets in the wall.
The original owner wanted a large house footprint and a large second floor, and it sort of follows you get a large roof.
Just for kicks, try putting the address into zillow (or just google it). Sometimes you’ll get lucky and you can find interior pictures, especially if it’s been on the market at some point in the last few years.
Thank you, that works. I can add that to my teeny tiny back of computer tricks.
My only suggestion about the house is to scrape acquaintance with some elderly neighbors who might have been there when the house was built and might have some stories.
Or, as Sherlock Holmes would suggest (in “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist”), Go “to the nearest public-house. That is the centre of country gossip. They would have told you every name, from the master to the scullery-maid.”
