And Then, What's In A Word….

While roaming around our immediate location, we noticed a very nice bungalow for sale. This, in turn, reminded me of the origins, which most of you will be familiar with, but some may not, of the word 'bungalow'. You, yes you! You know what's coming don't you? And it's not this origin.

Many, many, many years ago a large house building company acquired a sizeable plot of land and was granted planning permission to build many three bed houses thereon.

With all the architects plans drawn up and the purchasing department, working to a tight budget to maximise profit, had sourced, priced and purchased all required building materials down to the last tack and, after all service lines were trenched and installed, building work went ahead.

The project steamed along without incident until the very last gasp of work when the Foreman bricky barged into the office of the project manager and presented his problem.
"Hay boss, we're only a tad over half way up the last house and we've run out o' bricks."
"Right. Run out o' bricks you say?"
"Right."
"Right. You have enough roofing tiles an' such?"
"That we do."
"Right. Look at these drawings. See the size of that dining room? In a few years TV will be invented and all meals will be taken on a plate in a lap on the sofa in front of a TV so let's put a stud wall here. That'll make a double and single bedroom, right?  Then, see the size of the lounge? In cold weather they'll be shovelling coal all day so let's move this wall this way a tad making the sitting room a bit smaller and we can then call the kitchen a kitchen diner, right? Right, let's be honest here; who holds parties in their hallway? See that corner? That was just made for a bathroom! Get your boys to sort that lot out then go ahead and bung a low roof on the sucker. Right?"
"Right!"

Thus the bung-a-low was born.

The concept of one level living proved very popular with elderly purchasers and quickly became loved by builders as they realised they could charge a large premium for something that took a fraction of the materials used to build a conventional two story house.

You believe any of that? Other than the last paragraph of course. You do? Oh dear.

Quote;  Robert A. Heinlein.

“Cheops' Law: Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.”