Dream House | The history of the house

The history of the house is the history of civilisation.

People are conceived, are born, and die in them. What a transformational effect the house has had on how we humans have evolved.

Let’s travel down memory lane to the present day, and visit thought-provoking, intriguing, and, in some cases, downright bizarre actualities of the house affecting our very lives.

Egyptians, 2,500 years ago, constructed in some pyramids, extravagant bathrooms for their prominent dead to use on their journey to the next life (afterlife).

Ancient Greeks found comfort and effectiveness using clay, stones, sponge, and salt water, long before the invention of toilet paper.

There was a time in the early 1900s when the father of the house was privileged to take the first bath in a tub of clean water. Then followed by the mother, and, lastly, by each of their children – in the same murky water without changing it.

Surprising but true!

Today, in general, adults perform their rituals on the toilet a total of 2,500 times a year and spend an average lifetime of about three years on the throne. With so much precious time spent in the bathroom, it should be designed as comfortably and attractively as possible.

75 per cent of persons use their mobile phones while on the toilet, and, not surprisingly, seven million every year in America fall in.

There was a not too distant time when it was books and magazines being read.

We spend approximately one–third of our entire lives asleep. By the age of 90 (if we live that long), we would have spent a total of 38 years unconscious! In one year, a normal person walks four miles making his or her bed. Interesting.

The world’s most exorbitantly priced bed (the United Kingdom and Italian made) costs a whopping, unheard of, four million pounds! It’s exclusively handmade, with solid gold, diamonds, and other precious gems; Italian silk, cotton, chestnut, and cherry wood. With a bed like this, it may force you to sleep far longer than the required eight hours advised every day. It’s named the Baldacchino supreme bed.

As for the kitchen, we spend 12 per cent of our lives actually in them. The most luxurious, expensive kitchen in the entire world, showcased in London, had an unbelievable price of 1.6 million pounds!

It took all of 12 months to make by hand and finish in 2013. Its cabinets, handcrafted in Italy, are lined with copper and made from world-renowned, superior Murano Crystal. Its island–counter and centerpiece are from pure crystal, and so are its handles, faucet taps and, of course, its electrifying Swarovski crystal chandelier. It’s all known as the ‘flore di cristallo’.

Dried, dead bodies of cats were hidden in various sections of people’s homes (walls, under floors, and in roof spaces) in Europe and North America, to ward off terrifying evil spirits in the 19th century.

The world’s most frightening garden is at England’s Old Alnwick Castle. Created in 2005 by Duchess Jane Percy, she wanted to produce beautiful but deadly flowers, where all of them are likely to kill you! This is her poisonous dream garden.

There is a three–storey, shocking house in Tokyo, Japan, that is sleek and totally see–through! Yes, completely built from glass, with hardly any interior walls.

The inside of the fully transparent house is quite visible to those on the outside, and has attracted worldwide attention.

Antilia, the most expensive, private house in the world ($1 billion), which happens to be also the largest and tallest, is located in Mumbai, India. Built in 2010, its skyscraper height houses 168 parking spaces, three helipads, several swimming pools, a health spa and a theatre, with a staff complement of 600.

Barry Rattray is a dream house designer and builder. Email feedback to barry-rattray@hotmail.com and lifestyle@gleanerjm.com