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'A little happy house is the strongest castle in the whole universe'
Mehmet Murat Ildan 1965-
Turkish playwright/novelist
I don't see many stone built houses in villages any more; those I do find are usually abandoned like the one above. For the past 40 years, the preferred method of construction has been a reinforced concrete frame, filled in with a single layer of breeze block wall, good at not falling down during an earthquake and also good at letting damp through in the winter and the heat through in the summer - add the traditional flat roof and the winter rain will find its way in too.
There are 6 houses under construction around our village now, a mini building boom, as that many homes haven't been built in the past 10 years but only 2 are using bricks and mortar, the other four are prefabricated.
I remember visiting my great aunt in the early 1960s who lived in a 'prefab', and how the word was always whispered in a disparaging way even though as a child I found the strange shaped bungalow rather endearing, but 'prefab' seems to have now shaken off its shameful image and 'pre-built' houses are going up left, right and centre.
Like my aunt's bungalow, these new prefabs have something of the children's toy house about them, but I'm reliably informed that they are well insulated, don't leak, and take less than a couple of months to complete. (My source was under the impression that I was a prospective buyer, so I welcome comments from anyone actually living in one.)
On my 6 km drive to the nearest town I counted 10 prefabs including the first 2 storey one to go up, each one in sufficient land to grow vegetables and fruit trees. Not so pretty but a welcome sign that folk are coming to live on and work the soil, especially as I have to sell our plot of land. Any takers?
