2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Remembering the Russian village, the imagination helpfully draws girls ruddy from frost in bright colorful shawls, white sheepskin coats and scooter felt boots; a painted sleigh with three maned horses; a dashing accordion in the hands of a daring fellow … and shutters on the windows of village huts
Eyelids for windows
The village falls asleep, having worked gloriously for the day. Even lousy dogs hid in their booths and dream. And the windows of the houses have covered their eye sockets with "centuries" - shutters, protect the sleep of people and guard the secrets of the inhabitants of the house. In winter, shutters will save the heat of the stove, in summer they will keep it cool, in spring and autumn they will muffle the sound of rain. And at any time of the year, they will not be allowed to disturb the way of life of the family by the intrusion of uninvited guests.
Shutter tongue
The shutters will tell you about the inhabitants of the house. Painted and carved will respond with gratitude to the owner's golden hands, suggest that you will be welcomed hospitably in this house. Closely sealed shutters will alert the guest: is there anyone in the house or trouble has settled in it. A shutter creaking in the wind with one loop intact will complain about the poverty and unhappiness of the owners of the house.
Types of shutters
Today shutters are back in fashion. They are used to decorate and protect country mansions and country houses. Shutters are used to close not only windows, but also doors. Along with wooden shutters, modern designers offer metal and plastic products.
The methods of attaching them to the walls of houses are very diverse. As a child, I saw some very impressive shutters. They were held on massive hinges. But the most interesting thing about them for the child's city eye was constipation. Outside, a heavy metal plate with drilled holes at the ends was placed on the sash. Impressive bolts were inserted into them, which passed through the wall of the house into the room, and already inside the house, nuts were screwed onto the bolts. Hacking such a defense without careful preparation and special equipment, I think, was impossible in those days.
Wooden shutters
Old wooden shutters are dearer to my heart. Tightly fitted planks will keep out the persistent rays of the sun who want to wake up early. Sleep so sweetly in the village in the morning. If the shutters have slots through which the rays shamelessly make their way to your headboard, then an unscrupulous master has worked on the shutters.
Keeping the sun out of the house, shutters will help the wooden walls keep it cool on a hot July day. After fighting weeds, it's nice to plunge into the coolness of your home, lying on the couch with a gardening magazine.
Metal shutters
In our village, on a hillock, there is a house made of cinder-concrete bricks. The owners rarely come, and the house looks lonely at the courtyards filled with children's cheerful hubbub, with their large windows protected by metal shutters. They appear to be made of thick, rust-colored, reddish-brown iron sheet. In our "communist" village, such shutters look like monsters and evoke sad associations.
Aluminum shutters look much nicer. They are light, bright and do not violate the natural harmony of the resting place. Filled with expanded polystyrene, they keep warm or cool well (depending on the season) and are quite good defenders against "non-professional" attacks. Moving shutters, called "roller shutters", are good from aluminum.
Shutter leaves can be either deaf or hinged, with a different number of them. Fix them to the wall with hinges. To prevent the flaps from annoying by clapping against the wall at every gust of wind, they are snapped with hooks to the wall.
Armored shutters equipped with safe locks are made for solid country cottages.
Plastic shutters
Today, plastic profile shutters are gaining popularity. It is durable, withstands both frost and heat. Plastic shutters are decorative, aesthetic and durable. Their doors can be solid or louvered, partially letting in light and air.
I love shutters not even for their functional abilities, but as a decorative decoration of a village house, creating the uniqueness of each house, for nostalgia for the life of peasant ancestors who lived by their own labor.
