sid | Ignorance was bliss

So I'm writing a story that takes place at Jack's house, and I make the mistake of doing some research, and I realize that probably every single fic I've ever set there was off base in one way or another. From the early stories when I'd send Jack and Daniel upstairs to bed in a one story house, to not realizing the shape of the house and where the bedroom actually is, to misplacing the deck...wow. You name it.

Now I'm shocked to discover that there are two entrances to Jack's kitchen (from the dining room and from the hallway), and that the entrance from the dining room has a pocket door! Possibly the entrance from the hall to the dining room has a pocket door, too. I thought I glimpsed a handle in one screencap. (Which is neither here nor there, but startled me because I did all that research on Sam's house, and she had pocket doors, and I'm left to wonder if that's a Canadian thing? LOL) ETA: There is most definitely a pocket door between the hall and the dining room! When Jack comes home from the store in Full Alert and finds Kinsey in his living room, that door is closed. It's a louvered door. Whaddya know.

Anyway, my little story is pretty well fucked. Er, so just forget that you read this, okay? Because I don't think I can honestly fix it, so I'm just going to go with it. ;-P

La-la-la-la-la

Current Mood: embarrassed
Crossposts: http://sidlj.livejournal.com/298023.html

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

jdjunkie

Pocket door is a term I have never come across, so Monsieur Google leads me to believe it's a sliding door, yes? If so, I HAVE NEVER NOTICED THESE AT JACK'S HOUSE EITHER! omg epic re-watching required for these important details. :-)

In other news: fucked story is unfuckable in my book, baby!!

*mwah*

From:

sid

Pocket doors, when open, are pretty much invisible by their very nature. But sometimes, for reasons I cannot fathom, Jack apparently chooses to close them!

In Citizen Joe, Jack comes home with ingredients for his special beer omelet, walks down the hallway and enters the kitchen (which I always thought could only be reached through the dining room!). He's unloading his grocery sack and talking on the phone with Sam, when suddenly the pocket door to the dining room whooshes open and Joe the barber leaps in.

Poor me, still trying to get over the fact that the kitchen is accesible from the hall, and now I'm all, "Wha? There's a door there?" *flail*

(Fucked story is 'thon story, so must be written, baby!)

From:

jdjunkie

I knew the kitchen had two entry points, I think. Oh god, I'm even questioning that now! But these doors are a new and intriguing thing. It makes you wonder what else we've missed, despite watching the eps a million times!!

Write on, baby. Write on!

From:

tesserae

Pocket doors are a period thing - a lot of my friends' houses in L.A. have them, and they are sort of a holdover from Victorian times that spilled over into the teens and 20s. They allow you to close off rooms easily while not forcing you to deal with where to put wider-than-normal hinged doors when you want everything open. We use them at formal dinner parties when we want to show off an elaborate table (and not spoil the surprise until it's time to seat people). They also let you close off less-used areas of a house if you just want to heat part of it and not the whole thing...

From:

jdjunkie

IN conclusion ... they are very useful indeed!

From:

archersangel

But sometimes, for reasons I cannot fathom, Jack apparently chooses to close them!

probably for the same reason i do, that room's a mess & you hope no one will go look in there.

From:

sid

Ha, good point!

From:

annejack

There's someone (I forgot who it was because it's been there years and years ago) who did screencaps and floorplans on Jack's house and put them online. I loved to go there whenever writing fic that took place in Jack's house and look at them. I love Jack's house, it's just lovely, so I tried to stay in the canon with that as much as I could. But I did add a room once and gave his kitchen a backdoor to the outside even tough I knew it did not have one :)

You can have Jack's house anyway you like, I think, as long as it fits Jack's personality. :)

Once I'm home again I will go look for that link if anyone's interested and see if the website is still there, but I don't have it with me on the laptop.

Edited Date: Apr. 14th, 2014 11:48 am (UTC)

From:

princessofgeeks

Wow; that would be awesome. I saw a plan once somewhere but I don't think I saved it.

From:

paian

Here's the floorplan: http://www.stargate-sg1-solutions.com/locations/johouseplan.shtml

From:

sid

*nods* That's one of the things I found last night. Even that doesn't show the hall entrance to the kitchen, though! In 'Fragile Balance' Daniel, Sam and clone!Jack walk into the dining room, while Teal'c heads down the hall. A shot or two later, he can be seen in the kitchen behind the other actors. It really is a "blink and you'll miss it" piece of evidence.

From:

archersangel

it that really evidence of him coming in from the hall or just a production goof?

From:

sid

I don't think it's a goof. There's a door that they just hadn't ever shown us up until that point, and Teal'c was headed in that direction. The refrigerator blocks any view of it from the camera in the dining room's angle, and we don't actually see Teal'c enter because Sam is blocking our view at that moment, but it's all perfectly logical once you know the door exists.

Edited Date: Apr. 15th, 2014 03:22 am (UTC)

From:

paian

I never noticed that that floorplan is missing that entrance! I remember it from 'Fragile Balance,' but I never really scrutinized the floorplan. I'm glad you mentioned it -- it's been on my to-do list to make a 3d model of Jack's house, and the more that's accurate going in, the less to correct after putting walls up.

So, do you think it's a doorway with a door, or just an entranceway?

From:

sid

Ooh, no idea. I was in too much shock at its very existence to notice details! It might make sense for both entrances to have pocket doors, I suppose. Guess I'll have to get out the 'Full Alert' DVD again. :-)

From:

paian

Re-watching: such a terrible hardship! ::grins:: I'll just have to grit my teeth and suffer through it with you.

I love that opening to 'Full Alert.' It's an all-in-one serving of domestic!Jack and dangerous!Jack.

From:

sid

Dangerous!Jack takes his gun with him when he runs to the store for beer. *fans self*

But then in 'Citizen Joe' he keeps it in a kitchen drawer, so he's domestic, dangerous and inconsistent!Jack, lol.

From:

paian

lol, yes!

And in 'Sight Unseen' he keeps it under the driver's seat of his truck ...

From:

sid

Prescient!Jack. *g*

From:

paian

Yes! He always knows just where to stash a weapon so that he won't have to go out of frame to fetch it when the threatening crazyass thing happens.

From:

sid

the threatening crazyass thing-of-the-week. *G*

From:

paian

I believe I shall adopt the TCTotW as an Initialism of Great Usefulness. ::nods::

From:

sid

A most excellent plan! *nods*

From:

princessofgeeks

I've read a number of wonderful stories that are all over the place about the layout of Jack's house, so don't worry!

From:

sid

I always assumed the deck was accessible from the kitchen, because that just made so much sense for cooking out. Nope, you have to carry all the food through the hall, down the steps and through the living room to the door. Ah, well.

From:

angelsallfire

Darling, seriously, ANYTHING you write is gonna make me happy.
<3

From:

sid

Ha ha, and I'm not even mentioning the actual thing that wrecks my story! That should make it easier on the reader to just go with the flow, I figure. :-D

Thanks! *smishes you*

From:

paian

I think I must have perpetrated Escherian warps on the layout of that house over the years. I fully support you just going for it!

From:

lolmac

Oh, you mean the Escherian warps are YOUR fault? Do you have any idea how hard those suckers are to clean? Sheesh.

Edited Date: Apr. 14th, 2014 06:25 pm (UTC)

From:

paian

::iz guilty:: But a little Castrovalva oil works wonders! :-D

From:

lolmac

Well, yeah, the Castrovalva oil adds a nice polish. But the DUST! And the new Roomba just had a nervous breakdown. Again. It didn't even last long enough to clean up the remains of the last three Roombas.

From:

paian

Oh, the poor Roomba! ::laughs and laughs::

Clearly what's needed here is a Swiffer with a strange loop attachment. Home Depot run? You up for it? I'll check the recursion department, you head over to Impossible Objects.

From:

sid

I so AM. That portion of the story is already written, so damn the torpedos and full speed ahead! :-D

From:

paian

Excellent!

From:

annejack

http://www.stargate-sg1-solutions.com/locations/jos3sog/jos3sog_003.html

This isn't the one I was thinking of but it was lots of Jack House pictures in it :)

From:

sid

The 17th picture in that series shows Jack coming around the corner from where his bedroom is. I think that's the only scene that connects those two hallways. We've seen the bedroom, but we've never seen anyone walking in that hallway.

From:

annejack

yeah, that's the only scene it is in. And I think we also see stairs down to a basement in that shot (if I'm not mistaken) on the left hand.

I should know, I have stared at those pictures on and off, just to get everything right - or to change things without changing the overall place "g"

But, Sid, really - I think that a) very few ppl will notice and b) that your story will be wonderful no matter how you describe his house because that's just what your stories are and I'm sure no one will nitpick Jack's place in a story.

From:

sid

I'm going full steam ahead regardless. Well, no, I made a couple of small revisions as a nod to reality, but I would have to scrap the entire thing if I bowed to reality. So that ain't gonna happen! *g*

From:

annejack

YAY, thumb's up! Can't wait to read!

From:

esteven

Ah indeed, sometimes ignorance is bliss. Are you certain they didn't change the interior of the house willy-nilly? Because then, all would still be right with your story...and even if they didn't your story would still be right.
*nods*