A woman displayed on video the reason she built floor-to-ceiling windows in her rural home but left social media users hungry for answers to their questions.
Louise McGuane lives in Ireland, where she runs the whiskey company J.J. Corry from her family farm, surrounded by nature. She renovated the home, which "has been in my family for generations but was derelict," she told Newsweek. And one of the most important details was to have large, open windows to "bring the outside in," as she says in a viral video on her TikTok account, @whiskeybonder.
The clip, viewed over 1.3 million times, shows McGuane standing in her home looking out a window that is practically an entire wall of her home, in pure glass. It looks out on fields and trees covered in frost.
"Years ago when I built this house, I did this huge window to bring the outside in. And this is exactly the reason why," she said.
The video then changes to show another large window, where outside a fox trotted through the long grass, taking no notice of McGuane even though she is right behind it. As she said, "I can see him, he can't see me."
In the United States, the average cost of building a single-family home was around $392,000 in 2022, up from $151,700 20 years earlier, according to Statista.
TikTok users responded in droves to ask questions about McGuane's unique home, from concern about birds flying into the glass to asking if the huge, open space would be frightening at night. They also asked whether the glass is reflective on the outside so McGuane can watch the animals without them seeing her.
"How's it like at night?," "Does it get cold?" and "What about birds flying into it?" were just some of the hundreds of questions McGuane received.
One user admitted: "Daytime beautiful — nighttime awful for my fears."
Others shared their love for the house. As one wrote: "This is my dream." Another called it "wonderful," while another said: "My god, you did well. YOU DID WELL. How dreamy."
Speaking to Newsweek, McGuane addressed some of the concerns and questions. For instance, she assured viewers that "it's not scary for me at night at all."
"We are on a farm in the Irish countryside. So not a lot of people around at all. I'm not scared of the supernatural on the farm as I was born and raised here and have made my peace with any local spirits."
Her windows, bought from Austria and about 2½ inches thick, are "designed for very cold climates," and her southern-facing glass gets sunlight much of the day, helping to "keep the house cozy."
And while it's not a reflective window, "the animals just don't seem to register it," she said.
"The hares, pheasants and foxes just hang out outside as if we are not there, for whatever reason. We don't have an issue with bird strike either. Somehow the local birds figured it out pretty fast."
McGuane explained she worked with a friend, Swiss architect Jean-Claude Girard, when renovating the house and gave him a brief: "I wanted to feel like we were in the middle of the field."
And Girard delivered. "It's the most wonderful, calming and serene environment," McGuane said.
"As the seasons change, so does the living area. You can watch storms rage in during winter in the coziness, and you can watch sunsets with a drink in hand in the summertime from the table. We get to see all the wildlife and farm life year-round and see the seasonal birds flying around too, including our returning swallows every year."
For anyone considering giving a similar project to an architect for a rural home or farmhouse, McGuane recommends it, despite the debate in the comments.
"What's the point of being surrounded by nature if you can't observe it all the time?" she asked.
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