If i follow the course of this stream (a stream!, not a smaller source or even less) i am getting right into the house (through the front door!) and there should really be a trench through the kitchen or otherwise the stream would flow at only 10 cm below the floor! This is not plausible! Claude

Claude, I have a friend who used to live in a house with a stream running under the stone flags in the kitchen floor, very similar to what is shown here...

iain, ok then but i still think that it is a very rare situation (i'm not talking about sources who may run below the house)and i wonder if it would be wise to provoke those question when displaying the finished scene. If i wanted a stream in my mini scene i would defintely choose another layout.

I see what both of you are saying but there is another possibility. The house is a mill? We have a lot of old mills here with the stream running under them. J

Maybe it's actually the 'poop shute' from the house and running into a nearby stream!

I agree Claude ... it does look a bit odd .... there must be a practical use ... otherwise who would want a source of dampness running under their home? Another problem with this which I would have a bigger problem with (result of flat base) is that the arch for the stream is higher than the cobblestones. This should be well below the street level. Looking at the base, the wall section could easily be left out with very simple modification and the stream hidden/removed. Then you have a pretty nice house ruin, street section and less awkwardness.

Somewhere in the British Lakes District is a small house built on an arch spanning a small stream confined by rock walls. Supposedly it was built by a Scotsman who didn't want to pay land taxes ;-) However, I agree that it is a most odd base. They could have angled the one bridge arch to suggest a more plausible route for the stream. Clearly, they leave it up to the builder as to where the stream emerges. I suppose they were thinking it creates drama, when in fact uncertainty / confusion / lack of realism is the primary result. I have noticed model railroad structure laser kit designers adding all sorts of structurally and architecturally unlikely / impossible elements (usually appendages) just to make the building more "interesting" and possess more "character". No thanks. Charles