The Home Ownership Thread

[sugarbutch]

The scope of these generalizations about US housing stock is just mind-boggling...

But they perfectly fit his needs so there's that.

Please stop talking about your feelings.

What is the minimum size of a window which avoids the small, ugly, myopic description?

 

[Medwed]



Wasn't straw commonly used also?

I think so, straw mixed with mortar? Mortar, which I was told quite different from modern plaster . Apparently mortar is more breathable and allows walls to release any excess moisture. I was told it is very important even for brick buildings.

 

[Piobaire]

Things were so much better, and people so much smarter, back in days of yore.

 

[Medwed]



Things were so much better, and people so much smarter, back in days of yore.

What nothing to report today on your pool and water feature?

 

[Piobaire]

Cement cured, tiles going up starting today.

 

[Numbernine]

Things were so much better, and people so much smarter, back in days of yore.

Be careful you'll get looked on as a desperado waiting' on a train

 

[sugarbutch]

The scope of these generalizations about US housing stock is just mind-boggling...

But they perfectly fit his needs so there's that.

Please stop talking about your feelings.

What is the minimum size of a window which avoids the small, ugly, myopic description?

Not willing to commit to hard numbers, eh?

 

[Piobaire]

Hmm. Came home from work to find no tiling done but stacked travertine all over the place.

 

[js4design]



I was always wondering why windows are so small and ugly in new buildings. The reason is prolly cost, those ugly myopic windows with small plastic frames that slide up are the cheapest builder standard crap one can purchase. That is the reason they are everywhere in US. Home in US is a temporary dwelling until you need to sell it and move for another job thus no one cares what kind of windows they have.
RE construction quality is appalling and it goes back 100-130 years . I have lived in old 'Victorian' houses in MA that had no insulation in the walls.,Why? I imagine coal heating was still expensive 130 years ago why would anyone build a big family house with empty walls? Any guesses?
I also saw houses with no foundation, just house sitting on few bricks or straight in the ground. I saw houses on the highest hill in Boston and they had basement floods after every rain- no drainage, how is it possible ? Noone cares that is how.

My grandfather built a brick house in the 1950s and the builder discouraged him from insulating the walls because the price of oil was so low that the cost of insulating was not worth it.

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

Not quite done yet with this job (still need to do the trim work at the ends, and plug the holes in the header.

My wife asked me to replace the window covers in the bathroom...so I said sure.

Yes my tub is ugly and from the 90's....I will replace it when I can cooper one in cypress. Also, why the hell did the original owner spec 'off-white' or whatever near white but not quite white annoying color for otherwise plain subway tile that should be white!

 

[texas_jack]

Anybody's internet ready mini blinds just go down?

 

[alex99]



Anybody's internet ready mini blinds just go down?

 

[Piobaire]

Okay, this is no good. I came home to find they've started laying the travertine. They've laid 400 sq feet or so of it directly over my existing cement patio. Didn't wash the cement, no mortar, about half the tiles shift and wobble when stepped on. I just emailed the PM and asked him what was up with that.

 

[Numbernine]

Checking the layout? That don't sound right

 

[Piobaire]

PM replied and said they lay it directly over concrete patios and then "sand it in." Don't sound right to me. At the very least I'd expect a base of sand to even things out. I'll be staying home Monday to interact with folks face to face.