|
Neutrino posted:If you use your kitchen to COOK then an open concept can lead to problems. I've seen too many new condos with open concept kitchens that have no ventilation or windows. Good luck trying to impress your dinner guests when you are having a fish fry. I've got this problem when I forget to to turn on my recirc while cooking anything smokey. The smoke detector is about 20 feet away on a facing wall and very sensitive, and linked whole house. At least they get tested pretty regularly.
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2011 02:52
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 18:45 |
|
|
Boogeyman posted:I wonder if he's buddies with the people a couple of neighborhoods over from me that built this monster: I don't really get the hate on these big garages. The guys enjoy a hobby that requires a lot of space. He isn't bothering anybody and it's his own property. The garages presumably follow all the local zoning laws and construction code.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2011 23:02
|
|
|
^Seconded. Beats having to look at yard full of junk.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2011 23:05
|
|
|
That's generally not the kind of thing people want to have in residential neighborhoods - if your hobby requires that much space, so much so that you have to build a garage the size of a commercial garage... well, it's easy to understand why someone might not want it in their backyard because they had the unfortunate luck to be your neighbor when it's something that fits in better in a commercial/business area.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2011 02:49
|
|
|
Boogeyman posted:I wonder if he's buddies with the people a couple of neighborhoods over from me that built this monster: Unless I'm looking at the wrong thing it looks like a church that closed down and someone turned it into a garage?
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2011 20:47
|
|
|
dietcokefiend posted:Unless I'm looking at the wrong thing it looks like a church that closed down and someone turned it into a garage? Wrong building. The garage in question is the big building with the light gray roof that's a bit east and across the street from the church you're looking at.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2011 20:51
|
|
|
Absolutely love this thread. I've got content. Oh boy do I have content. First let's start with the the house that now belongs to my dad, before that having belonged to his grandmother. It was built in 1927 and surprisingly the bulk of the things that could possibly go wrong over the course of the many improvements that come over the decades. The wiring is a hodgepodge of BX/"Greenfield" armoured cable and primitive nonmetalic cable, with modern NM for all updates. The Greenfield cable means it's got grounds at all the plugs and the service was updated to breakers in the 60s or 70s. But in spite of this the man who owned it before my great-grandmother was the poster child for "There, I fixed it." He wanted an outlet somewhere, he'd bore a hole in the wall and pass some cable through. Inside, outside, whatever, bore a hole, put some cable, fit an end, and plug it in at the nearest outlet, which was usually halfway across the room due to the age of the house. Before the attic was finished he decided he was sick of going up the stairs in the dark, so he got a bunch of screw-eyes and cup-hooks and ran three dozen feet of string down to the stairs. When he did finish the attic he used Homasote for the floor. The master bedroom had a walk-in closet which didn't have a light. So when Mr. Bungler wanted one he did the usual bore-a-hole-put-an-extension job, with the classic redneck switch (which is to say, a male and female end stapled to the wall that you were meant to join to turn the light on. I had no idea where he got the socket, but it was the craziest thing you'd ever see. A simple porcelain tube with a blind end and four ears at that end. Two were made to accomodate mounting screws. The other two were the terminal screws, exposed to any and all who might care to touch them. The fixture was about four feet up the wall and wired with silk-wrapped lamp cord. It was either ancient when he installed it, or it was meant to be enclosed somehow, but nope, live conductors just chillin' in the closet. Then we have the house I grew up in. Built in 1982, by drunken builders. My mother complained that they had littered the ground with their empty beer bottles. Their solution: turn over their iron rakes and shatter the bottles, then rake them in to the dirt. That should be indicative of the quality of the work they did. Few corners are square, the floors all have slight slants, and hidden everywhere are little surprises. Some years ago my father and I decided to change the basement door. When we pulled back the moldings, we found that they had hung the prefabricated door-and-frame unit basically in open space, somehow managing to nail (with suitably giant nails) through more than three inches of air. The entire left side of the doorframe, and much of the right, were like this. Few things that were as dangerous as the handywork of Mr. Bungler, but every corner cut. A hole that will be hidden by a fixture? Don't bother to cut it with a saw, just use a lump hammer, or your steel-cap boot, or whatever. Need a vanity for the bathroom? Hey, there are some extra kitchen cabinets! Let's use those! Secure your building materials or the site? Nah, let the neighbourhood scum kids come in and smear tar all over everything. loving TAR. Thirty years on, this house still has tar smeared in places in the basement because gently caress taking it off from anywhere, it's the basement. We did find some nice tools they left behind, though, including a mason's trowel on top of the foundation.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2011 05:05
|
|
|
Haha, that reminds me of my parent's house. It was built by the local high school as a shop class project, so there have been some, uh, issues. My dad's got a lot more stories (since he is the one that fixed most of them), but one that I clearly remember is the heating ducts. For some reason, half the house wasn't getting any heat, and there was barely any air coming out of the vents. The reason? Old potato chip bags, from the late 70's, when the house was built, had been stuffed in the heating ducts.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2011 05:37
|
|
|
Talk about Garagezilla reminded me of the Duggar house. Don't hate. Y'all are just jealous of their PALATIAL CUSTOM BUILT MANSION.  Interior is predictable white dude bad taste, lots of light stained wood, brass, mismatched trim and I particularly like the horrid black railing destroying anything visually interesting about the ceiling vault. But I GUAR RON TEEEEEE that those countertops are 'granite'  WE GOT A TV MOUNTED RIGHT IN THE WALL!
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2011 13:03
|
|
|
Others posted:Post pics. I went around and got a few this morning. Unfortunately our basement is absolutely full of junk so a lot of things that I need to back off from to get a wider field of view for context mean the only thing that's visible is junk. Since my dad finally retired and I've recently been laid off we have more time to work on these things so I might be able to get some pictures of things later that I just can't get now. First set is the floor drain mayhem. One of the drains is under the corner of the workbench. I don't know why my dad didn't just put the bench over to the left another four inches when he put it down there... There's some sort of cleanout or drain cap that used to be cemented in the floor before I broke it loose just in front of the dehumidifier (white).  Back in the corner (inconveniently under the propped-up table base) is another actual floor drain with the furnace condensate discharge running to it.  Unsurprisingly, this whole corner of the basement is higher in elevation than most of the rest of it, so water's not going to run to any of them on its own. I pulled up the cover and I realized immediately I'm not looking into legitimate plumbing. Mouse nest aside, the straight walls are of the pipe itself which looks more like either brick or else a small version of chimney flue pipe with a hole knocked in the side. It's just beneath the surface of the floor, so I don't know how it connects to the other drains considering they're the standard bell trap design which goes down a few inches. I also realized when looking closely at the cover that some poor, innocent antique cast iron kitchen stove had to die to make this.   I don't know which way the water flows (if it doesn't just puddle under there some place and back up), but I do know the workbench corner drain is connected somehow to an old sink drain that was about 6-10 feet north of the bench toward the center of the house, which is immediately adjacent to the cistern under the floor (the picture makes it look square, but it goes further up and down past the junk).  I can't get a good picture of the relationship of anything to anything else though. So I'm not sure if they tried to tap into the cistern overflow (if that's even what's under there) or if it's separate, as the floor drains could conceivably exit on three out of four sides of the house to a hillside. Edit: coroner isn't corner. Godzilla525 fucked around with this message at 01:34 on Nov 3, 2011 |
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2011 15:24
|
|
|
Jonny 290 posted:Talk about Garagezilla reminded me of the Duggar house. e- rant removed. Duggars and other Quiverfull idiots make me Hulk out.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2011 16:17
|
|
|
How do they afford a house like that? Did the kids start a lemonade stand franchise and corner the market in their town? Also that place is hideous! That steel roof belongs on a barn or someone's garage.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2011 23:50
|
|
|
Blistex posted:How do they afford a house like that? That was the substance of my rant. It's pretty much subsidized by donations from other idiots in the Quiverfull movement who know that the Duggars are the public face of the "breed breed breed" idea. There's no way a normal person could feed 19 kids on anything but a millionaire's bank account, much less build a white trash pleasure palace. But that's a rant for another forum. Sorry to digress.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2011 09:27
|
|
|
Jonny 290 posted:Pics of the Duggar house. The cellphone holster, polo shirt and khaki pants uniform. I can tell all I need to know from that, making the inside of the house completely unsurprising as I scrolled down. I can't imagine what the lack of sound damping in that vaulted kitchen/living area is like when it's full of screaming children.  The joke's on them.If there's one thing I can't stand the most amongst the bad 'budget' subdivision development cliches present it's that ugly fake plated stamped steel and plastic crap that ends up as a horrible attempt at polished brass. Ugh. Especially those domed light fixtures pictured on the left. If I ever end up in a house with those I'm going to make a nice YouTube video of me destroying them. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2011 12:11
|
|
|
GD_American posted:But that's a rant for another forum. Sorry to digress.  Wanna read that rant. On the construction side of things it looks like they have a pair of ceiling fans a few feet away from each other, a span of 15' and then another ceiling fan. How in the hell is that going to move the ceiling air down properly? Is doubling up the fans really going to improve the air mixing abilities? Also the "open barn" concept is really nice. I am not a fancy man but lordy that looks odd with that huge open space. Like a misbuilt cathedral. I bet it echoes like a mofo.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2011 18:21
|
|
|
Blistex posted:How do they afford a house like that? Did the kids start a lemonade stand franchise and corner the market in their town? Also that place is hideous! That steel roof belongs on a barn or someone's garage. I have some sort of sick addiction to their drat show, and they claim that all their money comes from rental properties they own. But, they talk about how "our friends at (insert business name here) donated this (item) to us!". Their commercial quality kitchen was all donated, huge rear end pantry all donated, they buy most/all of the kids clothes at secondhand stores because all the kids are homeschooled, none of the kids has gone to college (so no paying for that), and they've done multiple specials and now more than a couple of seasons of a reality show on Discovery Channel. They also have a couple of books out on how they keep loving and having kids that they sell through their website. For as big as a house as that is, there are only two kids bedrooms: one for the boys and one for the girls. They also say they built most of the house on their own, but the dad is one of those types that will convince you to help out because it's the "christian thing to do", so they had a 'family friend' who is a contractor telling them how to do everything, probably not being paid for any of his time. GD_American posted:\
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2011 18:41
|
|
|
Yeah, the whole family is pretty much subsidized by their church/cult. The money from the TV show also really helps, and results in them getting more money from their church as its all advertising for them. They are the sort of right wing americans who would ironically rage against "welfare queens" and honestly think they earned everything in life. Wouldn't surprise me if their rental properties were also simply given to them, or a handout/windfall of some sort. The house is run like a military barracks. Two huge sleeping halls with rows of beds, and all the rules and regulations and even ranks of a military setting. It's super creepy... good christian soldiers indeed. The house is ugly as gently caress but I'd guess it's well built. I do wonder though what's going to happen to it once they move out, how easy it would be to renovate it into a proper house, or what could even be done with the building.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2011 19:00
|
|
|
Chickenbisket posted:I don't really get the hate on these big garages. The guys enjoy a hobby that requires a lot of space. Then he really shouldn't have chosen to live in a compact residential neighborhood. It's disrespectful to the neighbors to build something that is so out-of-place in the neighborhood; and then do no decoration, landscaping, architecture to at least make it somewhat visually appealing. It's a huge utilitarian building, larger in height, width, and depth than any house on the block. quote:He isn't bothering anybody and it's his own property. The garages presumably follow all the local zoning laws and construction code. He is bothering people who don't really want to look out their windows at an acre of shingles and siding. Yes it is within his legal right to do so, but it's rude. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. ibpooks fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Oct 31, 2011 |
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2011 21:16
|
|
|
Similar things happen around my place all the time. Someone has a nice view of a lake, then the person between them and the late builds a huge garage and boom! Nice view of corrugated metal. The worst was when a marina built a massive three story tall, 200 foot long storage building for people who want their boats out of the weather over the winter. There was a ton of complaints and debates, and articles in the paper, but in the end it was their right to do it. Now the landscape for a few KM each way is dominated by this structure. Still better than living in a HOA neighborhood.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2011 23:06
|
|
|
Godzilla525 posted:If there's one thing I can't stand the most amongst the bad 'budget' subdivision development cliches present it's that ugly fake plated stamped steel and plastic crap that ends up as a horrible attempt at polished brass. Ugh. Especially those domed light fixtures pictured on the left. If I ever end up in a house with those I'm going to make a nice YouTube video of me destroying them. Oh christ, the house I'm in now is full of those drat things (with the super long life 130V 60W bulbs in them to boot). Though as dim as those bulbs are, the house is 16 years old and none of them have burned out yet. I finally relamped everything that's not on a dimmer with CFLs recently, and found out every single one of them is attached to the junction box with one screw. ONE. And the one above my bed? It had a screw that was too small, as soon as I got the glass off the fixture fell off the ceiling and was dangling by the wires. The junction boxes the builder used for the ceiling lamps has a different screw pattern than the fixtures, there's no way to mount the existing fixtures with 2 screws. I'm sure every house in this subdivision is the same way. I don't have much say in replacing the fixtures except for the one in my bedroom; there's now an Ikea fixture in its place. The Ikea fixture is equally cheap, but has a white reflector instead of "brass", and accommodates 3 bulbs instead of 2 (and it's attached with 2 screws instead of 1!)
|
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2011 06:34
|
|
|
Blistex posted:The worst was when a marina built a massive three story tall, 200 foot long storage building for people who want their boats out of the weather over the winter. There was a ton of complaints and debates, and articles in the paper, but in the end it was their right to do it. Now the landscape for a few KM each way is dominated by this structure. Let me tell you about the cleansing power of fire
|
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2011 14:41
|
|
|
oh boy do I ever have stories for this thread. I just bought a fixer upper last year and I'm still going through it. This is what happens when you put 6-10 layers of asphalt shingles over a layer of cedar shingles, over the course of ~80 years, and then allow it to simmer.  The top layers were peeling off and sliding down the roof because the nails were no longer reaching the roof decking, so it was more like thumb tacks on a corkboard made out of ancient decomposing shingles. It had the appearance of a very bad sunburn. The valleys in the roof had something like 3-4 layers of flashing in them. I ended up throwing my hands up in disgust and simply ripped the whole roof off, decking and all, and dropped an extra thousand bucks on enough 3/4" plywood to redo the whole thing. It was worth it. Remodeling the kitchen? gently caress gutting that place, just slap another layer on top! moldy decomposed lath and horsehair plaster with moldy decomposed fiberboard acoustic tile over it, with veneer plywood over that. It looked fairly decent but I knew there was some sort of horrible sin hiding behind it, so down it came. Take a close look at that recessed lighting fixture, we'll be revisiting it.  The bathroom. Two layers of lath and plaster, a layer of drywall, a few layers of 3/4" boards and wainscotting, and some masonite wainscotting as well. The room went from 7.5 feet square to 8 feet square when I gutted it. That's ~13% floor area increase.  Maxwell House electrical box for the recessed lighting fixture. Holes for the romex were created using a screwdriver and a hammer from the look of it. One of the romex runs was chafed and it appeared the insulation was somewhat melted and burned. I am REALLY glad I pulled that ceiling down. There were four like this in the room.  adding a bathroom? Knock the foundation wall down, extend the foundation, add an addition over it, and then cut a floor joist in the kitchen and cut about 2/3 of the way through the sill plate (right where it goes out over open space in the basement addition) for the vent stack and sewer lines. The only reason the kitchen floor isn't bouncy as hell right here is because it's 3" thick (multiple layers of boards, plywood, and flooring...) and this joist is somewhat cantilevered out over another support beam in the middle of the basement.  Why use one properly sized joist in the bathroom when you can use two or three a bit too short, nailed together side by side, and still get them the wrong length? Ahh, gently caress it, just shim it up on top of the foundation wall with random bits of stone and wood. Also pay no attention to those strangely spliced wall studs.  More electrical cleverness. This one looks pretty OK, right?  Hmm, what the hell is that? I feel like I have seen these somewhere before.  Uh. I'm not sure if paper plates are UL listed for use as electrical box covers.  That's about it for fuckups I have found and documented with my camera so far. The plumbing was horrible when I bought it, I didn't take any pictures but here is some of what I found: * cold water pipe patched using two hose clamps and a piece of garden hose * cold water pipe patched using tightly wrapped electrical tape and a hose clamp * hot water pipe 'patched' using a tightly wrapped sock. Water would evaporate off the sock faster than it could drip out through the pinhole * cast iron drain pipe in the bathroom 'patched' using ABS DWV jammed inside the ends of the cast iron and slathered with silicone caulking * cast iron drain pipe under the basement sink 'patched' using aluminum flashing, big hose clamps, and lots of silicone caulking * ABS DWV tee inserted into vertical run of cast iron drain pipe using... surprise surprise... electrical tape and lots of silicone caulking (and it was supporting the cast iron pipe above it, too) * the aforementioned tee was for the washing machine drain, which came up into the back entryway. No trap was used. I always wondered why the kitchen and back entryway smelled so ripe. Glad I was planning on ripping this all out anyhow. * MANY valves 'replaced' by simply soldering a second valve in line with the first. I found one section of pipe that had 4 broken and leaking valves in a row with a single working valve at the end. kastein fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Nov 1, 2011 |
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2011 19:57
|
|
|
kastein posted:oh boy do I ever have stories for this thread. I just bought a fixer upper last year and I'm still going through it. You sound like me with my house, right down to the lasagna-roof and daisy-chained leaky valves on pipes. Also, the pictures aren't showing up for me... 
|
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2011 20:08
|
|
|
daggerdragon posted:You sound like me with my house, right down to the lasagna-roof and daisy-chained leaky valves on pipes. Also, the pictures aren't showing up for me... I jacked em from facebook, that's probably against the rules. Will fix it up with some tinypic love now just in case.
|
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2011 20:15
|
|
|
I went into the roof of the rental my better half is living in at the moment to put some cheap insulation into the roof to try and cut down on the power bill and found out that previous tennents had already had a crack at insulating- with the silver bags out of boxes of wine! What IS the R value of a goon bag of fruity lexia?
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2011 00:32
|
|
|
Jesus. I'll stop complaining about the previous owners of my place. God drat.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2011 00:40
|
|
|
Oh, is this the thread where people were complaining about ugly garages making neighborhoods look bad? Well I think you should all shut your pussy mouthes and behold. . .  . . . the house that's made from a garage! (Click for extra white trash pixels)  Oh, and this is no ordinary garage, not some guy's big garage that he made on a separate lot for his cars and junk. This is a "hey, I need an oil change, a realignment, and check the transmission, because it's acting up in 3rd gear" garage. This was an actual garage dedicated to fixing cars, it had two large bays, hydraulic lifts, and tons of oil and fuel contamination. That kind of garage. . . and now people live inside of it! Don't believe me, check out the faded sign behind the bottom satellite dish. I especially love that they went to the trouble of hanging two dishes, but while on that ladder didn't have the time or required tools to remove the old sign. I don't think I really need to explain anything in this picture! That addition speaks for itself. Also they never bothered to take down the two large metal sign frames. "No, I don't know how this was even possible from a zoning or even health regulation point of view". And yes, people visiting my town ask all the time about the "hillbilly house" right at the intersection of the two main streets, overlooking our beautiful bay. (Click for additional mullet)  Beat that you suburbanites! The only thing I can think of that could come close is if someone let 50 gypsy caravans park in their front yard and they were constantly fighting and screaming to each other while livestock crapped everywhere.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2011 01:11
|
|
|
I really don't get the bitching about what other people do with their own property. If you wanted complete control of the view or aesthetics of your neighborhood, I guess you should have bought somewhere with a HOA. That, or bought your neighbors land as well so you get to make the decisions about it. Or looked into what guidelines the area you moved into had and let that be a factor in your choice to buy a home there. People will eventually do whatever they are allowed to within the letter of the law. If some building gets put up and ruins your view of the lake or trees or whatever, you can bitch and moan about it, but no one ever said your property comes with an unrestricted view across someones property. Same with buildings that you feel are over-sized/gaudy/hillbilly. poo poo if I had the money you can be drat well guaranteed I'd build the biggest drat shop/garage I'm allowed. And a HOA is great for controlling the neighborhood so everyone gets a nice coherent design that appeals to the group. Its fantastic, right up until you're the guy that wants to paint his house dark blue instead of dark grey. Sorry, your property isn't really your own anymore. Your neighbors get to decide what you're painting your house. Or how much brick you can use. Or how many windows you can have. Or which brand of shingles you can use. Reminds me a bit of something my Aunt and Uncle went through. They lived next door to a family with three children. No fence between the two lots. Everything was fine until one year the family next door decided to put in a big patio and a pool. No problem really, my Aunt and Uncle didn't care. If the neighbors built something on their own property that was their business. That is until, since their own backyard was now filled with patio and pool, the kids would just play all the time in my Uncles backyard. Uncle and Aunt asked the parents to keep the kids in their own yard. But either the parents didn't really care to keep the kids on their own property or they were just really bad at actually doing it, because the kids just kept on playing in my Uncles backyard. Eventually something more drastic had to be done, so my Uncle checked out the regulations checked the property lines, and then put up a fence between the two yards. Neighbors of course then bitched endlessly about how the fence made their yard smaller and therefore had devalued their house, ruined their view, blah blah blah. Eventually to the point where they attempted to get the regulations and bylaws changed so that my Uncle would have to take down his fence. Which is when I heard about the whole debacle because my Aunt and Uncle had to go to some local court or arbitration sort of thing. At which point the neighbor got a lesson in local building guidelines and basically laughed out of the thing from what I understand. Moral of the story is that just because you have a neighbor that is essentially giving you something for free, that neighbor is under no obligation to give it to you forever. Be it the backyard you thought you were entitled to, or just the view of the lake you really liked.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2011 09:42
|
|
|
I can understand giant garage/house combos to a certain extent. I want a massive bunker with plenty of man toys in it. Large enough for Hitler to think you're a bit over the top. A massive garage, metal shop, wood shop, man cave, etc. However! If I ever get rich enough to do something like this, I want it to be somewhat esthetically pleasing. Ideally underground but if not, either the entire first floor of a house or as a separate barn-type building. It would be carefully designed to match the house, not thrown together to look as just an overbuilt garage. If I was young(er), single and had more of an interest in cars, I could live in a giant garage/house "thing". It's an eye sore but if it's made right, it's quite cool in a giant man baby kinda way. I bet it isn't and you'd die from suffocation from running the cars inside your house. I would kill to get my hands on a large barn where I could tinker in peace.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2011 10:05
|
|
|
ibpooks posted:Then he really shouldn't have chosen to live in a compact residential neighborhood. It's disrespectful to the neighbors to build something that is so out-of-place in the neighborhood; and then do no decoration, landscaping, architecture to at least make it somewhat visually appealing. It's a huge utilitarian building, larger in height, width, and depth than any house on the block. The extension went up on the side of his house closest to the boundary wall with my property. His tenants now look down into the window just in front of the main bedroom closet. All this on a 21000' property. Even in less compact neighbourhoods, the building of huge structures tends to gently caress everyone around you.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2011 10:57
|
|
|
Sedgr posted:Moral of the story is that just because you have a neighbor that is essentially giving you something for free, that neighbor is under no obligation to give it to you forever. Be it the backyard you thought you were entitled to, or just the view of the lake you really liked. No, the moral of the story is that people who do inconsiderate things, even if they're legally entitled to, are assholes. No one is arguing about the legality of building a large garage -- we all know it's allowed. I could mow my lawn 10' from my neighbor's bedroom window at 7:01 on Sunday morning because that's when the noise law stops. I don't because that would make me an rear end in a top hat. And yes I agree that living in an HOA would be much worse than occasionally dealing with something I don't like. I don't believe that people should be disallowed from using their property, but they should show some respect to their neighbors out of courtesy and weigh their own desires against the desires of the community around them. For example, a builder of a garagezilla could take a small portion of the budget he was going to use for a few more square feet of brown metal siding and instead buy some landscaping or hedgerow to at least somewhat decorate his eyesore. ibpooks fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Nov 2, 2011 |
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2011 17:41
|
|
|
ibpooks posted:No, the moral of the story is that people who do inconsiderate things, even if they're legally entitled to, are assholes. No one is arguing about the legality of building a large garage -- we all know it's allowed. I could mow my lawn 10' from my neighbor's bedroom window at 7:01 on Sunday morning because that's when the noise law stops. I don't because that would make me an rear end in a top hat. All it would have taken was a couple of hundred bucks extra to divert to the city supplied storm water drain conveniently located in front of his property.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2011 18:32
|
|
|
Sedgr posted:**Stuff** I agree with you that people should be able to do what they want on their property, but that doesn't mean we can't complain about it. Example of world class dickery: There is this small lake 1/2 an hour from my place. Beautiful lake, mostly old people around, and some interesting shaped lots due to two townships colliding in the area. Here is the situation:  The large lot with the brown house has been unchanged for as long as I could remember. A few years ago the guy in the bottom right hand lot moved in and built a house. He had the property surveyed and discovered that the property lines were drawn in the wrong area. The guy with the big lot thought that the corner where their two lots met was his, but it turned out the opposite was true. The new guy has a small lot, under an acre, and the guy with the large lot has almost three. He lost (in his mind) about 5% of his property to this new guy. Honestly, about the size of a bedroom. The new guy builds his house (brown) and then cuts the trees on his (red area) property so he can now see the lake. Next year, the guy with the big property decided to build a garage, a huge garage. Guess where he builds it? Out of all the space he had, he placed it exactly where it would 100% block the new guy's view of the lake. (red square). Should this be illegal? I don't know. If there was a law to prevent dickishness like this, I'm sure the dicks would be the ones using it the most.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2011 18:55
|
|
|
ming-the-mazdaless posted:drill holes in the boundary wall to alleviate pooling on his side and impolitely gently caress the PO of my home in the taint with a broken bottle. We live in a river valley. Maintaining a proper flow of run off, and collecting it where possible is critical since we get 28 inches of rainfall on average per annum. In many areas improper discharge of storm water drainage is actually grounds for legal action against a neighbor. The PO probably could have sued or at least involved the city enforcement department to force the neighbor to deal with his drainage problem correctly.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2011 19:11
|
|
|
ibpooks posted:In many areas improper discharge of storm water drainage is actually grounds for legal action against a neighbor. The PO probably could have sued or at least involved the city enforcement department to force the neighbor to deal with his drainage problem correctly. Indeed, and it's a fairly simple process even here. However, PO worked up a laundry list of code violations that would have resulted in a tit for tat. The sad reality of the matter is though, he was just too stupid to notice.
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2011 23:09
|
|
|
Forgot about these stories until today.. About 4 years ago I was demoing a small addition off the back of a house . The addition was built sometime in the 50s by my best guess. When I had the roof and walls off and it was time to rip the floor out and I found out that the addition was built over an old brick and granite lined well. I later checked and it was over 50 feet deep and about 4 foot in diameter. I also found out that the washing machine and the sink were draining into the well, and not into the regular sewer system of the house. 50 years of detergent and skidmark residue had been draining into the well from the washing machine and into the local water table. It was obvious that it had always been this way. I found many other gems in this house including dozens of mummified squirrels and rats in the walls and the rat-den to trump all rat-dens. I was digging in the crawl space because the homeowner had seen the rat holes and wanted to pour concrete over the dirt to prevent the rats from ever tunneling in there again so I had to remove several inches of dirt. What I found was a maze of tunnels leading to one central "cavern" that I could fit my entire body inside. I am 6'6" and about 245 pounds if that gives you an idea of the size of this cavern. The cavern was filled with scraps of cardboard, plastic, and a childs raincoat, as well as tons of what were the bones of rats, chickens, other rodents. Hopefully they weren't the bones of the owner of that raincoat!
|
|
#
?
Nov 4, 2011 03:25
|
|
|
I guess this story can go here. The local gas company woke me up today to tell me that they have to install two beams to protect the gas manifold that is on the side of my house. I can understand one, on the side of the manifold that is facing the street, but the other end is facing my home, to back into it one would have already driven through my house. Whatever, they say that that have to do this work so I go back to my coffee. They jackhammer up my garage slab (putting a new crack in it and getting concrete dust on everything) and put two 6' I-beams on either side of the manifold. They are also a good two feet higher than the thing they are protecting. To top it off, they are neither vertical, or square to the house or even each other. They poured some concrete mix in the holes and then added water, doing a piss poor job of mixing. Finally they paint the beams haze grey (over the oil and rust) and leave. I already complained to the gas company, but have don't expect to hear back till Monday. I will get some pics up when there is daylight. Still pretty pissed about this.
|
|
#
?
Nov 6, 2011 03:05
|
|
|
My utility sink and washing machine are connected to the same drain that runs through a wall to underneath the bathroom sink. A while ago I was getting a towel and noticed something curling off the PVC. I looked closer and couldn't believe it, instead of being glued together every single connection had been wrapped in layers of electrical tape. I tell my mom/landlord, her response "Well at least it matches."
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2012 18:05
|
|
|
GD_American posted:I've got this problem when I forget to to turn on my recirc while cooking anything smokey. The smoke detector is about 20 feet away on a facing wall and very sensitive, and linked whole house. I have this exact problem and it's drat impossible to cook anything on my stove above medium high because the smoke makes my alarm go off and makes me ANGRY About how much would it cost to install an actual hood vent? I think I did a  and it said a good hood is like 3-500. Is the install as simple as running piping up to the attic and venting it out?
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2012 18:50
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 18:45 |
|
|
Aggressive pricing posted:My utility sink and washing machine are connected to the same drain that runs through a wall to underneath the bathroom sink. A while ago I was getting a towel and noticed something curling off the PVC. I looked closer and couldn't believe it, instead of being glued together every single connection had been wrapped in layers of electrical tape. I tell my mom/landlord, her response "Well at least it matches." oh wow. That's pretty horrible  If it matches (assuming black electrical tape) it's actually ABS, not PVC. You use a different kind of adhesive on it. Laminator posted:I have this exact problem and it's drat impossible to cook anything on my stove above medium high because the smoke makes my alarm go off and makes me ANGRY If it's on an outside wall, it's even simpler, you just put the vent through that wall. Make sure you appropriately water seal the vent cover on the outside - water and gravity go well together, so the top edge and sides of the vent flange should go under the siding while the bottom edge should go over the siding. You can stretch the rules a bit on the sides and bottom if caulked properly, usually I see them attached to the outside of the clapboard that the bottom is over and then the next few are overlapped over the flange.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2012 21:36
|
|