Should we let Americans into a little secret?

[Harleyman]

All new constructions are built better now In most countries anyhow as building codes change for the better, materials last longer, although old replacement parts are not easy to get as they've all changed but for the better I suppose, no one would make any money if things stayed the same .

 

Some people have said that replacing a wooden house is cheaper than replacing one made of brick. I'm not sure of that if you take into consideration the labour and material costs as a whole. Lumber in this part of the world may be "cheaper" than in Europe but not "cheap" by any means. Nothing is cheap in the construction industry. I remember the price of copper tubing and concrete went sky high in the late 90s early 2000s because the Chinese were buying up all we could manufcture. Lumber climbed steeply in price also for the same reason

 

Carpenters, plumbers. electricians, concrete men and roof installers dont work for peanuts exactly either.

[Harleyman]

Something we haven't touched on is the matter of basements I don't remember many houses in UK having them, other than the 'coal hole'. Why do we have them? The main reason is to have a place you can escape into during a tornado or earthquake or even a hurricane as long a you're not in danger of flooding. That they get converted into private pubs or spare bedrooms is beside the point. They usually have a storm hatch so you can get out once the house has finished collapsing. Once again there is an advantage in using wood because it is lighter than stone or brick. I own a ' home to go', otherwise known as a manufactured home, somewhat similar to a two wide mobile home, but without the wheels and larger. Price of homes vary wildly between States and within them. My town is a middle class country town of about 25000 inhabitants . My neighborhood has 62 homes similar to mine housing mostly retired people who have downsized from larger family homes after their children have grown up and left. The houses are all single level and were manufactured in a plant then delivered in two halves. Production quality is first rate, much better than the 11 room Colonial I lived in for 23 years. I paid $110,000 for it. 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, deck, Natural gas heating, and central air conditioning. I don't own the land it sits on and pay a modest site rent. As is common in America, the houses are not identical to each other in color or style.

 

Basements in houses are a rarity in California except for some that were built over a 100 years ago. They were common in Montreal, Canada. I had friends who had turned their basement into a party den. It was a good sized basement as well. It had a small toilet, oak panelling, soft lights mounted around the tops of the wall and a nice sized bar with a fridge. He even got hold of one of those old Wurlitzer juke boxes with the colored lights and put it down there. I suggested a pool table but he never went for it. Scared I'd beat him I think

[Aleksandr]

Can you afford to put it on,i can't.

Set the thermostat to 15°C. We save a fortune that way! Still need long johns and an extra jumper mind, but it's much cheaper than keeping your house warm!

[Aleksandr]

I'm 73 and I left the UK for Canada in 1965. No council house that I ever lived in up to that time had central heating. My cousin lives in a house built in the 1950s and has had central heating put in. It was a radiator mounted to the wall and heated by hot water if I remember.

 

In Canada they used oil to heat houses. In California it's by natural gas piped into a furnace in the attic or garage and blown through ducts into outlets at the top of the walls of each room. Some of the really old houses have gas wall heaters but they're not much good as they only heat the rooms they are in and not the whole area of the house

Our first one, when I was a kid, was a 'back boiler' in a wall mounted radiant gas heater, which heated water convecting in a closed loop to a heat exchanger in a storage tank. Not sure whether there was a pump to get it round the radiators though - probably was. The house was warmish, but the room with the radiant heater was always nice. I've also lived in a house with ducted hot air, and the house I'm in at the moment, built in 1969, has the remnants of such a system. In fact, I keep meaning to take my nibblers to the ducting under the floor and cut it up for the scrap men. It's been left behind as it's too difficult to get out in one piece! We have an ultra-efficient condensing combi at the mo, although I'm attracted to a pebble-bed reactor for our next one!

[Harleyman]

Our first one, when I was a kid, was a 'back boiler' in a wall mounted radiant gas heater, which heated water convecting in a closed loop to a heat exchanger in a storage tank. Not sure whether there was a pump to get it round the radiators though - probably was. The house was warmish, but the room with the radiant heater was always nice. I've also lived in a house with ducted hot air, and the house I'm in at the moment, built in 1969, has the remnants of such a system. In fact, I keep meaning to take my nibblers to the ducting under the floor and cut it up for the scrap men. It's been left behind as it's too difficult to get out in one piece! We have an ultra-efficient condensing combi at the mo, although I'm attracted to a pebble-bed reactor for our next one!

 

When I was a kid they still had those great big cast iron heaters against the walls through which hot water would pass. They were to be found in schools and other public buildings and they did the job alright. Sometimes it would be icy cold outside but a stifling hot house inside because there was no such things as thermostats. You had to turn them off to cool the place down.

 

The only way to get a hot bath was to light the fire, even in summer. This would heat the water tank behind the fireplace and if you were lucky you might get around 5 inches of water in the bathtub before it suddenly ran cold.

 

We took a bath about once a week, the rest of the time we'd take what was called a French whore's bath, that is washing under arm pits, around the groin and stickig each foot into the sink and washing those sweaty, stinky members as best we could.

 

I have a master thermostat in my house that keeps the temperature constant at 23 C. summer and winter and which also registers the current out door temperature. I can also change the house temperature at any time even if not in the house by remote control.

 

The only thing is that kids of my generation were a lot tougher than those today. We would play out in the freezing snow and come in the house and it felt warm even if it was damp and cold. Only the old people huddled around the fire, the rest of us walking around in shirts in 50 F and thinking how nice and warm it was

 

In California kids don hoodies and warm jackets if it gets colder than 70 F. A change in wind direction is enough to get them a cold

[janie48]

Set the thermostat to 15°C. We save a fortune that way! Still need long johns and an extra jumper mind, but it's much cheaper than keeping your house warm!

 

Yes 15C is as high as its going,but i don't need it on now,because dancing to this is keeping me warm enough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNQXQKflJNA

[Harleyman]

Yes 15C is as high as its going,but i don't need it on now,because dancing to this is keeping me warm enough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNQXQKflJNA

 

We dont worry about electric bills. We're rich enough to pay whatever they bill us and we live in a fairly large house.

 

Two years ago we received a notification from our local power supplier So Cal Edison that we no longer qualified for the energy saver discount because our electricity usage had gone too high during the summer.

 

My wife called their office and asked them if it was reasonable to keep two kids, 7 and 5 in the house when it was 40 C outdoors most of the day and would have climbed to around 30 C, indoors if the central air was shut off to save money.

 

When school is out in summer from June to end August we babysit the grandkids 4 days a week

[janie48]

We dont worry about electric bills. We're rich enough to pay whatever they bill us and we live in a fairly large house.

 

Two years ago we received a notification from our local power supplier So Cal Edison that we no longer qualified for the energy saver discount because our electricity usage had gone too high during the summer.

 

My wife called their office and asked them if it was reasonable to keep two kids, 7 and 5 in the house when it was 40 C outdoors most of the day and would have climbed to around 30 C, indoors if the central air was shut off to save money.

 

When school is out in summer from June to end August we babysit the grandkids 4 days a week

 

The first time i went to the States it was absolutely sweltering, i spent the first four days in New York City not feeling too good,some of the time.Apparently it was one of the hottest most humid June's they had experienced in years.

[Harleyman]

The first time i went to the States it was absolutely sweltering, i spent the first four days in New York City not feeling too good,some of the time.Apparently it was one of the hottest most humid June's they had experienced in years.

 

It's a dry desert heat in California with very little or no humidity but out in our backyard it's like being on the devil's anvil when it hits around 40 C. on many days in summer

 

I have to soak the orange bush and orange tree with a running hose for about 30 minutes every two weeks as the roots go down deep and the rest of the plants watered every 4 days.

 

Still winter is almost here and the best of the weather about to arrive. There's never any snow except on top of the highest part of the mountain range about 15 miles away to the east. Very nice to look at from the back yard too.

[regatta]

It's a dry desert heat in California with very little or no humidity but out in our backyard it's like being on the devil's anvil when it hits around 40 C. on many days in summer

 

I have to soak the orange bush and orange tree with a running hose for about 30 minutes every two weeks as the roots go down deep and the rest of the plants watered every 4 days.

 

Still winter is almost here and the best of the weather about to arrive. There's never any snow except on top of the highest part of the mountain range about 15 miles away to the east. Very nice to look at from the back yard too.

 

The top of Meadowbank road is not 15 miles to the east of Tinsley and it's only an hill and the only snow you will see, is whats on top of the council house roofs. 321 your back in the room. :hihi: