ideal kitchen

On Tue, 25 Jan 2011 04:54:12 -0600, "Storrmmee"
wrote:


It sounds like cork or a cushioned/padded man made material is the
direction you need to take. Since it needs to be finished (like a
wood floor), I wouldn't go with cork.

--

Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
 
On Tue, 25 Jan 2011 05:07:39 -0600, "Storrmmee"
wrote:


Whatever you do, do it with your ultimate resale value in mind and
*don't* over spend. This is a good time to call in a real estate
agent in for some advice.

--

Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
 
On Tue, 25 Jan 2011 04:52:08 -0600, "Storrmmee"
wrote:


What do you mean by that - where it's placed, the height, one hole or
two???

--

Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
 
Cindy Hamilton wrote:

I would have guessed 1950ish from the tall windows and roof lines...
obviously those are not the original shingles. The house would show
off the masonary work much better were those Architectural shingles,
they'd give the illusion of greater mass to balance against the mass
of the stone work. I can tell that your front door and its hardware
are original, but I don't think that bow window is, it was probably a
metal casement... the two tall side windows were probably metal
casements too.


I like Norway maples except for the millions of seed pods they drop.
However I wouldn't replace it while it's still sound. Spruce are nice
too, they attract lots of wildlife, they also make a good wind break.
Without knowing the property size and how everything lies I really
can't comment on landscaping. My rule is so long as the trees can't
fall on any structures they are fine. Younger, smaller plantings make
a house look larger and younger, but before choosing to relandscape
you need to weigh how many years you have remaining, saplings take a
very long time to grow into trees. From what I can see (that picture
is heavily cropped) your house looks very nice.
 
On Feb 22, 5:27?pm, Brooklyn1 wrote:


That's what we intend to do when we replace the roof. The current
roof was installed in 1992 by our predecessor.


The front door pictured is a 1990s cheap steel door painted red.
We've
since replaced it with a nice fiberglass door (but I don't have a
picture handy).

The bow window is newer. All of the windows are 1980s Andersens,
mostly double-hung but the bow window is casements. There's
a three-season porch tacked onto the back, and it has awning
windows.


We took down one Norway maple to make way for some construction,
and it was rotted at the heart. I fear most of the remaining are,
too.
(That one in the picture is home to carpenter ants; I can see the
frass
around the base of the tree in the summer.) Three of them are in a
position to fall on the house if they topple right over.

I don't really care if the house looks younger/larger; I love the
mature
trees and will do everything reasonable to keep them. We've got
two acres sprinkled with mature trees. It looks like a park.
We're in our 50s and we intend to leave the house feet first; most
of the trees will probably still be there when we're dead.

The previous picture was taken in the early spring. Here's
an aerial shot from late spring:

http://www.adi.com/~hamilton/house/outsidepix/aerial.jpg

Cindy Hamilton
 
Cindy Hamilton wrote:

That picture must be from years ago, most of those plantings look
fairly young. There are a lot of trees, all grown they must make up a
forest. I wonder why the utility lines run right over the middle of
the backyards, a strange place for a utility easement... but I've no
idea where you live.
 
On Feb 23, 1:53?pm, Brooklyn1 wrote:

The picture was taken sometime between 2004 and 2006. A
50-foot blue spruce doesn't look like much from 300 feet above it.
(At least, I think that's the altitude my husband said he was at
when he took the picture.)

I live just outside Ann Arbor, MI. The neighborhood was
originally farms that were sold off and subdivided right after
WWII. I don't know why the utility easement runs right
through the middle. It's not bothersome, except that the
utility prunes those trees with extreme prejudice (and no
concern for esthetics). I've no idea why the previous owners
of our place though that planting under the power lines
was a good idea. I guess it's the job of previous owners
to do every boneheaded thing they can think of.

Cindy Hamilton
 
On Wed, 23 Feb 2011 12:33:42 -0800 (PST), Cindy Hamilton
wrote:


The easement could have been hanky panky between the developer, the
utility company, and the town. Back then it was very common for
money to move under the table as pay off for subdividing with the
zoning commission for more building lots on a given acreage. This
naturally benefits the builder, as well as the town being able to
collect more taxes, and the utility having more customers. It seems
to me the utility company would have benefited greatly if they had put
those wires underground, a lot less maintenance... but there's more.
Were it me living there I'd get together with all the property owners
and file a class action suit against the utility company and the town
with the EPA. Living in such close proximity to all those unshielded
electric transmission wires with their electromagnetic radiation
fields presents a known medical hazzard, they're a carcinogen. I see
high tension wires running perpendicular along the side between
properties as well, pretty close to the houses. It would be great if
they were moved (probably won't happen) but buried in a concrete
conduit would be a major improvement.
 
On Feb 23, 6:28?pm, Brooklyn1 wrote:

Those aren't high-tension wires. Each of those perpendiculars feeds
one house, so it only carries about 200 A or less. I'd like to get
mine buried, but it would be at my own expense. Maybe someday.


Thanks, but having the utilities run down an easement (usually
at the rear of a 100-foot-deep lot) is pretty much the norm for
any house built prior to about 1980. There are literally
millions of houses with that setup here.

When they platted out the lots in the 1940s, there wasn't
much zoning at all. And nobody buried electrical lines out
in the boondocks then. Since they've got the infrastructure
in place, they're not going to change to buried line.

Cindy Hamilton
 
On Thu, 24 Feb 2011 06:40:52 -0800 (PST), Cindy Hamilton
wrote:


I just wanted to give you a heads up about the health hazzard. It can
be many years (20-30) before medical issues develop from exposure to
electromagnetic radiation... wasn't all that long ago when no one
payed attention to radon radiation either, which of course emanates
from stone and concrete, especially granite. Anyway I'm jealous of
all your lovely conifers.
 
On 1/24/2011 1:38 PM, Storrmmee wrote:


Gosh, Lee, I forgot about that. Now that you mention it, I remember the
tragedy now. I'm so sorry.
 
Ophelia wrote:


If the walls and cabnitrey are painted (as opposed ot having some
facny finish), and the appliances are not custom-fitted into their
spaces (i.e. they are free-standing), then a long time. You repaint, you
replace failed appliances, you're mostly up against the surface lifetime
of your floor and countertops. It could go for 50 years without
needing to be gutted.

The tile in my kitchen is 90 years old. Granite lasts that long
or longer.

Three other considerations to add here:

(1) Make your countertops about 1/2" higher than you consider optimal.
This is because re-flooring often involves building up on the previous
floor, which makes the countertops lower. To rip up the previous
floor is extra cost.

(2) Don't place the oven high off the floor, otherwise
to place anything heavy into it (large Dutch ovens) you will
be straining your back. (Which may be strong now, but this
will probably not be forever the case.)

(3) If you go for a kitchen island, make sure a wheelchair can
navigate around it. In a roundabout way this will extend the lifetime
of your kitchen.

Steve
 
"Storrmmee" wrote:



When we did our kitchen update 8yrs or so ago I threw in a hot water
dispenser almost as an afterthought. It was next to the garbage
disposals at Lowes & on sale- so I grabbed one. It is my wife's
favorite kitchen gadget. I use it on occasion & it is handy-- but
she uses it every evening for tea & every morning for hot cereal.

Jim
 
On 1/28/2011 12:27 PM, sf wrote:
Sorry, replying to this late. My point about the soffit was that I
would like to rip that waste of space out and put in cabinets that go
all the way up to the ceiling. From what I understand after watching
some home improvement shows is that cabinets that tall are probably
custom made and out of my price range, I'd think.
 
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