WTF-Beta

The levees broke and New Orleans flooded several times before the morning after Katrina. The people by which I mean the poor know it. It exists below sea level. I saw a National Geographic cover decades ago warning it could flood and lived to see the day. And there's a lot wrong with it other than the fact it exists below sea level. It's one of the most polluted places on earth. I was thinking more about comparing the houses of Charleston and New Orleans more than anything else. I would never move back to New Orleans. I would never move back to Hawaii for that matter. I think once you're seen the reality of some of these famous places you might not want to see it again.

Cautionary tale/ PSA.

My father [with my mother's sweat equity and creativity, and my child labor (I'm sorry but making your five year old fill five gallon buckets with rocks for months didn't happen for long after '73), his friends in other trades (other than electrical work), other contractors, and suppliers, took an upstate NY summer shack, demolished it, and built my parents' mid-century modern dream house.

It was mid-century modern down to its flat roof. Two peaked roofs with attic space were added years later.

Well, the lifted the house with hydraulics at some point and set it down on its new concrete block foundation.

To give you a picture the side of the basement to left of the bottom stairs was "the bones" of an apartment with roughed-in plumbing.

My brother and sister would each use this space as a bedroom many years later but it was never turned into an apartment (I'm getting to why).

The east half to the right of where the basement stairs were was a two car garage.

This is the problem they encountered and it had a very negative effect.

The land beneath the front line of the house (and the concrete wall constructed) reached from the front line down to the basement floor.

Now imagine (because it's true) the grading of the land went from this line forming the line at the house's floor at the front door, angled downward an entire story, on both sides of the house, until the slope ended at the level of the basement floor.

Well, the lot on the opposite side of the road was a hill with a house set on a cleared off piece of land.

Unfortunately, nobody knew knew, guess, was told, was able to predict, or otherwise had the knowledge to realize that water was flowing downward in elevation, underground, and hitting the concrete block front wall.

It was always damp and never able to be mitigated effectively.

The original flat roof didn't help. They never help.

The roof never resulted in the house leaking or damage in the walls, luckily. It just meant that rain removal with a proper gutter system and snow removal vis a vis roof maintenance caused my parents unnecessary stress.

Finally, there was a period of time when a leak developed between the concrete front door slab and the basement. This was fixed.

So, that's my PSA. You should consider the movement of water below the ground.

My parents' basement eventually exploded in mold. The smell became so bad that it hit you the minute you opened the door to basement.

Contractors working for my father's estate mitigated this damage and cleared out his hoarding mess (I have posted in other threads that he was a hoarder).

The quality of life this situation took away from everyone but me (because of timing), the probability that my family had mold poisoning, and the large amount of money required to fix these issues before the house could be sold during the probate process, form a large and unfortunate, to be honest, part of my memories.

At least the sale price didn't suffer at all. It's remarkable what you can accomplish with the right amount of money.

I don't know why my father was a hoarder.

I remember countless summers when my mother and I would rent various sized dumpsters and try to help him. He would take molded pieces of insulation that had been buried in the ground from the dumpster and say, "I might need this some day."

It was like Sisyphus moving a stone boulder up a hill and never being able to reach the top.

Affordable and the board will approve me. Lol!

Seriously, though, for me, here, it must be concrete block on concrete slab.

The inside is like a labyrinth. No rhyme or reason. No privacy. The outside isn't great. The only good thing is the privacy and views from the top floors but they messed that up by connecting different bedrooms on different levels to the outside patio. Shouldn't the owner of a house like this have a private balcony?

I don't know. Interesting question.

It's important that a house is matched to its environmental conditions.

To do otherwise could spell disaster with no heat mitigation in a hot climate, and/or water damage resulting in rot and mold.

My favorite will always be authentic Georgian houses and gardens.

I don't know why.

There are so many choices!

There's a country in Asia that eats them fertilized, put into the ground, and left to rot.

I would starve to death first.

How deed theft works and how states are fighting back | Miami Herald https://share.google/HIJjQJaTLOpfF6LNJ

Make this make sense. Be aware of the issue, this national organization, and laws in your state, if any.

And maybe call the County or visit one of their offices every day for the rest of your life?

Mother's Day forecast says mild May temperatures are on the way out https://share.google/eUfi7G1aDcO0Qr3AQ

Part of me wants to say it's the weather what can you do?

Another part of me wants to say not this **** again.

Link to video

Reluctantly, I'm voting no.

He starts out with the state of the art security system. There's a reason it needs one.

The downstairs has no privacy. You'd have to put curtains on the windows.

There are too many stairs and too many levels sharing an outside porch. I need more privacy for this list price.

The arrangement is strange in that you could live at the top of the building if it had a kitchen and the bedrooms had real privacy.

I don't expect an Otis elevator in a place like this but give me a tube elevator. This is not an age in place house.

On a positive note, the kitchen is everything you could want, as are the floors, as are the bathrooms. It's a nice neighborhood. It has a parking space.

Overall, the interior is troublesome and incoherent but the rooms are nice.

YMMV.

There's one being built in Utah (What is it with Utah?) that's bigger than x Walmarts (I can't remember what x is but, um, many). It's going to produce enough heat and emissions to kill all of the wildlife in the valley where it is being built.

I will, Sir! I never did believe that hype that they were bad for you.

That's nice.

I didn't take Latin. That's funny.

Shout out to Tampa.

Here we go again.

That's good. My sister tested positive again and again. I don't think she recovered from it.

@CHAS said:

Don't see many insects here. Mosquitoes in a wet year. If I see ants or a spider, it is an event. A few butterflies show up. A fly got in the place last year.

There are benefits to living at a high elevation no doubt.

Did you actually rid your body of it? My poor sister got it and never could get rid of it.

I love the garden lizards and frogs. Hearing the frogs under my floor is something I could live without, though.

There are a few mosquitoes in the house. The doors have to left open when possible or the place would turn into an oven.

They swarm by the hundreds during mid-summer evenings. I had bites all over me for months last summer. I hope I can move before it happens again.

We have black snakes. They're harmless. Actually, they're beneficial. I haven't been able to take a picture of one because by the time you get your phone, they're long gone.

I guess because I've been to Disney in Orlando about twenty times, and in LA twice, I'm not understanding what the big deal is about going, why people pay so much money, or where theyre getting it in this economy.