OT: American toilets!

[Bob Eager]

LOL! Well, round here we have the Medway Towns, of course...breeding ground of the chavs...

[Jules Richardson]

I did, too. Despite having been here for a few years, I've never seen that. Urinals with direct flush, yes - but not bum-on-seat toilets; they've all had cisterns. Perhaps it's a regional thing.

cheers

Jules

[F Murtz]

Then they go and buy mushrooms or plums and handle every one on the table while choosing.

[John]

Whilst picking their nose!

[Tim Watts]

On Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:48:21 +0100, "John" wibbled:

Let's face it - lots of people are just ignorant selfish buggers. Number of people poncing around stopping on the yellow zigzags outside the school today was ridiculous. Lollypop lady was going mental in as a polite a way as possible.

And yet - drive 100 yards without a seatbelt and you can be sure a copper will be around the corner...

[Tinkerer]

Ah, my mistake.

[F]

I think you mean the *Transocean* catastrophe. Deepwater Horizon was owned and operated by Transocean, an American company. Haliburton were responsible for some of the work on the sea bed and the blowout preventer was made by an American company.

A pity the BBC can't make the distinction.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember F saying something like:

Doesn't matter - the boneheaded decision and order came from a BP manager, did it not?

[Doctor Drivel]

US toilets are syphonic and more complicated. I had one. UK toilets are simpler and use less water. Torbeck valves can make the filling quieter.

[Doctor Drivel]

Yep we do and pay more for them as well:

[F]

If it was that bad then the operator should have said 'No' or 'Find someone else to do it'.

[sm_jamieson]

Whenever I see large and expensive new build properties I am amazed how often they are built with 8 foot ceilings. Which of course seem even lower with large rooms. Its like living in a multistorey car park with the ceiling closing in on you. The builders don't seem to think that a higher ceiling would attract people who want a quality house. Its one reason older Victorian or Edwardian houses are so popular. Simon.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember F saying something like:

Who knows? Perhaps the first person did. Then the rig went 'boom'.

[Andy Champ]

Well that and the fact that all the bad Victorian and Edwardian houses have fallen down, and only the solid ones are left...

Andy

[Graham.]

And the police always peruse "late model convertibles", everybody has a 555 phone number and the any computer screen shown has an operating system that looks nothing like Windows but any screen transition is accompanied by a pointless sound effect. (Come to think of it that

*is* like Windows.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Graham." saying something like:

They have to spend the kickback money on something.

[Tony Bryer]

The minimum ceiling height regulation (except over staircases) was abolished in the UK 20 or so years ago. Someone investigated it and found it was there to stop you get asphyxiated by gas lamp fumes! I suspect that the NHBC retain the 2.3m minimum, but the sad thing is that too often a minimum becomes a maximum.

Here in Melbourne houses are generally one-off builds, usually from a catalogue of standard designs, and one of the options is to have a

2.7m high ceiling instead of the regulation 2.4m.

[Jules Richardson]

That's "late model" as in "US car engineering is twenty years behind the rest of the world" ;-)

Don't forget that password entry is *always* echoed to the screen in plain text, and any computer can read any file...

[Graham.]

If Whoopi Goldberg is at the keybord it won't matter as she speaks every keystroke out loud. (Those Sperry terminals wern't so dumb, They managed to display Soviet TV IIRC)

[terry]

Nine foot and even ten/twelve are being used in some of our more expensive homes now in this part of eastern Canada. By more expensive one means around $500K to $600K, at present, (Canadian; which equals say, some $500K US and say under 400K UK pounds?) on say a quarter to one acre depending on whether municipal services or well and septic. Three/four bed with 2.5 bath etc. often with a single or double attached garage and/or a separate shed/garage typically 15 by 20 feet. All well insulated.

Personally don't like high ceilings because energy wasteful, even with a fan/s to circulate warmth. Having also seen some factory built housing with ceilings less than eight for use 'up North'.

We started married life over 50 years ago in a single bed house trailer and after several years measured our total monthly costs including site rental/uitilities/heat/light cooking etc. etc. as $40 Can. (then worth about five UK pounds). The trailer had lower ceiling and was therefore very economical, although built to light weight USA standards, to heat etc.

Am of average height and find 'regular' ceilings work fine. Also our full height, 48 by 37 foot, almost completely in ground basement is fully usable and mainly used for workshop and utilities.

After all a house/home is a machine for living in! Along with all ones books, tools, memoirs etc. and accoutrements for daily living such as garden tools, snow thrower, place to store winter wheels and tyres, push bike etc. For the practical diy homeownerone one is not trying to emulate Buckingham Palace!