Finding home architects that specialize in energy efficient homes?

"Don" wrote in news:XssMe.7732$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net:

S'long's I can still have my Buffalo Grass (well, where I don't have other stuff - preferably, wround the periphery, some nice *spiny* ocotillo and agave and so on heh heh heh).

Being a free citizen I figure I have the right to not have to mow a lawn

If it says "grass" and he put down "plastic" then it isn't grass. Lawyers are stupid.

I suspect that the ordinance isn't written well enough to define "grass." In fact, I supsect that the ordinance is probably so full of holes he could, with a little effort, find a legal basis for growing

The most stupid are local ordinance writers...usually a local lawyer who's chummy with the mayor or a city councilperson.

Is it _grass_? Don't matter what it looks like.

Now, bamboo is a grass...

"Don" wrote in news:G%uMe.7859$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net:

Ha, that's a good one. Tacky, but funny anyway. I'd bring him a couple pink flamingoes just for the principle of it (I'm such a snot ;) )

- K.

"gruhn" wrote in news:vSvMe.56$ snipped-for-privacy@news.uswest.net:

I bet it probably doesn't say "grass" tho'. It might not even specify "lawn". If the reference is only somehting to the effect that the yard must be mown and kept green, then they're stuck heh heh heh

Here is a better one. Put in pebbles and then plant variuos cultivars of Miscanthus grasses, throw in some Big Bluestem grass, Muhly Grass, Papmpas grass, Mexican Feather Grass, ohh, how about Ravenna grass (I think that's the ont that gets to 12 FEET tall), and so on - and then let them try to force you to cut it down to the nubs. Stupid little rules.

- K.

"Don" wrote in news:BnzMe.8092$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net:

Sounds like a Stephen King movie. Or maybe just "Night of the Living Deadbeats".

Almost every ordinance I've seen is some variation of a three different "Masters" that someone must have published.

Worse yet are the morons the city/township hires to enforce the ordinance........and they don't understand it..... I had one occurance where, after running circles around this woman WRT understanding and quoting specific sections......she just claimed that "the city could do whatever it wanted" Had to go way over her head and threaten court action before they backed down.

Slightly different angle. We got the Standard in the UPS this morning. Boss opened it up. On page one finds proofs of multiple instances of the FedGov moron who caused us to have to get said Standard being completely and utterly wrong.

The kind of wrong that gets anybody but a government employee in trouble.

Yet, when we deal with this known, obvious, provable, demonstrable, really- he just is, useless moron obstructionist skating freeloading criminal thief we have to kowtow and fawn and placate.

It's wrong. Very very deeply wrong.

Guy walked through the door this morning. "We're from the City of Phoenix. We're here to make your life miserable." "Hah, no you aren't. If you were from the City we'd have had to go meet you at your office."

OK, I knew who he was and why he was coming. But tell me I'm wrong.

Suspect that going over her head didn't work because you found somebody who knows what the city can and can't do but rather hit somebody for whom political expedience becomes an issue.

I may be missing something here, but... to my ears "CO" is city administered and it isn't their job to enforce CC&Rs etc. "Nice 'grass,' dude. Here's you CO. Enjoy the neighbours."

Because I'm an excellent writer with a finely honed skill for evocative prose.

DUH!

I go to the bookstore frequently. I leave roughly around closing time and drive home that way. And right around x and y streets pass a cruiser frequently, more than one more often than I'd think. It's not a special neighbourhood. My timing and their timing can't be THAT tight. I can only imagine that they are thick on the ground.

Don, there's a better life for me and you -oo.

"Don" wrote in news:9OQMe.8817$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net:

I would guess it has to do with the way in which one designates what's to go into the yard. Or if one has to do so at all...?

In a hot and humid climate, mulch next to the hyouse (as a groundcover) attracts insects and bugs, including termites. Lawns can go to the dogs rather quickly. And lord knows it's *dang* difficult to find decent landscape/maintenance service. So who knows, maybe this guy will be better off in the long run with his "alternative groundcover".

OTOH it makes one wonder why he didn't go for some nice stonework.

That actually isn't entirely true. As the oil becomes depleted, it becomes costlier to extract it from the ground.

There's a theory...with some evidence to suggest it is true, that oil isn't the result of rotting dinosaurs and plants, but created in the earth. If this theory is true, then there is an unlimited supply of the stuff...

It's not a widely accepted theory and there isn't much credible evidence to suggest it's true. I wouldn't place any heavy bets on the unlimited supply idea.

Anthony

Spoilsport...

The United States has already seen first hand that our oil reserves aren't unlimited. Production in our country peaked in the early 1970's and has been declining ever since.