Homes in General, one question and a few ideas

[E5I5O]

Ok so I asked one question earlier, and I have seen a lot of interesting threads in this group! But I have to ask where can I find a list of supply places online that list some things home related? Though I have to state I am losing my current home I am not really that broken up by it! I am going to turn my life around after a failed marriage in a house my wife want, and "had to have", I am going to do things right this next time around! With that said....here is my plans, first I am getting as far from the no jobs, high prices and taxes of New York state as I can, then moving to a warmer climate, perhaps North Carolina, South Carolina, may even one of the Virginia's, or perhaps out more westerly. I know in my next house I want low voltage or even fiber optic lighting or both, I want a very warm and highly efficient heating system, that can maintain 80 degree room temperature without the cold floors I experience in a mobile home my ex wife had to have and stuck me with! Further I want a logical floor layout, nothing that is too confining such as my grandmother's 60 year old home, and land big enough for a large three bay garage, without a lot of slopes, and a huge creek running through it! I also never again want to live in a valley on a main road ever again! My home now includes these same problems, on summer days I can hear the traffic flying by at speeds over 50 miles per hour, the road run off is in my front yard, along with trash by passer's by. At 4:33 PM my home is in the shadow of a hill making my home cooler at least an hour or two later then sunset, and my driveway is so terribly blocked with ice and snow run off from the road I can't drive into it most of the time with getting stuck! In short I need a lot of changes in my home, this time around! I want the home to be modern with charms of an older home, I want it to be warm without paying the budget of NASA to light or heat! I want to be able to landscape the thing to look nice, and yet have privacy for entertaining my guests! In all perhaps I will be the neighbor of someone here in this newsgroup, but either way I will be looking for some changes in home thinking and remodeling! But I need infomation and I thank this group for any help they may provide.

Sincerely, E5

[AJScott]

In article , "E5I5O" wrote:

Oh give me buy me take me let me have. Whine whine whine. People in Africa are eating flies in mud huts and you want homeowner nirvana. Ungrateful slacker.

Uh, I¹m just messing with you, so don¹t get all freaked out, OK? ;)

You can spend an ice age puttering around at 2am with online catalogs, and there¹s really nothing wrong with that -- although I¹m not quite sure what kind of supplies you have in mind. There are jillions of materials that go into home building, so maybe if you could be a lot more specific, you¹d get a lot more assistance. Try using Web search engines (Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Hotbot, etc.) and pop in different keywords related to what you think you might want to look for supply-wise. But IMO, it¹s a lot more interesting and enjoyable to get different ideas by simply paying more attention to the homes you drive past every day, or by just taking a day trip into other neighborhoods, parking the car, and walking up and down some of the streets. You see a lot more -- and a lot more closely -- on foot rather than driving along and maybe ass-ending someone in the middle of the street because you were gawking at houses instead of paying attention to the road. You¹d be amazed at the amount of stuff you tune out simply because you drive past the exact same thing day after day after day. If you see something about some of these homes that floats your boat, ring the doorbells and ask the homeowners about it. People just loooooove talking about their homes. Of course, they¹ll look at you all weird at first being a stranger and all, but if you don¹t seem like an ax murderer or a panhandling derelict, you¹ll find they get kinda cordial after a few minutes.

IMO, it¹s also more fun with the possibility of more ideas if you actually go to home improvement or construction supply stores and wander aimlessly down the aisles or ask the service counter person to look thru their catalog(s) of stuff, and then asking whatever questions move you at the moment. I¹ve always thought that everything has at least one use for which it wasn¹t intended when it was invented, and you may end up coming up with a bright idea or two that few others came up with so far. Heck, think of how many people have kicked themselves over the past few decades for not being the one guy who came up with the idea of stupid little paper umbrellas for bartenders to stick in foo-foo cocktail drinks.

AJS

[E5I5O]

LOL I thought it was funnny!! I am a slacker as my parents call me!! Actually a lot of what I know is their fault to begin with (hehehe) and I do love my parents dearly! But they altered my high school years and education. I had wanted to get into welding, and auto body they changed my activities to include Drafting, Electronics, small engine repair, and vocational Auto mechanics. So now I am still shaky at best around welding equipment, but I am learning slowly. Actually I have a really good sense of humor, my ex wife left me for the guy next door, fifty feet next door, did I get upset? Not even! I was happy to be rid of her! She took my paychecks pissed money away like she was living with the lifestyles of the rich and shameless, and left me for a guy who had even more money coming in then what I have, how can that be wrong? F**king leech anyhow!! My family paid for the property I am currently getting ready to sell, and my grandmother has spent years helping with house payments my wife wasn't making, cuz of her endless shopping fix! My grandmother placed a new septic on the property 14 years ago, a well 8 years ago and my folks purchased the shed kit I refered to in a different post. But for that I am very grateful! Now after 17 years of listening to that "woman" (and I use that term more loosely then she has been with my "friends") it is now my time to shine as it were! Hell at 40 I am still young I have my health, and a great outlook on a lot of things, plus I usually don't take myself too serious! But getting to the post I had before, "Hey don't I know you from someplace?", actually I have been also curious about energy effiecent lighting products!!

Basically this is kind of the other worldly problem I have been facing lately. These damn utilities think I have money or something. My girlfriend and I are moving that is a given, and things as they are I have talked with a few of the folks I worked with that live south of the NY border in PA. My girlfriend has family down there to boot and they have given me a little insight (as her brother in law is a PA "State" Electric worker). In PA like in towns throughout the south, the power companies (or at least what I have been told) are all different companies. In other words here in New York we have NYSEG (New York State Electric & Gas) providing electric and until recently that was our only choice! NYSEG was and in some respects a monopoly if there ever was one! This past year NYSEG decided that they need to increase profits with a 13% increase to all customers, typical of most big business yes, but with a Electric budget of $142 a month as it is, 13% more on top of that really got me wondering how to light my home without the use of a car engine as a generator! In thinking of this the $160 a month would be one weeks paycheck I really can't do without and even the $142 a month was stretching it a lot! I look at my usage which makes very little sense to begin with being I am on a planned budget from NYSEG, and it seems to jump around a lot. In the summer months my electric usage double, which I could justify IF I had a central air conditioner that my house is wired for, BUT I don't own. Also over the past two winters, this year 2003- 2004, and last year 2002- 2003 my electric usage dropped to almost nothing! My girlfriend and I are very strict about leaving lights on in the house and seldom have more then two rooms lit at once! Of course we do have a bunch of "hogs" in the house as far as eletric use goes, the standard suspects, aka Dishwasher, dryer, water heater, extra freezer, and fans and computers. I know that other things are drawing huge amounts of juice to like the 16 year old microwave and what not but it doens't explain a recent jump in my electric to the tune of $400 a month While watching home improvment shows on HGTV, TLC and Discovery, I see more and more people using things like low level lighting (halogen) or fiber optics for lighting needs. I real terms the wash machine was replace two years ago, the dryer was replaced 7 years ago, the hot water heater was replaced 3 years ago, and the Dishwasher was replace 2 years ago as well. I have a 200 amp service, in a home I had purchased just

8 years ago!

Let me point out for the record for those tuning in, this home is a double wide mobile home my ex wife "HAD" to have, to replace a single wide home we had purchased originally. She wanted a house that we could quickly move into and ignored all my pleas for a garage and a normal stick built house! I guess the thing was that her parents (like yeah) lived right next door (which is a 1960's single wide trailer), and it goes to show that you can take the "woman" outta the trailer, but you can't take the trailer outta the "woman" (trying to be as polite as possible for those who don't follow replace "woman" with "trash" and NO I don't think that of all mobile home owners). Don't get me wrong I was the one who finally agree on the floor plan (though regretting that I couldn't afford the modular home I liked better), with a lot of open but not wasted space and most people that visit can't believe this is a trailer! Other structural items include 1/2" sheet rock throughout, shut off valves for all sinks, tiolets and such (other then the one I added for the water heater which was odd as it didn't have one), standard door openings (so normal house 36" doors can replace doors in the home if need be) and so on. But this is all off topic! Getting back to my subject, I have been very aware of energy usage both in heating and eletrical (being I use LP gas for heat and electric for the normal other stuff), I am trying to find lighting products that are very bright but use nothing in electric or close to the usage of those fancy floresent bulbs used to replace normal incandecents (should I say "Ya'll" here? ). In short I would also like to find other energy saving products and start reading further on making a home that has little power usage as possible! As I have been pointing out I am moving here soon and this time it gives me a fresh slate as it were to look at things my ex wife seemingly ignored! I have a little time and I am only doing my home work now!! Thank you for any help!!

Sincerely, E5

"AJScott" wrote in message news: [e-mail]...

[default]

...75 lines of creative writing deleted.

Err... was there a question buried in there somewhere?

[AJScott]

There was, in the original post. And to think that I somethimes worry whether *I* get way too wordy around here. Yowza.

AJS

[barry martin]

E5:

E > Ok so I asked one question earlier, and I have seen a lot of interesting E > threads in this group! But I have to ask where can I find a list of supply E > places online that list some things home related? Though I have to state I E > am losing my current home I am not really that broken up by it! I am going E > to turn my life around after a failed marriage in a house my wife want, and E > "had to have", I am going to do things right this next time around! With E > that said....here is my plans, first I am getting as far from the no jobs, E > high prices and taxes of New York state as I can, then moving to a warmer E > climate, perhaps North Carolina, South Carolina, may even one of the E > Virginia's, or perhaps out more westerly.

Good luck on your new life. (This is meant with sincerity, not sarcasticly -- lack of inflection is text can cause problems so added this.)

E > Virginia's, or perhaps out more westerly. I know in my next house I want lo

E > voltage or even fiber optic lighting or both, I want a very warm and highly E > efficient heating system, that can maintain 80 degree room temperature E > without the cold floors I experience in a mobile home my ex wife had to hav

E > and stuck me with! Further I want a logical floor layout, nothing that is E > too confining such as my grandmother's 60 year old home, and land big enoug

E > for a large three bay garage, without a lot of slopes, and a huge creek E > running through it! I also never again want to live in a valley on a main E > road ever again! My home now includes these same problems, on summer days I

Argh! I need paragraphs!!

Good news: you have experienced what definately doesn't work for you. Bad news: trying to find a place meeting all of your requirments. (We were going to move a couple of years back; spent about a year looking for a place. Ended up building an addition here as nothing available at the time meeting our specifications.)

Keep in mind when looking for your new home probably _nothing_ will match all of your specifications unless it is built from scratch. With that in mind you are now looking for a place which meets most of your specifications. No creek? How about a water feature? Big slope? Possibly dig some of it out to terrace - or a waterfall!

E > around! I want the home to be modern with charms of an older home, I want i

E > to be warm without paying the budget of NASA to light or heat! I want to be E > able to landscape the thing to look nice, and yet have privacy for E > entertaining my guests! In all perhaps I will be the neighbor of someone E > here in this newsgroup, but either way I will be looking for some changes i

E > home thinking and remodeling! But I need infomation and I thank this group E > for any help they may provide.

I'm in eastern Iowa so I'm out! If only five blocks closer to the Mississippi I'd have a great view from the bluff but then I'd probably be living in the Abbey Hotel. Used to be a monastery -- talk about a remodeling job!

- ¯ barry.martinþATþthesafebbs.zeppole.com ®

• Never put off 'til tomorrow what you should have done yesterday.

[E5I5O]

The question: Where to find low level lighting on the net or Fiber Optic?

Thanks, E5