Congrats, Mr O, on extending your lease on the White House!
On Monday, Mrs. got a message from the appliance store. The guy wanted to apologize for not ordering our refrigerator. We had assumed the refrigerator was just waiting to be delivered after the floors were done. Nope! Somehow this little fact escaped everyone involved until this week.
When Mrs. mentioned this to the builder's agent, she said "Sears would never do that". Yeah, maybe, but ... you said we had to go with your vendor!!!!! Fucking A. Refrigerator guy won't return Mrs' calls, so we don't know if there will be a refrigerator in the house by the day we're planning to move in. Also, when it does show up, we have to be there, in person, to watch the installation - some kind of building code thing. I don't know what we're supposed to know about refrigerator installation that a professional refrigerator installer doesn't know.
Because the mortgage is already in progress, we're going to have to write a check for the new refrigerator out-of-pocket. Fine. Here, take another thousand bucks... Fucking A.
There is still no street sign on our little street. While the builder on the lot next to us has started building a gargantuan palace, we will be the only people living on the street for many months. It's going to be a private street, so we'll have to pay for maintenance, snow removal, etc.. I hope our new neighbors have a pickup truck big enough to carry a snow plow!
Builder's agent says we're closing on Friday, but she won't give us a time.
Gobama!
So, tell me how your house will be heated. Will it have a “furnace” in “the basement” for “warm air heating”. Three concepts that are quite alien to most Brits. :)
we have two separate furnaces: one for the first floor and a smaller one for the second floor. that’s not uncommon in the US – we have that setup now, in our much smaller house. these new units will both run off LP gas from a big tank in our backyard because we’re too far out in the country to get city-supplied gas. the downstairs furnace is outside. the upstairs furnace is in the attic.
the downstairs furnace is a combo unit which also handles the downstairs A/C. and there’s a smaller separate A/C for the upstairs.
it’s all forced-air.
frankly, i hate it. the heated air is very very dry and it kills me in the winter. when i lived in NY, most of the old houses were hot water radiators, which are very humid. very nice.
there are very few basements in NC. you don’t really need one if the ground doesn’t freeze, so you typically only see them down here on sloped lots where one side is exposed.
our hot water will be a gas-heated, tankless, on-demand system. that will be nice.
Interesting. Thanks!
Most UK homes have water radiators – ours is fed by a gas-fired boiler that also heats our hot water (there is a big water tank in our airing (linen) cupboard for the hot water. We also have a pressurised hot water system so we don’t need a water tank in the loft like a lot of older house. We’re on mains gas too but our last place had an oil tank in the garden that cost a lot of money to fill.
The problem with radiators vs. forced-air is that 1) radiators take time to warm up when the thermostat kicks in, 2) they take a while to cool down, 3) they take up a lot of room, 4) they can get very hot which can be a problem with kids – especially our chrome-plated towel rails in the bathrooms – they get *really* hot.
How about sewage? I assume you’ll have a cesspit or something buried in the garden or are you on mains drainage? We live at the bottom of a small hill so have a small (private) sewage pumping system – a big underground tank for the crap and a pair of pumps that pump the poo up the hill into the sewage main. This has been a royal PITA. When the developer handed it over to the 17 properties that require it we had to set up a management company for legal reasons, find someone to maintain it and collect money from each resident for the upkeep. Yours truly somehow got lumbered with dealing with this crap and I hate it. We are currently trying to get the local water authority to take it on which would be so much less hassle – but they’re stalling. Luckily there was government legislation passed a while ago that forces local water authorities to adopt all private sewage systems by 2016 – but it will cost them money so they’re dragging their heels. One of the residents has fallen on hard times and has stopped paying their fees too which upsets some of the other neighbours – “why should we have to pay if they’re not”, etc. “because if we don’t keep the system maintained, and the pumps fail, within 48 hours the shit will be coming back up your toilet” usually keeps them quiet, but even so, it’s a lot of bloody hassle.
oh god, a private sewage company? now that sounds like a potential nightmare.
we will have our own private septic tank and field – downhill from the well, happily :) though they put the LP tank right next to the well. hmm…
an oil tank in the garden that cost a lot of money to fill
heh. the builder gave us $100 worth of LP to start with. we get to fill it up ourselves, when we move in. i can’t wait to see how much that costs…
I bet it’ll be cheaper than here if your petrol prices are anything to go by.
What about your Internet connection? Is that going to be fibre? ADSL? Something else? I just ordered a fibre connection (well, fibre-to-the-cabinet) which is 40MB dl/10MB ul for £9 a month for the first three months, £18 a month after that.
assuming everything goes right, internet will be via cable: 10Mb/1Mb, IIRC.
“a pair of pumps that pump the poo”
:-)
And some interesting news regarding marijuana use… how’s that going to play with the Federal Government???
how’s that going to play with the Federal Government???
terribly, IMO.
it hasn’t turned out well for California, and Obama shows no signs of letting up.