bigugli

Average lifespan of a house built in the 50's or 60's is 90 years before MAJOR repairs are needed..... most of these houses are double brick construction...

 

Average lifespan of a house built in the 80's, 90's or 2000's.... 35 years before MAJOR repairs are needed... 2x4 stick framed.....

 

I would take an older home.

 

G

Actually, to correct the one misconception. Houses are not 2x4 construction. Exterior and weight bearing walls are 2x6 minimum. Partition walls are 2x4. There is a huge variance in the quality of the framing lumber being used. A lot of green and warped wood used so it's tough to build a trued wall. Some framers would cut and scab a stud to try and true a wall, I prefer to shave and shim.

What's wrong with smelling like fish?

Perfect weather for splitting firewood. Don't require much effort to get my logs to pop apart when its good and cold.

In the words of the immortal Sgt Shultz: I know nothink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztgYhVFSDSQ

We are just having ourselves a traditional, good ole fashioned winter like we used to get 30, 40 and 50 years back. There were a lot of Muskoka nights when the needle passed -40F. We were taught to never sit on the seat in the honey hut at night. No one was gonna hear you crying for help once you got stuck.

Some useless facts. Want to know how cold it really is. Spit into the snow. Warmer than -40 it will freeze on contact. Colder than -40, you'll hear a pop as it freezes in mid air. At that temperature, waxed handlebar mustaches get brittle and snap off.

I just blew a trailer tire yesterday and I definately felt the thump, thump, thump, fast enough, and the pull to the blown side.

I want the yacht

Got to be very careful about propane heaters in your hut. Couple of younger fellas came close to gassing themselves last year with the heat cranked up and the vents closed. The new fabrics are amazingly windproof, and that means no air exchange when you seal yourself in.

Luckily for them they only felt kinda nauseous and had a wicked CO hangover for a day.

A piece of paper in your pocket, or a diploma will not make a good tradesman or builder.

Building code does not guarantee a good house.

They are only minimums.

What is missing in all the complaint stories is a lack of quality, sense of ownership/pride, and ethics.

I have known very demanding inspectors, and I have known 'pocket men'.

I have known many great quality tradesmen. No builder I have worked for likes them. Many are now retired or refuse to do subdivision work. There are also many hacks out there.

I left new home construction because I'm not good at talking out both sides of my mouth. I did not like how we were building houses. I did not like the way the builders treated their customers. It violated my ethics.

Holmes does provide some good insight into some of the problems of home ownership, but its all about the cameras.

I can't think of a portable field stove that will keep heat for the time you're asking. Small fire boxes and no insular brick to retain heat. At best you get 3 hours before you have to reload. I too also heat solely with wood at home today, and where I grew up. When we hunted we had a small acorn to keep the shelter warm, and we each had our turn at keeping the fire on all night.

-44 wow , reminds me of the good ol days! this was without the wind chill at the sudbury airport this morn. going to have to buy an extention for the auger at that rate..lol

At those temps. Forget about your propane heaters on the ice.

My wife did that 12 years back and we wound up, a week later, with two stray mommas and 15 kittens taking over the house.

That was nice of you. By doing that, you technically proved the homeowners point.

I did it because the guy who signed my paycheque, the builder, told me to. Not because I wanted to. Like the old saying goes, one is either the horse or the driver.

As I said before it was the last housing project I worked on. This was not the way I liked to do business with people.

I totally agree that carpenters need to be licensed and the builders need some brains - Here's my story I have to get off my chest incase anyone is in the market for buying a new home. Buyer Beware:

 

I bought my new subdivision house in 2007 (2050 sq ft, 4br, 2.5bath). Get this, the upstairs main bathroom's exterior wall that was tiled over for the bathub was totally warped. Somehow I did not notice this when I bought the house, but regardless it's something that had to be fixed obviously.

 

The builder sends over their repair guy to assess the situation. The guy was awesome, he knew what he was doing and told me flat out the builder doesn't seem to do anything by code. He didn't realize the job would be that big, so he had to book a time to come back and fix it. Well, I guess word got around that he was spreading bad things about the builder and they fired him. (He later came door to door signing a petition about it).

 

Anyway, after a week or two of complaining they sent over another guy who comes in and rips apart the wall. The 2x4 they had in there was literrally a scrap piece of wood that had chissle marks all over it, and completely warped. It was ridiculous, something that came from the scrap pile.

 

After ripping up the wall he leaves and said he'd finish tomorrow as he had another job to go to (I never bothered him once during his work, infact I gave him coffee). What happens? He freaking "quit the job" so the builder says. They give me a bunch crap that they don't have another guy and are interviewing people to replace him. They said they would call me when they do to finish the job. I called and called and went to their office every couple days. It took them 4 months.. yes 4 MONTHS before they sent a guy over to fix the thing. The bathroom was practically useless for that time period. The only reason why they sent someone is because I had called Tarion and complained (note to all, Tarion is your only friend).

 

So wouldn't you know it, they sent over THE SAME GUY who started the job to finish it. Yes, he didn't quit at all, they used that as an excuse to hold off paying a few extra bucks to finish the house. They put him back on building and I could tell the guy felt genuinely bad about the whole situation because there was nothing he could do about it.

 

I finally got a flat, newly tiled wall, that I would've gladly paid a licensed contractor instead to finish the job. Too bad they keep throwing words around like "Doing so will void your warrenty". Builders are scammers and don't care at all about you after they got your $.

 

If I ever move, a custom house is in order.

I saw this many times and was, in part, responsible for similar behaviour. Builders will not tolerate trades badmouthing the paycheque. They pull them off jobs or move them to another job. Then I, as the super, would have to come up with the smokescreen, etc..., to keep the homeowner quiet. You really can't tell the customer that your boss is an . It's just the way business works.

I've also let a homeowner stew for 6 months waiting to get his deficiency list work done. We were prompt with his neighbours. Thats what you get when you publicly badmouth the builder's character. You don't get service when you call someone a liar, cheat, scumbag, etc...

Unfortunately there are bad eggs on both sides of the fence.

I tried powerbait maggots the other day. Tried them as single and doubles on plain tiny hooks and as well on jigs with no luck. Certainly not the same as the real thing but I really thought I'd get a few fish on them. I didn't catch anything on Saturday and a person I know used live wax worms today and caught a whole bunch of sunfish and bluegills on them. Worth a shot.

I've had better results with the Gulp maggots, but they still Don't beat live maggots and waxies. A real treat for the fishies are the borer worms I often find in fresh logs I am splitting.

After my last contract as a site super I got out of house construction. We started the first year's construction using prime product and materials, and staying above code minimums. Once we built our feature units the builder went bare bones the next spring and we skimped and cut every where possible.

Some changes to code have allowed the use of all sorts of questionable new materials I would never have in my own house. Beyond that the builder decides the grade and quality of materials to be used. No contractor is going to use superior product when a builder will only pay for low grade.

It is good to see the shabby stuff being exposed by Holmes, but you won't see him take aim at the builders, just the contractors.

Now I know what happens to the leftover minnows from a fishin' trip up there!

Dawg, I'm sending you a bill for my new screen!

Mental note to self. Do not read one of GCD's replies while drinking first coffee of the day.

The big thing about fishing the Grand is the current. You need heavier weights or jigs to get down to the fish. Jen or Steve will set you right on methods.

Easiest thing for saltwater would be the party boats. Pastime Princess runs out of Daytona. Basic charter is $69 a head.

http://www.pastimeprincess.com/

Almost every pond or hole holds bass and pannies if you're looking at freshwater. A lot of public stocking down there. 3 day license, freshwater, is $17. Remember Florida and Georgia are big sticklers on their regs, and much of their budgets are covered by fines.

For all those who've been around the block for some time, remember Towers? They had the same shoddy track record for not carrying adequate inventories of advertised items.

The government received so many complaints about the practice, and enough pressure, that the law hit them with huge fines for the misrepresentations and bad ad practices. It amounted to a lot of negative PR and millions in fines. Shortly after conviction they folded.

Put simply, if you don't like the practice, start hollering at the government, the BBB, and every other consumer watch dog. Stop shopping there, and let them know it. Get the local paper interested in the story.

There's a great sense of pride that comes from knowing your roots and family history. It gives you a greater sense of who you are. That connection with the past also helps to guide us on the paths we should follow in life.

Give yourself a great big pat on the back. You done good.

And now for the after shot. Brekkie

Well that looked like one really fine outing you had .

Going to have to try that Gulp fish fry on the perch here.

Thanks for sharing. Looks like you had a lovely day.

I thought 150 lbs in 2 pulls sounded like alot too, but I didn't grow up in the 60's. All always hear how bad it was walking 20 miles uphill in snow 20 feet deep just to go to school. So maybe the smelt felt bad for em and jumped in the net.

It was no exaggeration. My Grampa would come home with bushels full. Gram would then spend an entire day cleaning then. Then she would get right steamed when he started sharing the fish with the neighbours after she had done all the work. Nobody had big freezers then. You ate em fresh or you could pickle them.

The same thing would happen with the whitefish. To her dying day my Gram would never forgive him for those stunts