oh you can buy everything i mentioned here in the states. you just won't find it at your local albertsons/safeway.
you need to either A: Know a great butcher, or B: Order it frozen through a meat purveyor/distributor.
it used to be part of my curriculum to teach culinary students how to cook offal...kidneys roasted whole en gras surrounded by their own caul fat...livers roasted with honey and parsley, fried brains in black butter and capers, and of course...sweetbreads in all manner of styles...and then of course the obvious lessons on foie gras and the do's and dont's of the worlds most controversial ingredient.
good times.
in my case, i did both A and B. we had local farmers who would supply us with the freshest kidneys you can imagine...still cased in dewy, white fat, sweetbreads that had never been frozen, etc etc etc.
sorry to gross out the kind veggies on the 'nect, but she asked...
I always thought jesus juice was water. You learn something everyday. With all this talk about game meat and all I'm again glad I've stopped eating meat (yummy steak excluded)
apparently durian fruit is in the same family as the jack fruit, the latter sticks to high hell when rippen despite its sweet taste. More than understandable that even the bravest may choose not to taste it.
my mum's neighbour in manitoba just died of human version of mad-cow disease. took a few months from diagnosis to end of road. sad. fucking ranchers feeding meat to cows just pisses me off. what the HELL were they thinking?
jump...it isn't the ranchers...it is the feed lots where they to after coming off of the range. So don't be so quick to point fingers. My grandfather raised registered short horn cattle. I'm not talking about the kind that end up in the feed lot. He was producing cattle in a pedigree, for which other ranchers scrambled to by his bulls and cows
because they were excellent breeding stock. Ya every year the young bulls with short comings would get culled and there was always a plate full of Rocky Mountain Oysters around branding time but that is life. If you want to eat grass fed cattle they are out there. You just have to know where to look. My cousin pre-sales his whole yearly
flock of angus yearlings in one fell swoop, so they never end up in
a feed lot.....It is from the ranch to the table.
chicken isn't much better - its quite amazing when you look at the ingredients of most grain. Why do chickens need so much protein and where the f@ck does it come from? Its all in the name of getting animals larger than nature intended for our eating purposes.
i hear you snooker, but every one i know in the biz says it ain't got nothing to do with them... i spent summers on ranch/farm working for uncle so ain't a cityslicker pointing fingers. farming is f'd up in so many ways it isn't funny and everyone is complicit. you're family maybe isn't in the reglar system the way mine was/is (we raised cattle to send to feed lot), and most of my family don't like the way things are, but it isn't as if no one didn't KNOW what was going on. I don't think they knew the consequences, but STILL...
it is sort of the same with pesticides and other farm chemicals. my cousin works as rep for big chemical company advising the farmers about which stuff to use and when and even she is not entirely certain of the morality of what she is doing...but she loves farming and the rural life and this is the way she can still do it and earn a living (she also runs a small farm with her husband but they make little money at it and he makes most of his income on the rigs up north)...
thing that i find most ironic about the current state of things is when i talk to my gramma (who remembers bringing in the crops with horse power and human labor and STEAM engines)...and she says most of the fresh ideas about being sustainable and all that are prety much just the way her da used to run the farm when she was a kid. But it is very had to turn back clock, even when we want to. our soil is too contaminated to qualify for organic-icity, and now my uncle is old he has decided to rent his land to a big american conglomerate (and has gotten out of cattle business altogether)...so things aren't looking so good. funny thing is he doesn't even want to do it that way, but can't see any other way to keep the farm in his old age...
it is a bit like what LB said about lead paint on toys from china. someone along the line makes choices that lead to money instead of quality, and everything sort of rolls out from that...and there is blame enough to go around.
anyway, is complex issue that leaves me torn, but my mum's neighbour is still dead, and her best friend ain't got no beef no more that she can sell legally...which is amazing...when did farming and ranching become a business where complex moral issues have to be dealt with on daily basis? what a culture we are building...
jump...chuckling here....cause it was the Canadians...who were so eager for my grandfathers breeding stock....Ya it if F..U....but there
are people heading in the right direction again...so don't give up hope it might take a little longer to get to the Great Plains of Canada.
We are really seeing a surge in the direction of organic in Connecticut.
Barry...I was just in chicken country....and i was curious from the air what the heck are all of those long building....guess you have to go to world google to get the feeling.
I don't understand, I go away for like 4 hours, and all hell breaks loose. Shenanigans! What the deuce happened here? And why do I have to read so damn much to catch up?
Later I will show you why I was gone the whole day. Fun times.
beta: I'm leaning toward the Craftsman. Maybe it just photographs better - it looks impeccable - or I'm just not a fan of Cape Cods (I'm not - too restrained for me).
On the Craftsman: I love the "great room", the yard is really lovely, sounds like it is easy walking to shops etc., I think Craftsman houses really hold their resale value, too. It is small, but you guys aren't planning on kids, right? So one bath, while possibly a hassle when you have house guests, is no big deal (we currenlty have only one bath, and it's fine, even when we entertain). The heating is radiators, correct? Which is much nicer than forced air, although harder to add A/C (though maybe you don't need it in Mnpls?). I LOVE a front porch, especially in a neighborhood where people walk, it is a great way to meet neighbors and to sit and have a drink after work. The kitchen looks like original cabinets? which is great, but maybe linoleum floor? Bathroom looks like nice tile, overall it looks like the previous owner did very nice work on it. And the sunroom is a bonus.
On the Cape: Well it's much bigger! The upstairs bedroom under the eaves looks wonderfully cozy, nice for cold winters, as is the frieplace downstairs. Slate floor/maple in the kitchen looks very nice, and I'm guessing the kitchen is miuch bigger than the picture shows - another bank of cabinets, at least. I don't know what Lake Hiawatha or Nokomis are - is the latter a shopping district?
Both are lovely, really, though I admit the prices seem a little high for what you are getting, as do the %$#!*@&!!! taxes....though if the neighborhoods are nice then they are worth that price!
hahaha Indy vs. Chicago prices, in action....in Chicago, $250K is a cardboard box, right? In Indy it's a bigger house (ours was $220K, for 2400sf, 4 bedroom 2.5 bath detached garage 3 blocks from a shopping district).
They're still racing out at the Trestles
But that blood it never burned in her veins
Now I hear she's got a house up in Fairview
And a style she's trying to maintain
Well if she wants to see me
You can tell her that I'm easily found
Tell her there's a spot out 'neath Abram's Bridge
And tell her there's a darkness on the edge of town
Everybody's got a secret Sonny
Something that they just can't face
Some folks spend their whole lives trying to keep it
They carry it with them every step that they take
Till some day they just cut it loose
Cut it loose or let it drag 'em down
Where no one asks any questions
Or looks too long in your face
In the darkness on the edge of town
Some folks are born into a good life
Other folks get it anyway anyhow
I lost my money and I lost my wife
Them things don't seem to matter much to me now
Tonight I'll be on that hill 'cause I can't stop
I'll be on that hill with everything I got
Lives on the line where dreams are found and lost
I'll be there on time and I'll pay the cost
For wanting things that can only be found
In the darkness on the edge of town
Its about the land I was bidding on last year that I lost because I submitted my bid a few hours later than the one accepted. Well its still not sold because the guy selling it apparently doesn't have legal right to. Soooooo long story short is that it may still be available - sweet. It has a river at the base of the site and a wicked sea view
Barrack looks so much like my dead its weird all he needs are a few more grey hairs. Hmm on that note I hope they have a safe flight (back to Jamaica from Florida via their week long cruise - retirement bah)
His health-care plan is the first specific, solid proposal I've heard... don't know much about the environmental aspect but I was way surprised and impressed by the health-care.
Ha, a'techno, I read it as "dad" until you mentioned it. The brain is funny.
beta, of course I meant VCT in the kitchen, not linoleum, jeez, what an embarassing mistake for an architect to make! True linoleum, of course, would be totally appropriate in that kitchen, though slate would be better.
Columbia summer program is challenging, intense, and fun... It's very much like a 5-week architecture boot camp. Some aspects of the program, like basic drafting and model-building techniques, are very old-school for me, and it's been interesting to sit back and listen to the critic explain the whole concept of architectural scale (i.e., 1/4" = 1'-0") to a room full of people who have never heard of such a thing. On the other hand, I continue to struggle with a lot of the abstract concepts and heavy theory being tossed around. I'm starting to think that while I'm a pretty good architect, I'm a pretty crappy architecture student.
I went out and got Chinese take-out for dinner this evening, and the message in my fortune cookie was, "A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner." Somehow it seems apt.
Things will be getting even more challenging for the final 2.5 weeks of the program, as I'm now working about 20 hours a week, which will cut into the time I have to devote to my studio projects. I was hoping to be able to get through the Columbia program without having to work, but that's simply not financially possible for me.
Speaking of work, today was my first day at the new gig, and it went pretty well. Lots of orientation stuff, being introduced to lots of people whose names I instantly forget (I really suck at remembering names), and getting acquainted with their policies, standards, practices, etc. Pretty uneventful overall, but so far the place seems like a pretty tight ship.
Still haven't sold the car yet, so I've just knocked another $1000 off the asking price.
I'd like to take a minute to pimp my thread--it's really important to me and I need a little construction help. It's about barrier-free showers. Thank you.
i'd also vote for the craftsman, beta, except for the fact that it's in st paul! (kidding.)
i was trying to remember where longfellow is and see that it's east of 35w not far from the airport. no chance of getting over on the west side of 35w at that price, then? (i've been gone so long...)
when i look up osceola, it seems that the craftsman's location would be much more desirable relative to things to which you might walk/bike.
beta- both are great choices. with out checking out the immediate neighborhood, the stuff to look for includes are there mcmansions being built down the street, and can you walk to stores and stuff?
If you're planning on doing a gehry on your soon to be house, go for the colonial- easier to modify and bigger lot. If you just want a place to live with lots of charm, go for the craftsman.
Have just arrived at work and am contemplating curling up in a ball in the corner and working on the computer. Do not feel well, but I doubt anyone would appreciate me calling in sick so soon to my last day. My cube is rather private though so it's not out of the question. You can thank my office placement for the increased post count over the past year, for sure.....
~~~~~
beta....the craftsman is VERY cute....although if you wanted to go "gehry" on it, as barry said, I think you might have trouble on either lot in the front, whereas the craftsman has some breathing room in the back. I didn't look at the other one's rear end, admittedly, because I am so smitten with the first one though.
wow! you guys have summed up my dilemma! the craftsman is way nice, it provokes my creative side, thinking about the complexity of designing an addition on a small home with near zero side yard. the end cuts on the rafters are really nice, the battered finish of the clapboards are also quite cool. it has the old style baseboard radiant heat - really clean and cool. the back yard while small is really nice too. the minus's are the fact that some of details in the home are missing, some of the built-ins. the kitchen is small, but i like a challenge, the basement is unfinished and so is the upstairs/attic, and the two finished bedrooms are small. the house overall is really in great shape and in a highly desireable neighborhood, and within walking distance of a really trendy area.
the cape cod is also very nice, very deceiving from the photos. the master bedroom although lacking a 1/2 bath or 3/4 bath is very large - the photo can't really express that. the main floor has a small office/bedroom, the kitchen is adequate - good enough for a small table or extra cabinets. the basement, well i have a hard time considering it a basement, it really doesn't go below grade, the whole back half of the house is really 2 stories, hence when you look at the photo from the deck you can see that grad is maybe 10'-15 below. the existing garage is a tuck under and the yard is huge with couple of trees and a long drive way - thinking of creating a studio in the garage adn building a separated garage at the end of the drive and redoing the whole yard....overall house is in great shape in a decent neighborhood within walking distance of some shops. while the house does not provoke me immediately, i could conceive of doing something quite interesting on the back that would involve some kind of multi-level spaces....
now the rest of the dilemma. both are priced the same, one has twice the square footage as the other, the craftsman will hold its value and can handle a significant upgrade given the area, while the cape may be at the higher end of its value. so an addition there may be a prob.
now i checked with the county websites to find out what each owner paid. the craftsman was purchase in 2001 for 150 and the cape in 2001 or 2002 for 232. both owners no longer live there; the craftsman owner and his fiance bought a home 3 blocks away, and are trying to selling both of their homes - this being one. the cape owners moved and live in iowa. so both owners are carrying from 1 to 3 mortgages.
i want to offer for one or the other - after another visit - given this is a buyers market, does it seem unreasonable to offer 230 for the cape - with seller paying closing - even though its 2000 less than they paid. if we go with the craftsman we want to offer 225, with closing paid by seller, the thinking that he did not put 100k into the home, and making an 80k profit seems reasonable, but hey maybe i expect too much.
in my defense though all of this is new to me - a first time home buyer.
keep it simple for the first purchase, since you don't know how long you'll last in the north woods. I'd do the craftsman to start and plan on finishing the basement to start - the neighborhood is key. goood luck!
(though i like the idea of wrapping the cape with chainlink and asphalt shingles)
tk raises what I think is a huge question: how long will you be in the city? It sounds like the Craftsman will, as he said, be easier to sell in a few years given its location. If you really think you are there for the long run, then getting a lower price on the Cape and doing the shop/lower level additions you're talking about might make it a good investment* and a great place to live in the meantime.
* I always get angry at myself when I talk about homes as "investments" because:
1. I've bought two homes and both were totally emotional decisions that I psot-rationalized the financials for, but woke up in every morning loving the house I had chosen, which is priceless
and
2. I'm a frickin' architect!! Everything my life/career is about comes down to a belief in buildings being MORE THAN AN INVESTMENT OF MONEY, but a socio/cultural/emotional/life-enhancing passion.
beta, in my opinion, offering 225 for the craftsman is perfectly reasonable. Even if the house had appreciated considerably each year since they bought it, 225 is still a fair price and you're probably right, unless they added something major - like a room - I don't think it's worth 100k on top of the price in 2001. It IS a buyer's market and I'd be shocked if a couple with 2 mortgages walked away from that offer.
I don't know what I'm talking about either so this is my "uninformed" opinion.
nice LB- I too dislike thinking of homes as investments. I don't have a home to make money, I make money to have a home!
I run into too many clients who don't want their house to be 'too personal' because it might affect the resale value in a negative way..... to me that's not a home and I think the attitude is killing the community I live in.
Exactly, FRO. Everyone is so damn paralyzed by "resale value" that they are afraid to do something they truly love, that would make their day to day life exponentially more enjoyable.
We constantly have to talk clients out of doing whirlpool tubs in the master bath - how many people actually realistically have time to soak in a tub for hours these days (except puddles, of course)? Yet it's part of the "inventory" that people expect in a $half-mil home these days. Sigh.
...and i hate thinking about homes as investments too, in fact i said that to my realtor, but then when you consider an addition and whether or not the area can sustain the value of the work, it comes into play.
i think for at least the next 5-10 years we'll be in this residence.
Honestly, I would to have a huge soaking tub, it would bring pleasure to my life. But I also want it to look like a GIANT stone bowl, and fill from slits in the sides so the water rolls down instead of splashing.
We covered our fireplace with a huge wooden construction I designed to be an entertainment center. We have one of those funny corner fireplaces that makes it hard to put furniture on any adjacent wall. In order retain "resale" value, we attached as little as possible to the brick, and will offer to take it down if a new buyer wished. It would be a bad idea, and I would advise against it since the brick was painted peachy-pink, and covered in textured concrete from the mantle up. Dont ask.
well, on the flip side of the a-home-is-not-just-an-investment camp, I think the as architect(tural intern)s, who should be able to use a home as an investment better? A home can or can not be an investment, it's up to you. If I were only there for a few years, damn straight I'd pick the investment house.
Thread Central
that doesn't even make sense. Its incoherent.
See y'all tomorrow!
oh you can buy everything i mentioned here in the states. you just won't find it at your local albertsons/safeway.
you need to either A: Know a great butcher, or B: Order it frozen through a meat purveyor/distributor.
it used to be part of my curriculum to teach culinary students how to cook offal...kidneys roasted whole en gras surrounded by their own caul fat...livers roasted with honey and parsley, fried brains in black butter and capers, and of course...sweetbreads in all manner of styles...and then of course the obvious lessons on foie gras and the do's and dont's of the worlds most controversial ingredient.
good times.
in my case, i did both A and B. we had local farmers who would supply us with the freshest kidneys you can imagine...still cased in dewy, white fat, sweetbreads that had never been frozen, etc etc etc.
sorry to gross out the kind veggies on the 'nect, but she asked...
i'm just sayin'.
I always thought jesus juice was water. You learn something everyday. With all this talk about game meat and all I'm again glad I've stopped eating meat (yummy steak excluded)
apparently durian fruit is in the same family as the jack fruit, the latter sticks to high hell when rippen despite its sweet taste. More than understandable that even the bravest may choose not to taste it.
and just because
Since I did a semester at the AA back in '94 (the year of the mad-cow hysteria), I can no longer can donate blood to the red-cross.
- mad cow
my mum's neighbour in manitoba just died of human version of mad-cow disease. took a few months from diagnosis to end of road. sad. fucking ranchers feeding meat to cows just pisses me off. what the HELL were they thinking?
jump...it isn't the ranchers...it is the feed lots where they to after coming off of the range. So don't be so quick to point fingers. My grandfather raised registered short horn cattle. I'm not talking about the kind that end up in the feed lot. He was producing cattle in a pedigree, for which other ranchers scrambled to by his bulls and cows
because they were excellent breeding stock. Ya every year the young bulls with short comings would get culled and there was always a plate full of Rocky Mountain Oysters around branding time but that is life. If you want to eat grass fed cattle they are out there. You just have to know where to look. My cousin pre-sales his whole yearly
flock of angus yearlings in one fell swoop, so they never end up in
a feed lot.....It is from the ranch to the table.
chicken isn't much better - its quite amazing when you look at the ingredients of most grain. Why do chickens need so much protein and where the f@ck does it come from? Its all in the name of getting animals larger than nature intended for our eating purposes.
i hear you snooker, but every one i know in the biz says it ain't got nothing to do with them... i spent summers on ranch/farm working for uncle so ain't a cityslicker pointing fingers. farming is f'd up in so many ways it isn't funny and everyone is complicit. you're family maybe isn't in the reglar system the way mine was/is (we raised cattle to send to feed lot), and most of my family don't like the way things are, but it isn't as if no one didn't KNOW what was going on. I don't think they knew the consequences, but STILL...
it is sort of the same with pesticides and other farm chemicals. my cousin works as rep for big chemical company advising the farmers about which stuff to use and when and even she is not entirely certain of the morality of what she is doing...but she loves farming and the rural life and this is the way she can still do it and earn a living (she also runs a small farm with her husband but they make little money at it and he makes most of his income on the rigs up north)...
thing that i find most ironic about the current state of things is when i talk to my gramma (who remembers bringing in the crops with horse power and human labor and STEAM engines)...and she says most of the fresh ideas about being sustainable and all that are prety much just the way her da used to run the farm when she was a kid. But it is very had to turn back clock, even when we want to. our soil is too contaminated to qualify for organic-icity, and now my uncle is old he has decided to rent his land to a big american conglomerate (and has gotten out of cattle business altogether)...so things aren't looking so good. funny thing is he doesn't even want to do it that way, but can't see any other way to keep the farm in his old age...
it is a bit like what LB said about lead paint on toys from china. someone along the line makes choices that lead to money instead of quality, and everything sort of rolls out from that...and there is blame enough to go around.
anyway, is complex issue that leaves me torn, but my mum's neighbour is still dead, and her best friend ain't got no beef no more that she can sell legally...which is amazing...when did farming and ranching become a business where complex moral issues have to be dealt with on daily basis? what a culture we are building...
jump...chuckling here....cause it was the Canadians...who were so eager for my grandfathers breeding stock....Ya it if F..U....but there
are people heading in the right direction again...so don't give up hope it might take a little longer to get to the Great Plains of Canada.
We are really seeing a surge in the direction of organic in Connecticut.
chickens are omnivores - pastured birds eats bugs, lots of bugs and seeds and anything that doesn't eat them first.
Barry...I was just in chicken country....and i was curious from the air what the heck are all of those long building....guess you have to go to world google to get the feeling.
this
http://www.edinarealty.com/Listing/ListingDetail.aspx?Search=8ab62b5a-0947-4b93-addd-2e89bd89784a&Listing=22677697&IRPAgentID=&Image=1&First=11&Last=20&pagesize=10&SearchType=map&ListingDistrictTypeID=&FirstLetter=&Sort=6&Cookies=
or this
http://www.edinarealty.com/Listing/ListingDetail.aspx?Search=8ab62b5a-0947-4b93-addd-2e89bd89784a&Listing=22072181&IRPAgentID=&Image=1&First=11&Last=20&pagesize=10&SearchType=map&ListingDistrictTypeID=&FirstLetter=&Sort=6&Cookies=
I don't understand, I go away for like 4 hours, and all hell breaks loose. Shenanigans! What the deuce happened here? And why do I have to read so damn much to catch up?
Later I will show you why I was gone the whole day. Fun times.
Zen and the art of Motorcycle riding
Looking forward to hearing about all the excitement WK
WHOA, that Craftsman, BY FAR!!!! Damn, I cannot BELIEVE how cheap it is!!! You can't get an APARTMENT for that here!!! OH get it get it get it!!!
beta: I'm leaning toward the Craftsman. Maybe it just photographs better - it looks impeccable - or I'm just not a fan of Cape Cods (I'm not - too restrained for me).
On the Craftsman: I love the "great room", the yard is really lovely, sounds like it is easy walking to shops etc., I think Craftsman houses really hold their resale value, too. It is small, but you guys aren't planning on kids, right? So one bath, while possibly a hassle when you have house guests, is no big deal (we currenlty have only one bath, and it's fine, even when we entertain). The heating is radiators, correct? Which is much nicer than forced air, although harder to add A/C (though maybe you don't need it in Mnpls?). I LOVE a front porch, especially in a neighborhood where people walk, it is a great way to meet neighbors and to sit and have a drink after work. The kitchen looks like original cabinets? which is great, but maybe linoleum floor? Bathroom looks like nice tile, overall it looks like the previous owner did very nice work on it. And the sunroom is a bonus.
On the Cape: Well it's much bigger! The upstairs bedroom under the eaves looks wonderfully cozy, nice for cold winters, as is the frieplace downstairs. Slate floor/maple in the kitchen looks very nice, and I'm guessing the kitchen is miuch bigger than the picture shows - another bank of cabinets, at least. I don't know what Lake Hiawatha or Nokomis are - is the latter a shopping district?
Both are lovely, really, though I admit the prices seem a little high for what you are getting, as do the %$#!*@&!!! taxes....though if the neighborhoods are nice then they are worth that price!
beta how can you possibly get a house like that???wtf man your daniel leepskin rotating chair will really look out place there. man i am disappointed.
hahaha Indy vs. Chicago prices, in action....in Chicago, $250K is a cardboard box, right? In Indy it's a bigger house (ours was $220K, for 2400sf, 4 bedroom 2.5 bath detached garage 3 blocks from a shopping district).
song for a summer night....
They're still racing out at the Trestles
But that blood it never burned in her veins
Now I hear she's got a house up in Fairview
And a style she's trying to maintain
Well if she wants to see me
You can tell her that I'm easily found
Tell her there's a spot out 'neath Abram's Bridge
And tell her there's a darkness on the edge of town
Everybody's got a secret Sonny
Something that they just can't face
Some folks spend their whole lives trying to keep it
They carry it with them every step that they take
Till some day they just cut it loose
Cut it loose or let it drag 'em down
Where no one asks any questions
Or looks too long in your face
In the darkness on the edge of town
Some folks are born into a good life
Other folks get it anyway anyhow
I lost my money and I lost my wife
Them things don't seem to matter much to me now
Tonight I'll be on that hill 'cause I can't stop
I'll be on that hill with everything I got
Lives on the line where dreams are found and lost
I'll be there on time and I'll pay the cost
For wanting things that can only be found
In the darkness on the edge of town
Got up close and personal with my favorite Presidential candidate this afternoon.
It was so cool! He knows more about the environment than a lot of people I know. Which is really refreshing.
Anyway. I'm soooo busy. I'm sorry I wasn't around to play "Whack-A-Troll" this afternoon. Night all.
Wow, good for you DubK!
And I'm going to bed too. Maybe I'll get 8 (Ok, 7.5) hours of sleep for a change...
I didn't get to tell TC but...
Its about the land I was bidding on last year that I lost because I submitted my bid a few hours later than the one accepted. Well its still not sold because the guy selling it apparently doesn't have legal right to. Soooooo long story short is that it may still be available - sweet. It has a river at the base of the site and a wicked sea view
Barrack looks so much like my dead its weird all he needs are a few more grey hairs. Hmm on that note I hope they have a safe flight (back to Jamaica from Florida via their week long cruise - retirement bah)
oops that should of read my very alive DAD
His health-care plan is the first specific, solid proposal I've heard... don't know much about the environmental aspect but I was way surprised and impressed by the health-care.
Ha, a'techno, I read it as "dad" until you mentioned it. The brain is funny.
beta, of course I meant VCT in the kitchen, not linoleum, jeez, what an embarassing mistake for an architect to make! True linoleum, of course, would be totally appropriate in that kitchen, though slate would be better.
Goodnight.
Quick check-in here....
Columbia summer program is challenging, intense, and fun... It's very much like a 5-week architecture boot camp. Some aspects of the program, like basic drafting and model-building techniques, are very old-school for me, and it's been interesting to sit back and listen to the critic explain the whole concept of architectural scale (i.e., 1/4" = 1'-0") to a room full of people who have never heard of such a thing. On the other hand, I continue to struggle with a lot of the abstract concepts and heavy theory being tossed around. I'm starting to think that while I'm a pretty good architect, I'm a pretty crappy architecture student.
I went out and got Chinese take-out for dinner this evening, and the message in my fortune cookie was, "A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner." Somehow it seems apt.
Things will be getting even more challenging for the final 2.5 weeks of the program, as I'm now working about 20 hours a week, which will cut into the time I have to devote to my studio projects. I was hoping to be able to get through the Columbia program without having to work, but that's simply not financially possible for me.
Speaking of work, today was my first day at the new gig, and it went pretty well. Lots of orientation stuff, being introduced to lots of people whose names I instantly forget (I really suck at remembering names), and getting acquainted with their policies, standards, practices, etc. Pretty uneventful overall, but so far the place seems like a pretty tight ship.
Still haven't sold the car yet, so I've just knocked another $1000 off the asking price.
That's all for now....
I'd like to take a minute to pimp my thread--it's really important to me and I need a little construction help. It's about barrier-free showers. Thank you.
sounds fascinating, LiG--I hope you post your work here at some point?
good luck with the car sale!
The Princeton Rejection thread has a person who has a high probability if turning into a troll.
i'd also vote for the craftsman, beta, except for the fact that it's in st paul! (kidding.)
i was trying to remember where longfellow is and see that it's east of 35w not far from the airport. no chance of getting over on the west side of 35w at that price, then? (i've been gone so long...)
when i look up osceola, it seems that the craftsman's location would be much more desirable relative to things to which you might walk/bike.
beta- both are great choices. with out checking out the immediate neighborhood, the stuff to look for includes are there mcmansions being built down the street, and can you walk to stores and stuff?
If you're planning on doing a gehry on your soon to be house, go for the colonial- easier to modify and bigger lot. If you just want a place to live with lots of charm, go for the craftsman.
good luck!
Have just arrived at work and am contemplating curling up in a ball in the corner and working on the computer. Do not feel well, but I doubt anyone would appreciate me calling in sick so soon to my last day. My cube is rather private though so it's not out of the question. You can thank my office placement for the increased post count over the past year, for sure.....
~~~~~
beta....the craftsman is VERY cute....although if you wanted to go "gehry" on it, as barry said, I think you might have trouble on either lot in the front, whereas the craftsman has some breathing room in the back. I didn't look at the other one's rear end, admittedly, because I am so smitten with the first one though.
i doubt you could go gehry on it. you probably need approval to put up a mailbox.
wow! you guys have summed up my dilemma! the craftsman is way nice, it provokes my creative side, thinking about the complexity of designing an addition on a small home with near zero side yard. the end cuts on the rafters are really nice, the battered finish of the clapboards are also quite cool. it has the old style baseboard radiant heat - really clean and cool. the back yard while small is really nice too. the minus's are the fact that some of details in the home are missing, some of the built-ins. the kitchen is small, but i like a challenge, the basement is unfinished and so is the upstairs/attic, and the two finished bedrooms are small. the house overall is really in great shape and in a highly desireable neighborhood, and within walking distance of a really trendy area.
the cape cod is also very nice, very deceiving from the photos. the master bedroom although lacking a 1/2 bath or 3/4 bath is very large - the photo can't really express that. the main floor has a small office/bedroom, the kitchen is adequate - good enough for a small table or extra cabinets. the basement, well i have a hard time considering it a basement, it really doesn't go below grade, the whole back half of the house is really 2 stories, hence when you look at the photo from the deck you can see that grad is maybe 10'-15 below. the existing garage is a tuck under and the yard is huge with couple of trees and a long drive way - thinking of creating a studio in the garage adn building a separated garage at the end of the drive and redoing the whole yard....overall house is in great shape in a decent neighborhood within walking distance of some shops. while the house does not provoke me immediately, i could conceive of doing something quite interesting on the back that would involve some kind of multi-level spaces....
now the rest of the dilemma. both are priced the same, one has twice the square footage as the other, the craftsman will hold its value and can handle a significant upgrade given the area, while the cape may be at the higher end of its value. so an addition there may be a prob.
now i checked with the county websites to find out what each owner paid. the craftsman was purchase in 2001 for 150 and the cape in 2001 or 2002 for 232. both owners no longer live there; the craftsman owner and his fiance bought a home 3 blocks away, and are trying to selling both of their homes - this being one. the cape owners moved and live in iowa. so both owners are carrying from 1 to 3 mortgages.
i want to offer for one or the other - after another visit - given this is a buyers market, does it seem unreasonable to offer 230 for the cape - with seller paying closing - even though its 2000 less than they paid. if we go with the craftsman we want to offer 225, with closing paid by seller, the thinking that he did not put 100k into the home, and making an 80k profit seems reasonable, but hey maybe i expect too much.
in my defense though all of this is new to me - a first time home buyer.
beta-
keep it simple for the first purchase, since you don't know how long you'll last in the north woods. I'd do the craftsman to start and plan on finishing the basement to start - the neighborhood is key. goood luck!
(though i like the idea of wrapping the cape with chainlink and asphalt shingles)
tk raises what I think is a huge question: how long will you be in the city? It sounds like the Craftsman will, as he said, be easier to sell in a few years given its location. If you really think you are there for the long run, then getting a lower price on the Cape and doing the shop/lower level additions you're talking about might make it a good investment* and a great place to live in the meantime.
* I always get angry at myself when I talk about homes as "investments" because:
1. I've bought two homes and both were totally emotional decisions that I psot-rationalized the financials for, but woke up in every morning loving the house I had chosen, which is priceless
and
2. I'm a frickin' architect!! Everything my life/career is about comes down to a belief in buildings being MORE THAN AN INVESTMENT OF MONEY, but a socio/cultural/emotional/life-enhancing passion.
beta, in my opinion, offering 225 for the craftsman is perfectly reasonable. Even if the house had appreciated considerably each year since they bought it, 225 is still a fair price and you're probably right, unless they added something major - like a room - I don't think it's worth 100k on top of the price in 2001. It IS a buyer's market and I'd be shocked if a couple with 2 mortgages walked away from that offer.
I don't know what I'm talking about either so this is my "uninformed" opinion.
nice LB- I too dislike thinking of homes as investments. I don't have a home to make money, I make money to have a home!
I run into too many clients who don't want their house to be 'too personal' because it might affect the resale value in a negative way..... to me that's not a home and I think the attitude is killing the community I live in.
Exactly, FRO. Everyone is so damn paralyzed by "resale value" that they are afraid to do something they truly love, that would make their day to day life exponentially more enjoyable.
We constantly have to talk clients out of doing whirlpool tubs in the master bath - how many people actually realistically have time to soak in a tub for hours these days (except puddles, of course)? Yet it's part of the "inventory" that people expect in a $half-mil home these days. Sigh.
...thanks everyone! the other thing[s] of note; the cape is closer to where my wife works, and both are near bus lines for moi!
...and i hate thinking about homes as investments too, in fact i said that to my realtor, but then when you consider an addition and whether or not the area can sustain the value of the work, it comes into play.
i think for at least the next 5-10 years we'll be in this residence.
Honestly, I would to have a huge soaking tub, it would bring pleasure to my life. But I also want it to look like a GIANT stone bowl, and fill from slits in the sides so the water rolls down instead of splashing.
We covered our fireplace with a huge wooden construction I designed to be an entertainment center. We have one of those funny corner fireplaces that makes it hard to put furniture on any adjacent wall. In order retain "resale" value, we attached as little as possible to the brick, and will offer to take it down if a new buyer wished. It would be a bad idea, and I would advise against it since the brick was painted peachy-pink, and covered in textured concrete from the mantle up. Dont ask.
well, on the flip side of the a-home-is-not-just-an-investment camp, I think the as architect(tural intern)s, who should be able to use a home as an investment better? A home can or can not be an investment, it's up to you. If I were only there for a few years, damn straight I'd pick the investment house.
i love takin baths.
Its a cold day in Hell today. VindPer posted something in a thread that was both USEFUL, and NOT RELATED TO 3DH!
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