I'm locked into ARE 5.0 now, there's no going back to 4.0. I transitioned this morning and scheduled my next test for mid December. I'm debating whether I should just pay and schedule my final test now or wait.
anyone have insight on how basement finishing affects home values?
Now that my basement is about done, the assessor wants to come by and take a look. I've added roughly 800 sq. ft. of finished space, which includes a large living room area, a bedroom with egress window, and a smaller "play room" that could also be an office.
My simplistic theory is that the basement is probably about half the value of the main level, so $60 a sq. ft. vs $120 (value at purchase 3 years ago).
Does that make sense or am i totally wrong?
I plan to refi at complettion and it'd be nice if the refi offset the increased property taxes
Sorry, shell, I have no idea how that might work, but I did have a conversation with two home builders last week at which they were complaining about how outrageously fickle every real estate appraiser they know is...
i have a couple appraisers in the family. after the recession, which was caused in part by improper valuations of homes, their lives changed. suddenly a lot of new regulations, and much less room to exercise their own judgement i think.
Not really a Cubs fan, but holy shit, what a game. Having spent the better part of a decade living down the street from Wrigley Field, I'm pretty sure I've watched my Reds more often at Wrigley than at their own ballpark in Cincinnati. I never thought I'd live to see this, and I certainly didn't think I'd be so happy about it.
Yes, this is shameless self-promotion, but as I always tell people: Just say YES to everything - do tons of work and volunteering and being active and engaged. Every woman on this list has been working on many things outside of their regular jobs - that's what needs to be done for progress.
As one of the speakers this morning said: Progress requires hard work, passion, and a little bit of indifference as to who gets the credit.
So I see the irony in announcing an award here then saying it's not so important who gets the credit, but I also feel like I've always emphasized that architecture is a team process. and we all need to support one another's accomplishments.
(Also, I may be fired from my job for what I said in the interview, oops!)
having been a cubs fan for over fifty years. suffering through the 1969 collapse, the 84 collapse , the '03 collapse and all those years in between, I am so thrilled for those family members who are in their 70's and 80's who finally get to savor a Cubs World Series Championship! and congratulations Donna. You should get an award every damn day!
Vado... not a Cubs fan and I didnt have a horse in the race, but I will say that was one of the most amazing series I've ever seen and probably the greatest baseball game 7/ all or nothing, Ive ever seen. (End run on sentence). Its amazing how even the bit of rain and the short rain delay impacted the game.
That's excellent, Non Seq, I enjoyed the Parks and Rec clip in that article! One of the speakers from a sponsoring organization this morning said she looks forward to it soon being an award for *People* of Influence, which I agree with. As soon as we get to equity (which with the election of HRC to POTUS we will take a huge step towards...) awards specifically for women won't be needed. Fingers crossed.
wurdan, I criticized the IMA's new admission policy which prevents bike commuters from using our grounds to bypass an extremely dangerous car intersection nearby. I'm with my bike community friends on this one.
In boston almost every project we are gutting and the basement becomes living area. Lots of value when it becomes an actual unit or expands the first floor unit. Even single families want the space.
I'm glad I live in a state that allows early voting. I remember standing in a line on Tuesday evening after school/work once in my life to vote. That was for the first election after my 18th birthday. Since then, it has been some sort of early or absentee voting. Now I just have to wait to see how screwed up everything is going to be after Tuesday.
Mail-in voting is the default here in Washington and in Oregon (and California soon, I think). No need to leave your home, no chance of having your eligibility to vote questioned by anybody at a polling location. It should be mandatory everywhere, along with automatic registration. It wouldn't be a cure-all, but it would fix a lot of problems.
I lived and voted in Oregon and I'm not crazy about mail-in voting, honestly. I'd compare it to teaching women to not walk alone at night rather than teaching men not to attack them: it's not solving the actual problem.
Voting day should be a national holiday, and polling locations should feel like community gathering spaces. We could change the dynamic of the process in far more positive ways than just giving people the option to do it from home.
Donna, I'm not really seeing your comparison. Mail-in voting isn't solving the actual problem? What is the actual problem ... not voting? ... voter inconveniences? ... civic pride? ... waiting in line at a polling booth? ... voting from home rather than at a community center? ... poor voter turnout?
Too few people voting in large part because they don't see it as important. Complete disengagement. Not feeling they have a voice and their boss will fire them if they are late because it takes three hours to vote. Not enough polling places *causing* it to take three hours to vote.
Mailing in a ballot feels like a chore, not a celebration. I want voting to feel like a community celebration.
I am very thankful for my mail-in ballot. We research the issues, discuss, and fill them out as a family. This does not mean that we match, we don't. If it was a holiday, people would just go to the bar. There are plenty of self-employed people like farmers and ranchers etc who can't just take a day off of work to drive to a polling place either.
Agree with tintt. There's also a lot of important down-ballot races (various state legislature seats, judgeships, local ballot measures, etc.) that don't get any attention, and mail-in voting allows me to sit down in front of my computer at my leisure and take the time to research those various races and make an informed decision as I fill out my ballot. Mail-in voting also guarantees a verifiable paper trail, and it's impossible to hack the voting machines if there aren't any machines to hack.
I'm all in favor of making voting as easy and hassle-free as possible. If it were up to me I'd even go so far as to make it compulsory, although Australia proves that compulsory voting doesn't necessarily prevent idiots from being elected to national office.
In other news, my first week at the new job has gone well. I got high praise from my project team yesterday for creating a Revit family with some tricky geometry for an important design element that had been a thorn in their side for a long time. It's always nice to feel useful.
The firm's project types and design approach are right up my alley, and the project team structure and workflow are much more in line with my experience at most of the better firms I've worked for in the past. The office is also littered with physical models of various scales, which I've come to appreciate is being critical for good design. (Without lots of models lying around, an architectural workplace looks no different than an engineering firm or a tech startup, and it implies that most of the design work gets done by whatever intern knows Sketchup the best.) Bonus points: the large wall of AIA design awards in the reception area, and the fact that Architectural Digest isn't one of the magazines laying on the reception area table.
Obviously it's still the honeymoon phase and these are all merely first impressions, but for the first time since leaving NYC it feels like my career is back on the right track.
I haven't heard of lost ballots being a major issue in states with vote-by-mail. There are physical ballot drop-off locations for people who don't want to rely on the postal service, and you can track your ballot online to make sure it was received and counted. If it gets lost in the mail, you can request a replacement ballot. (In the event two ballots are received from the same voter, only the first one to arrive is counted. The second one is automatically invalidated.)
I mean it's not like I worry that ballots lost in the mail is a significant number. I just love going TO the polls, I see my neighbors there, I see people I don't recognize but know that they *are* my neighbors whether I know them or not. It's a reminder that we are a community of people, making decisions together, even though the election process itself is a shitshow.
The TED radio hour had a guy on yesterday - I only heard a few minutes of it - speaking very poetically about the importance of voting. FOR ME, that power and poetry is a *community* act. I didn't get that same pleasure out of doing it via the mail.
Donna-I agree. One of my favorite moments was the caucus in Washington state-obamas first time. Just a small group of actual neighbors talking about what was important to them.
But the mail in ballot in WA was really easy too lol
Colorado is a mail ballot state... Totally weird coming from Wisconsin where I am used to walking into the school gymnasium and voting. Don't like that my ballot must be submitted in an envelope with my name, address and signature on it. Seems contrary to all other voting I've done in the past where you where required to sign your name on a check in list, but your ballot was devoid of any identifying marks. So many things about Colorado that still seem completely foreign to me.
Having spent five years in a state where every single election has been a complete clusterfuck, vote-by-mail here in Washington feels like a breath of fresh air.
Wurdan: Not sure how Colorado does it, but here in Washington you insert your ballot into a security sleeve, and then insert both into the return envelope. When it's received for processing, the return envelope is removed and discarded, and the security sleeve is sent to somebody else for counting. The whole process is observed by election monitors, and can also be observed online via a live video feed.
Also, there isn't really even a need to even put your return address on the envelope, since the ballots won't be sent back due to insufficient postage. (Here in WA the return envelope is technically required to have a stamp, but the post office has agreed to deliver all ballots regardless. There is a movement to include prepaid return postage with the ballots, which I expect will happen soon.)
The difference in the voting process between Ohio and Washington has made a complete vote-by-mail evangelist out of me.
You guys, this door doesn't meet ADA clearance, yes? There's insufficient clearance on the latch side, yes? This is a built condition; I'm wondering how it passed?
610mm (24") is minimum on latch side for me unless there is a power-operator. There is room to swing all sorts of cats in our accesibility compliant spaces.
Donna that drawing should be on an ARE exam. Hate to be an asshole here but besides Curt everyones responses are very much drafter, design, and intern responses. What is the real question here? Why is this plan so Non-sensical. If Curt is correct then maybe this was to be the ADA bathroom but the best place for the AHU was there and so the bathroom was located elsewhere. Maybe its an existing building and the dwgs are blueprints. Maybe nothing of todays codes applied when it was built. Maybe it was cost prohibitve and logically impossible and in accodance with the DOJ not required but the architect provided the best they could. last but not least maybe they got a waiver...there are more questions than answers here.
Thread Central
good luck david. make sure to avoid all the ladies so you don't get fired.
Definitely avoid the ladies David, but get some Peking Duck. Man makes his own luck, fortune favors the bold, and so on.
Good luck David! Hope the new job rocks!
I'm locked into ARE 5.0 now, there's no going back to 4.0. I transitioned this morning and scheduled my next test for mid December. I'm debating whether I should just pay and schedule my final test now or wait.
anyone have insight on how basement finishing affects home values?
Now that my basement is about done, the assessor wants to come by and take a look. I've added roughly 800 sq. ft. of finished space, which includes a large living room area, a bedroom with egress window, and a smaller "play room" that could also be an office.
My simplistic theory is that the basement is probably about half the value of the main level, so $60 a sq. ft. vs $120 (value at purchase 3 years ago).
Does that make sense or am i totally wrong?
I plan to refi at complettion and it'd be nice if the refi offset the increased property taxes
Sorry, shell, I have no idea how that might work, but I did have a conversation with two home builders last week at which they were complaining about how outrageously fickle every real estate appraiser they know is...
i have a couple appraisers in the family. after the recession, which was caused in part by improper valuations of homes, their lives changed. suddenly a lot of new regulations, and much less room to exercise their own judgement i think.
Not really a Cubs fan, but holy shit, what a game. Having spent the better part of a decade living down the street from Wrigley Field, I'm pretty sure I've watched my Reds more often at Wrigley than at their own ballpark in Cincinnati. I never thought I'd live to see this, and I certainly didn't think I'd be so happy about it.
Today is going to be a loooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnggg day.
Great game. They made baseball look exciting.
I won an award today.
Yes, this is shameless self-promotion, but as I always tell people: Just say YES to everything - do tons of work and volunteering and being active and engaged. Every woman on this list has been working on many things outside of their regular jobs - that's what needs to be done for progress.
As one of the speakers this morning said: Progress requires hard work, passion, and a little bit of indifference as to who gets the credit.
So I see the irony in announcing an award here then saying it's not so important who gets the credit, but I also feel like I've always emphasized that architecture is a team process. and we all need to support one another's accomplishments.
(Also, I may be fired from my job for what I said in the interview, oops!)
Congrats donna!
Congratulations Donna!
Congrats Donna, you can join the ranks of other great women of influence like Bono
having been a cubs fan for over fifty years. suffering through the 1969 collapse, the 84 collapse , the '03 collapse and all those years in between, I am so thrilled for those family members who are in their 70's and 80's who finally get to savor a Cubs World Series Championship! and congratulations Donna. You should get an award every damn day!
Nice work Donna. I didnt see anything in the interview that was fire worthy, but...
Vado... not a Cubs fan and I didnt have a horse in the race, but I will say that was one of the most amazing series I've ever seen and probably the greatest baseball game 7/ all or nothing, Ive ever seen. (End run on sentence). Its amazing how even the bit of rain and the short rain delay impacted the game.
That's excellent, Non Seq, I enjoyed the Parks and Rec clip in that article! One of the speakers from a sponsoring organization this morning said she looks forward to it soon being an award for *People* of Influence, which I agree with. As soon as we get to equity (which with the election of HRC to POTUS we will take a huge step towards...) awards specifically for women won't be needed. Fingers crossed.
wurdan, I criticized the IMA's new admission policy which prevents bike commuters from using our grounds to bypass an extremely dangerous car intersection nearby. I'm with my bike community friends on this one.
Kudos, Donna!
Congrats, Donna!
Congrats on the award Donna.
I'm glad I live in a state that allows early voting. I remember standing in a line on Tuesday evening after school/work once in my life to vote. That was for the first election after my 18th birthday. Since then, it has been some sort of early or absentee voting. Now I just have to wait to see how screwed up everything is going to be after Tuesday.
Mail-in voting is the default here in Washington and in Oregon (and California soon, I think). No need to leave your home, no chance of having your eligibility to vote questioned by anybody at a polling location. It should be mandatory everywhere, along with automatic registration. It wouldn't be a cure-all, but it would fix a lot of problems.
I lived and voted in Oregon and I'm not crazy about mail-in voting, honestly. I'd compare it to teaching women to not walk alone at night rather than teaching men not to attack them: it's not solving the actual problem.
Voting day should be a national holiday, and polling locations should feel like community gathering spaces. We could change the dynamic of the process in far more positive ways than just giving people the option to do it from home.
Too few people voting in large part because they don't see it as important. Complete disengagement. Not feeling they have a voice and their boss will fire them if they are late because it takes three hours to vote. Not enough polling places *causing* it to take three hours to vote.
Mailing in a ballot feels like a chore, not a celebration. I want voting to feel like a community celebration.
I am very thankful for my mail-in ballot. We research the issues, discuss, and fill them out as a family. This does not mean that we match, we don't. If it was a holiday, people would just go to the bar. There are plenty of self-employed people like farmers and ranchers etc who can't just take a day off of work to drive to a polling place either.
Agree with tintt. There's also a lot of important down-ballot races (various state legislature seats, judgeships, local ballot measures, etc.) that don't get any attention, and mail-in voting allows me to sit down in front of my computer at my leisure and take the time to research those various races and make an informed decision as I fill out my ballot. Mail-in voting also guarantees a verifiable paper trail, and it's impossible to hack the voting machines if there aren't any machines to hack.
I'm all in favor of making voting as easy and hassle-free as possible. If it were up to me I'd even go so far as to make it compulsory, although Australia proves that compulsory voting doesn't necessarily prevent idiots from being elected to national office.
In other news, my first week at the new job has gone well. I got high praise from my project team yesterday for creating a Revit family with some tricky geometry for an important design element that had been a thorn in their side for a long time. It's always nice to feel useful.
The firm's project types and design approach are right up my alley, and the project team structure and workflow are much more in line with my experience at most of the better firms I've worked for in the past. The office is also littered with physical models of various scales, which I've come to appreciate is being critical for good design. (Without lots of models lying around, an architectural workplace looks no different than an engineering firm or a tech startup, and it implies that most of the design work gets done by whatever intern knows Sketchup the best.) Bonus points: the large wall of AIA design awards in the reception area, and the fact that Architectural Digest isn't one of the magazines laying on the reception area table.
Obviously it's still the honeymoon phase and these are all merely first impressions, but for the first time since leaving NYC it feels like my career is back on the right track.
Maybe you can send your ballot certified mail?
on the other hand, if you're in florida, the governor might just try to toss it anyway
http://bipartisanreport.com/2016/10/24/breaking-florida-governor-busted-attempting-to-toss-thousands-of-mail-in-ballots-details/
I haven't heard of lost ballots being a major issue in states with vote-by-mail. There are physical ballot drop-off locations for people who don't want to rely on the postal service, and you can track your ballot online to make sure it was received and counted. If it gets lost in the mail, you can request a replacement ballot. (In the event two ballots are received from the same voter, only the first one to arrive is counted. The second one is automatically invalidated.)
I mean it's not like I worry that ballots lost in the mail is a significant number. I just love going TO the polls, I see my neighbors there, I see people I don't recognize but know that they *are* my neighbors whether I know them or not. It's a reminder that we are a community of people, making decisions together, even though the election process itself is a shitshow.
The TED radio hour had a guy on yesterday - I only heard a few minutes of it - speaking very poetically about the importance of voting. FOR ME, that power and poetry is a *community* act. I didn't get that same pleasure out of doing it via the mail.
I'm a sap, admittedly.
But the mail in ballot in WA was really easy too lol
Spoken like a true phenomenologist, Donna. :-)
Colorado is a mail ballot state... Totally weird coming from Wisconsin where I am used to walking into the school gymnasium and voting. Don't like that my ballot must be submitted in an envelope with my name, address and signature on it. Seems contrary to all other voting I've done in the past where you where required to sign your name on a check in list, but your ballot was devoid of any identifying marks. So many things about Colorado that still seem completely foreign to me.
Having spent five years in a state where every single election has been a complete clusterfuck, vote-by-mail here in Washington feels like a breath of fresh air.
Wurdan: Not sure how Colorado does it, but here in Washington you insert your ballot into a security sleeve, and then insert both into the return envelope. When it's received for processing, the return envelope is removed and discarded, and the security sleeve is sent to somebody else for counting. The whole process is observed by election monitors, and can also be observed online via a live video feed.
Also, there isn't really even a need to even put your return address on the envelope, since the ballots won't be sent back due to insufficient postage. (Here in WA the return envelope is technically required to have a stamp, but the post office has agreed to deliver all ballots regardless. There is a movement to include prepaid return postage with the ballots, which I expect will happen soon.)
The difference in the voting process between Ohio and Washington has made a complete vote-by-mail evangelist out of me.
You guys, this door doesn't meet ADA clearance, yes? There's insufficient clearance on the latch side, yes? This is a built condition; I'm wondering how it passed?
it's certainly possible the plan reviewer just missed it
maybe the restroom doesn't need to be accessible because there are other accessible restrooms?
could be one of those push-button power doors
Right, there should be at least 18" clearance on the latch side. Somebody screwed up.
18" clear is all you guys need?
610mm (24") is minimum on latch side for me unless there is a power-operator. There is room to swing all sorts of cats in our accesibility compliant spaces.
24" is preferred. 18" is min. and is all you ever see.
Insufficient latch side clearance.
Lavatory is in CFA of the water closet.
No vertical grab bar shown (required by ANSI A 117.1)
Assuming everything in the drawing is to scale, the grab bar at the rear of the water closet is too short.
And an 8'-0" H door? Really?
Walls are drawn too thin too.
Pretty sure that stair case needs a handrail or two.
Doors can't overlap. We should do this more often!
Donna that drawing should be on an ARE exam. Hate to be an asshole here but besides Curt everyones responses are very much drafter, design, and intern responses. What is the real question here? Why is this plan so Non-sensical. If Curt is correct then maybe this was to be the ADA bathroom but the best place for the AHU was there and so the bathroom was located elsewhere. Maybe its an existing building and the dwgs are blueprints. Maybe nothing of todays codes applied when it was built. Maybe it was cost prohibitve and logically impossible and in accodance with the DOJ not required but the architect provided the best they could. last but not least maybe they got a waiver...there are more questions than answers here.
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