Skylights -- my architect is steering me away from them
shelly_k
15 years ago
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jeff8407
15 years agoBuehl
15 years agoRelated Discussions
One Snake Away From A Nervous Breakdown!
Comments (6)Patty, I really don't think I am brave at all. I am a huge chicken and venomous snakes simply terrify me. I just do what I can to survive. I knew, realistically speaking, that we'd have venomous snakes when we moved to a rural area. Knowing it would happen, though, is not the same thing as having it happen! I just don't think I realized how many we'd see some years nor did I understand how much the close encounters would affect me. I am, truly, a big fraidy-cat. I will say that living in the country is not for sissies. Venomous snake encounters are not nearly as frightening as running into a cougar, panther, feral pig, rutting deer or rabid skunk....all of which we've encountered here. And, when you buy formerly "raw" land where local residents have hunted for decades, you WILL encounter poachers on your land and they WILL tell you that they've always hunted on this land and they aren't going to stop now just because you bought the land and put a house on it. And you'd better be armed and ready to defend yourself, and you'd better call the sherriff and report each incident and make it clear you will prosecute, which is only possible if your land is properly posted, by the way. So, not all snakes are animals..... We cleared out all the human snakes found on our property in just a couple of years, but the actual reptiles will be with us forever because we're so close to the Red River. I love, love, love living in the country and there are MANY enjoyable wildlife experiences.....bunnies, birds, fish, turtles, lizards, frogs, toads, squirrels, foxes, bats, dragonflies and damselflies, etc. I've had the great fortune to observe both bald eagles and golden eagles flying overhead or sitting on the tops of haybarns or trees. How wonderful is that? And, 99.9% of the people you encounter are wonderful, but there are a few that are scarey. So, you take the good with the bad and just try to go with the flow. Carol, I am as careful as I can be.....and, truly, I feel like God is watching over me and pray he continues to do so. Once, DS and I stepped into a "bunch" of coppperheads--a mother and 15 or 20 babies.....in the middle of the pasture. We fled from them....they fled from us, and somehow, we weren't bitten. (We were scared almost to death.) Those snakes are why we now mow 8' wide paths through all our pastures, and walk only on those paths!) Another time I was walking through my garden on a chilly fall morning and stepped right over a western diamondback rattlesnake that was coiled up in a path. I DIDN'T EVEN SEE IT! Luckily, DS was with me and said something like "Um, Mom, don't move because there's a rattlesnake right behind you." Of course, I moved.....immediately jumped forward a few feet and turned and stared at that snake, wondering all the while why it didn't strike me. DS went to the house, got a gun....and you know the rest. On yet another occasion, I was raking leaves and picking them up and putting them into a bag to carry them to my compost pile, and I suddenly realized a small pygmy rattlesnake was about 3" from my hand and was poised to strike......and, since I was crouched down low, I simultanouesly droppped the handful of leaves and the bag, and somersaulted backwards to get away. I didn't enter the woods for months after that. Those are a few examples....but there have been many snake encounters, and I honestly believe that it is only through God's grace that I haven't been bitten. For what it is worth, I don't hate all snakes, and I know that without them being here to eat all the field mice and meadow voles, we'd be overrun with rodents. We don't kill non-venomous snakes unless they are in our henhouse eating eggs, keats or chicks. I've even rescued non-venomous snakes which were being attacked by our cats, chickens, dogs or guineas. We have 14.5 acres and we pretty much leave the 10 or 11 wooded acres to the snakes during snake season. Then, in the winter months, we clear pathways and remove brush and enjoy walking through the woods (with dogs and cats tagging along behind us), but we don't kill snakes in the woods....we just avoid them during the 6 months of "snake season". In the couple of acres closest to the house, though, venomous snakes aren't tolerated. And, really, one of my biggest fears ISN'T that a venomous snakes will bite me, but rather that it will get away before we can kill it. If the venomous snakes are near the house, barn or garden, I want them dead. I'm really enjoying the cool weather too. During the cool spell a couple of weeks ago, we got down to 44 or 45 a couple of nights and I was deliriously happy in those early morning temps. I knew, though, it wasn't quite sweater weather, yet, and of course we haven't been that cool again, but it is in the 50s here this morning and that is nice. I know what you're saying about the nuts on the roof of the bunhouse! Our chicken coop and guinea coop are under a pecan tree and their roofs get showered with nuts too. Then the poultry begins squawking and carrying on because they think a predator is trying to come in through the roof. (A previous chicken coop had a fiberglass skylight to let in some light, and a large owl once crashed through that skylight in an effort to get himself some chicken, so their fear is not exactly unwarranted.) Fall is my favorite time of year except for the part about the snakes being up and about....and the knowledge that colder weather is coming. Once we've had several hard freezes and the snakes are denned up for the winter, I enjoy fall even more! I made it through a whole day Friday without running into a snake, so my nerves have calmed down a little. Well, actually, I saw the same snake Friday morning that I saw Thursday night, because we had to lift the bucket, retrieve it and get rid of it. It wasn't as scarey, though, because I KNEW it was there. To me, the most upsetting snake is the big, black, often 6-foot-long rat snakes that get in the chicken coop. I HATE even seeing them at all....even if we are a mile from the house and I see one crossing the road, it just makes me feel ill. I hope I've seen my last venomous snake of the year, but at the same time, I am sure I haven't. Dawn...See More1998 Toyota Camry-Ignition/key problems and were away from home!!
Comments (3)They just phoned, it is the ignition cylinder. $250 plus taxes, and will be installed tomorrow. Glad they found the problem!! Is this where I rave and rant of the high $$$$ to fix it? lol No, I think it is reasonable. And so far the service has been excellent. They were full, but once I explained I was from out of town, they fit me in! Would I have preferred to gone to a small local garage to get the service completed rather than the toyota dealership? Yes of course, but don't know of any, and my inlaws just goto the dealership. Maybe I should just trade it in on a new Scion TC,lol...See MoreDon't buy Anderson, Stay away from Pella, forget Marvin!
Comments (16)I am a commercial contractor in Florida. My last home had Pella Architect series throughout. 10 years and 8 months in the home, and we discovered the bottom rails in approximately 75% of the windows had rotted. Our house had casement and French doors throughout. We had two French Doors that the bottom of each had rotted. The only way we found out that our windows and doors had failed was the magnets for our alarm system fell out. The alarm monitor said “zone faulted” When I called the Pella representative in Orlando, I was told that had we called a year earlier, they would have warranted the windows. The frustrating thing was since we live in Florida, it's typically to hot to open the windows so we would never have known if not for our security system. After some investigation into the windows, it became known that Pella knew this issue was a problem for quite a few years. According to one of their installers, they had been testing windows for 6-8 years in south Florida because of the numerous failures. Soon I will be purchasing approximately $150,000.00 worth of windows. I am leaning toward PGT casement windows. I think vinyl and aluminum both have their advantages....See MoreWho owns the plans when an Architect draws them up for you?
Comments (22)Well Milly, I've doen a lot of contracts and have found that if the dollar amount is large enough you can generally get what you want. It's not like you're asking for something that is ethically problematic. Across lots of deals I've observed that exclusivity typically doubles or triples the price, depending on the risk and demand. I'm guessing most people aren't going to be willing to pay that for a house plan, but I'd bet most architects would take the deal if properly structured and priced to be beneficial to them....See Morelarrylwill
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