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New EPA lead paint rules--options for old house exteriors?
Comments (37)While it is true that the EPA RRP Rule does not apply to homeowners working on their own home, there are still the health problems associated with lead poisoning for you and your family. There is also the problem when you go to sell your home, one of the documents you have to fill out as a seller is a lead disclosure form. I'm not a Realtor but I've been told by many Realtors that it's very difficult to sell a home that has been renovated, repaired, or painted without following the EPA RRP Rule. Another option on the covering is to lathe and stucco the house. My own house had lead paint on two sides. It also had very little insulation so we opted to place 2" foam board on the house, lathe and stucco. The lead paint is behind all of that so will only present a problem if someone decides to add a window or door!...See MoreRandom and Conflicting Advice re: trends.
Comments (16)Touche, Palimpsest, and bravo!! I can tell the summer heat has melted the veneer of "forum decorum" and you are throwing the gauntlet to challenge status quo. Bravo, again. I for one like to turn things upside down and think outside the box too. It's more fun that way. Of course, we have two houses built in 1948 and 1950, and not the much older home that you have. I appreciate your comments coming at this particular time too. For I was toying with whether to add the subway tiles to a bath wall in DH's cape. Which would replace the 4 inch squares of mid century blues. And I agree with the glass block shower wall, because it is sturdy and gives a modicum of privacy not available with the other kind of glass shower. I think it is time to revive the Glass Block Revolution. I rather like an art nuevo touch. What does the d.... stand for? I'm assuming it is "dowdy," but then I fly against the trends quite frequently. I think in the smaller homes you have to resort to different solutions to fit the space. And yeah, I'm now considering keeping the old stick-built cabs on the sink side of my future galley kitchen. And I KNOW what counter top I want, have used it up north in the cape, and it is NOT granite, NOT Corian, NOT laminate, NOT soapstone,---it is Silestone STELLAR SNOW, a white with gray specks and sparklies in it which makes me smile when I see it. I'm spending too much money on THAT to change it, but who cares? The other side of the galley, the cooking side, will PROBABLY have a stainless countertop and the stainless IKEA cabs below, with simple shelves above. This IS, after all, a small kitchen, even when we knock down the back wall and take in the back porch. It won't be a design dream, but it will be well arranged and organized for our use in our declining years. And I want to get a door lock set which opens with the click of a remote, like my car does. I love that, and do not want to depend on my memory to decide which key to use in the lock, or which code to use for passage. As a trial run, I've frequently set up temporary solutions to test my ideas. Like the time I built a bamboo bed canopy frame from bamboo that grew in our river lots. It looked great with the Mombasa sheer netting over it, but one night the whole frame fell on us.....I'm sure it amused my landlordess, who was gardening outside early in the morning and had to have heard the commotion. But at least ONCE in my life I used a really exotic and romantic sleeping enclosure! And I did not have to worry about selling it after the exotic moment passed. And about fashionable colors. Does anyone remember MAUVE? Good lord, forget it! Regardless of the current trend, I know what I like and that is the way I go. I'm not "staging" a home with neutral colors, I'm living in it. And I do not have a lot of company, and I do not care to impress anyone by having a room with the trendy colors. I've never been a fan of anything in the blue spectrum. Pale lavender is as close to blue as I get. Maybe a smoked gray, which is the color for my second bedroom, but IMHO, blue sucks the light out of a room after dark, so depressing. Yes, I know it is a personal thing, but that's what we are talking about here. I'm also going to spend more money than I should to get a 24 inch Bertazzoni gas range, because I want it, and it will fit in this new kitchen and is big enough and powerful enough to cook the way I like to cook. Which is not too much and not too often. But I love good machinery. And I fell in love with things Italian after a trip to Tuscany. So, ummm, let me see what else....oh yes, if I want to do solar hot water instead of tankless water heating, I like it. If I want a sistern outside the kitchen catching rain water to do the grass or veggie garden, that's what I'll do. If I compost veggie scraps etc, I can make room for that feature. And if I want a garden window to grow my potted herbs inside, I think that will be something I'd add over my sink too. And if I want to paint all my woodwork white and have shuttered cabinets instead of solid doors, well, that is something I like too. If I want to have an earthen roof on my garage, and DH doesn't oppose it too much, we'll do it. I think that is about it. Hope I did not get too personally specific if you intended this thread to be generalities....See MoreRule of thumb on recreating hardwood floors?
Comments (4)Most strip flooring is 2 3/4" width. Is yours white oak or red oak. I much prefer white oak for appearance and it is the more traditional material. We just put in about an acre of it. No pegs however. Pegs are more of a decorative detail. Not really necessary with T&G flooring...See MoreRandom weekend Trivia - Saturday
Comments (21)Well, according to Wikipedia, 'In the early 1850s, there was much economic prosperity in the United States. In the beginning of 1857, the European market for goods from western America began to decline, which caused western bankers and investors to become wary. Eastern banks became cautious with their loans to the west and some even refused to accept western bank-issued paper currencies. Prior to 1857, the railroad industry was booming due to large migrations of people to the west, especially in Kansas. With the large influx of people, the railroads became a profitable industry and the banks seized the opportunity and began to provide railroad companies with large loans. However, by the late summer of 1857, the value of western land fell and migration drastically slowed, causing railroad securities to fall in value. By the spring, "commercial credit had dried up, forcing already debt-ridden merchants of the West to curtail new purchases of inventory." As a result of limited purchasing in the west, merchants around the country began to see decreases in sales and profits. The railroads "had created an interdependent national economy, and now an economic downturn in the West threatened …[an] economic crisis." Since many banks had financed the railroads and land purchases, they began to feel the pressures of the falling value of railroad securities. The Illinois Central; Erie; Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago; and Reading Railroad lines were all forced to shut down owing to the financial downturn. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and the Fond du Lac Railroad companies were forced to declare bankruptcy. The Boston and Worcester Railroad Company also experienced heavy financial difficulties. The employees were informed, in a memo written in late October 1857, "the receipts from Passengers and Freight have fallen off during [the] last month (as compared with the corresponding month of last year), over twenty thousand dollars, with very little prospect of any improvement during the coming winter." The company also announced that their workers would receive a "reduction in … pay of ten percent." In addition to the decreasing value of railroad securities, farmers began to default on payments on their mortgaged lands in the west, which put more financial pressure on banks. The Dred Scot ruling (as Bobbie surmised) also made the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, and it was clear that the decision would have a significant impact on the further development of western territories. Soon after the ruling, "the political struggle between 'free soil' and slavery in the territories" began. The western territories were now opened to the possibility that slavery might expand into them, and it was quickly evident that this would have drastic financial and political effects. In Britain, the Palmerston government circumvented the requirements of the Peel Banking Act of 1844, which required gold and silver reserves to back up the amount of money in circulation. Surfacing news of this circumvention set off the Panic in Britain. ' For the New York banks, the solution was an infusion of Californian gold. SS Central America, known as the Ship of Gold, was a 280-foot (85 m) sidewheel steamer that operated between Central America and the eastern coast of the United States during the 1850s. She was originally named the SS George Law, after Mr. George Law of New York. On 9 September 1857, the ship was caught up in a Category 2 hurricane while off the coast of the Carolinas. By 11 September, the 105 mph (165 km/h) winds and heavy seas had shredded its sails, she was taking on water, and her boiler was threatening to go out. A leak in one of the seals between the paddle wheel shafts and the ship's sides sealed its fate, and, at noon that day, her boiler could no longer maintain fire. Steam pressure dropped, shutting down both the pumps that had been keeping the water at bay and the paddle wheels that kept her pointed into the wind as the ship settled by the stern. The passengers and crew flew the ship's flag upside down (a sign of distress in the United States) to try to signal a passing ship. No one came. The ship sank in a hurricane in September 1857, along with more than 550 passengers and crew and 30,000 pounds (14,000 kg) of gold. And there she sat, till 1988, when she was discovered by a young marine expert named Thomas Thompson. He secured investors and put together an operation to recover all that gold - the stuff of which legends are made! They recovered about 2 tons of gold, worth about $76 million in today's money. Then, like a Hollywood movie, he went on the run over a controversy over 500 gold coins. They are worth about $26,500 each. His partners never received their share of the loot. The antecedents of those who lost the treasure in the first place, including an order of Catholic monks, a Texas oil millionaire, a university and over a dozen insurance companies that paid out the claim over a century ago made claims. The legalities have now been untangled. Odyssey Marine Exploration has been hired to bring up the remaining treasure. Last year they did their first robotic dive and brought up about $1.2 million dollars in in gold bars and artifacts. No word on Thomas Thompson. So, there you have it - you know I love long complicated stories and boy this one sure is that! So, because the sun is shining, and I don't get the chance to do this to often, Stars for everyone! OK, still have not figured out how to post multiples of the same pics and my animated stars are history - oh well. Thanks for playing. See you all in the pages. Nancy....See MoreZalco/bring back Sophie!
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