Nice people thread part 7 - a thread in its prime

lostinrates

vivatifosi wrote: »

It's not so much the colour scheme thing that annoys me lir, we have that here too. It's everything else. For example, DH has really bad hay fever and can't mow the lawn. When I hurt my hip I couldn't mow the lawn. Over there I'd have had to call in a gardener to meet the terms of my covenants.

It's a very common American requirement. Personally I dislike it (uncut lawns can be little nature reserves, or cut twice a year, but that's part of why they prefer it!, and having more space for something more like real nature than we have I see it. Ultimately...it used to give teenagers lots of work, and indeed, does create employment.

Edit..it's funny about the curtain linings, as I was recently wondering why they are al white, as curtain linings are subject to a lot of moisture stains etc.

I am really revving up for curtain making and cannot decide which interlinings to go for but had decided on off white linings already....white to harsh against my off white windows. I haven't chosen a lingng yet but I think ip am narrowing down curtain chces.


I am toying with crewel for the kitchen ATM.

lostinrates

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Yes, fair enough, but the debate board would be a better and more civilised place if more of the users actually contributed to it*, rather than hiding in the NPT all the time.

Hence the Edmund Burke quote...






*I know you do Viva, but most don't. Which has resulted in the lunatics taking over the asylum to some extent.

. Actually I do too sometimes.. But mainly goes unnoticed. And I just don't want to deal with rabid wackos ATM. I don't 'know' lots of the personalities put there, and the ones I do i feel like are going around in circles.

I have changed my mind on several things over time here, from thinking about discussion here. I don't feel many others do, which is a shame. Even those who are sensible seem inflexible, unprepared to consider their position from an alternative position. I find that anti 'debate' and not educational. I cannot educate out there, but I could learn, and when you are seeing peoplle who aren't good teachers then there is little point for me.

vivatifosi

PasturesNew wrote: »

Various designs, here's one option, with instructions:

http://countrylife.lehmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/pic4upforfullmoon-200x300.jpg

http://countrylife.lehmans.com/2012/11/10/making-old-time-window-quilts/

That's a great website Pastures, thanks!

I like the following page, which contains instructions for making fire starters from pine cones:
http://countrylife.lehmans.com/2012/11/12/frugal-firestarters-ii/

LydiaJ

lostinrates wrote: »

. Actually I do too sometimes.. But mainly goes unnoticed. And I just don't want to deal with rabid wackos ATM. I don't 'know' lots of the personalities put there, and the ones I do i feel like are going around in circles.

I have changed my mind on several things over time here, from thinking about discussion here. I don't feel many others do, which is a shame. Even those who are sensible seem inflexible, unprepared to consider their position from an alternative position. I find that anti 'debate' and not educational. I cannot educate out there, but I could learn, and when you are seeing peoplle who aren't good teachers then there is little point for me.

Me too. Especially when I first joined and hadn't the first idea about how the housing market or the wider economy actually work. And I've been posting recently on the thread about new build sizes - having lived in a couple of post-2000 houses and then deliberately chosen to buy something older, I felt I had something of relevance to contribute. But now I've taken Hamish's request seriously and gone out and posted on a few more threads, even if only to ask questions. I'll try to keep going with it, Hamish, but it depends how bad my workload gets.

zagubov

vivatifosi wrote: »

Speaking of Disney houses... DH used to work for Disney and we have a lot of friends who work there. We have looked at houses in Celebration, Fl, the housing development that actually falls within Disneyworld. There were a few reasons that we didn't buy, but one of them was the extent to which it was specified how your house looked. Those who live there say that this is common in planned communities in the US, but it still felt restrictive to us. And the housing development looked curiously like the one in the Truman Show, which didn't help.

The deed and covenant document is 166 pages long. What you can't do includes but is not restricted to:
* Changing the exterior of your house in any way without prior consent. Paint colours are presecribed.
* The only things that can be hung in the windows are curtains and blinds. Curtains must have a white or off white lining. Blinds can only be white, off white, or natural wood.
* No tints or treatments can be used on windows facing the streets.
* Use of non-standard landscaping.
* Even visitors to the home are bound by the covenants.
* More than two people may not occupy a bedroom (how do they check:eek:).
* Play equipment cannot be erected without permission.
* You may not erect the flag of any nation other than the USA, and the size of the US flag is prescribed.
* Furniture on porches must be designed for outdoor use and any plants that die must be promptly replaced.

Some of the rules make a bit more sense, such as:
* No more than two cars per household may be parked on the street (most houses have drives anyway).
* Trash cans can only be left out on day of collection.

And the NPs may quite like:
* The discharging of firearms on the property is banned.

Visited it when we went to Disney World. Like you say, had very much The Truman Show feel to it. There were all sorts of rules about where you could store things.

It was nice to explore. And you could explore it as it didn't run endlessly for miles in one direction, with no sidewalks. Made me realise how unvillagey most American villages actually are. Not so sure about living there long term.

Edit: reminded me of the TV series The Prisoner from the 60s too. In a good way.

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

...one of them was the extent to which it was specified how your house looked.

If you buy into an estate because of the way it looks.... then it makes sense there are regs to keep it looking like that.



As for 2/bedroom - they probably enforce that through checking online adverts for holiday homes, else you'd put in 2-3 sets of bunk beds and say it sleeps 12-16 people and rent it out.

zagubov

To be fair lot of parts of Europe including Switerland and Germany have similar rules about what curtains etc. you can use.

Celebration also reminded me a little of Center Parcs - stayed in their villages before; the one near singlesue and the one near lir and the one near Brallaqueen too. It struck me that town planners and developers could learn a lot from places like that.

PasturesNew

Just did a supermarket run, for ibuprofen.... no ice, no snow anywhere, but car dash said "Ice Alert" and it's 0 degrees - without that posh extra I'd have just thought it was cold outside.

Felt rough as a badger's once out, so didn't come home with any food for my tea. Only whoopsies were 2 bags of salad leaves (at about 80p each still) and something I was too short to see but I didn't recognise, so some funny over-priced vegetable no doubt.

PasturesNew

There was a telly programme I watched some months back - and probably wrote up somewhere on the board... it followed the building of council houses and gave the stories of the first tenants.

Tenants had to have a job/regular wage and were restricted to many similar, "good neighbour/clean living" type of "civilised human being" rules in order to keep their tenancy.... a bit different to today's sad lot that seem to mostly be the "unhousable".

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

lostinrates wrote: »

. Actually I do too sometimes.. .

LydiaJ wrote: »

Me too. I'll try to keep going with it, Hamish,.

Thanks guys.

It's not a dig at anyone in particular, more a sense of frustration that we have so many good posters on this thread that rarely if ever post on the main board any more.

Which leaves the 'signal to noise' ratio out there much the worse for it.

(Not to mention much of the posting has crossed the line into overt bigotry of late, and the board could really use another socky sweep.)