patrick.net

*unlurks*

I'm going to have to change my handle if I keep this up. Dirty washrooms:
the Globe and Mail had a series on the matter of dirty public washrooms at the beginning of the month. I'm going to tinyurl these because my other comment just got stuck in moderation:

Germs, ahoy!
It's not easy being clean. If dirty bathrooms are leaving you fuming, Mike Crosby of Irving Oil wants to share a little secret: You can find clean-toilet relief if you skip to his loo
http://tinyurl.com/n2og6

and another the same day:

Health pitfalls aplenty in public washrooms
Experts advise you to trust your eyes and nose if they're telling you 'yuck'
http://tinyurl.com/mhgmq

A tale of terrible travellers' toilets
The Globe surveys men's washrooms along Ontario's Highway 401
http://tinyurl.com/lmmv7

*relurks*

One thing that builders never offer are industrial strength kitchen ventilators that vent out.

I hate microwave/hood combo! If I buy my house I am going to throw away that microwave non-sense!

I still do not trust microwave oven. It is a voodoo oven!

Having travelled extensively in Southern Europe and Greece in the early 80's (and survived many, many outdoor festivals in the UK) I learnt the technique of squatting over the hole.

Actually, without wanting to gross anyone out, as a woman, its generally quicker to squat and pee than sit and pee on a normal western toilet. Something to do with the position you're in when squatting helps all those 'pee' muscles.

And yes, you do get thighs strong enough to crack walnuts..;-)

I want the japanese star trek toilet that sprays water on your ass.

The toto washlet. Everyone should have one.

Oh and a 2 head shower with places to sit. and no door, just glass bricks. huge.

And I want a urinal in the bathroom, and by my bed. but not too close.

I want the japanese star trek toilet that sprays water on your ass.

They were selling those in a Milpitas store that was used to be a mortgage office.

And I want a urinal in the bathroom, and by my bed. but not too close.

I want a urinal with infra-red flush. I actually saw one in the powder room of an open house.

Since women hate urinals, we need his-and-her baths or at least his-and-her water closet.

Have you ever been to Japan? Once in Nagoya I got a hotel room with what I believed was a very small shower with an unusually deep basin.

Well, Japan usually has smallish hotel rooms. Also, rooms there are usually functional but not luxurious.

If you guys want to spend that much money in bathrooms, definitely consider installing a flat screen TV and some good speakers, so you can multitask.

If you guys want to spend that much money in bathrooms, definitely consider installing a flat screen TV and some good speakers, so you can multitask.

LCD TVs in every water closet and a big one in front of the tub. :)

And I want a urinal in the bathroom, and by my bed. but not too close.

that's a chamber pot ;)

maybe have a whole bathroom ensuite inside the bedroom!

maybe have a whole bathroom ensuite inside the bedroom!

How about a bedroom ensuite inside the bathroom?

@alien and astrid,

A couple of years ago, before this & Ben's blogs got started and before I had a clear picture of the bubble, I was researching alternative construction incl. straw-bale. I figured going green and DIY might help offset the exorbitant cost of housing in CA (at the time I did not fully understand the roles of speculation, loose credit & NIMBY on prices here.)

Anyway, I ended up joining CASBA (http://www.strawbuilding.org/) and even went to their Ojai retreat in '04. I even volunteered a couple of weekends to work on a SB house in San Diego that belonged to a CASBA member, just to see what it took. Alien's not kidding --it takes a LOT of time and effort (sweat equity, as they call it). Oh, and by the time you're done paying for the CA (bubble inflated) land, paying the city/counties permits & "just because we can" review fees, plus running utilities/sewer line extensions, etc. you generally don't save all that much money.

I think it may still be worth it if you're a real pro-green, handy-man DIYer with lots of contractor friends, but it's not for novices or faint of heart. You will also get a very energy efficient house with unbeatable insulation properties vs "stick-built" conventional homes. Just don't expect it to be cheap --not in CA anyway.

What I'd really like to see is SB/green construction (which heavily use locally produced agricultural waste products vs, imported lumber & high embodied energy materials) go mainstream. It would be nice to see KB, Toll & Lennar offering SB, cordwood & cobb houses that use passive or low energy cooling/heating systems. You can also replace a lot of the sheetrock and plywood on the interior with natural fiberboard (straw, wheat, hemp, etc.).

Someday maybe...

Steel-reinforced concrete. :)

HARM,

I have no illusions about building cheap in CA. My taste runs quite modern, so adobe or strawbale or log won't work for me. If I DIY in CA, it'll be prefab modern. What I'd really like would be a well constructed co-op/condo/townhouse in a good location with a modernist interior + an urban garden plot of reasonable fertility and bylaws + some kind of amazing piece of land that I can retire to.

I know one thing I really don't want in a house - a McMansion model home look - that kind of veneer wood blandness creeps me out.

Bad, Peter P, BAAAD!! Those are environmentally destructive, high-embodied NRG products.

You must flog yourself with seaweed & loofah until such notions escape your mind. Then you should obtain an aural cleansing & herbal colonic from your local wiccan. Also, don't forget to cleanse your mind/spirit with various "medicinal" psychotropic herbs.

"Kum Bay Yah, My Lord, Kum Bay Yah..."

What about converted shipping containers? They're probably safer than steel reinforced concrete.

HARM,

I fear that nagging does not work for Peter P. You might try the argument about the bad karma associated with concrete.

There is bad karma associated with concrete? 8-O

SFWoman,

I just saw your comment about your son's climbing lessons. That sounds so fun. Maybe you could take him canyoneering next year.

http://www.canyoneeringusa.com/utah/zion/pine.htm

"There is bad karma associated with concrete? "

See what I mean : -)

Peter P Says:

> Can you teach me how to wash a cat
> without getting scratched?

Then SFWoman Says:

No

You need a shower tub combo with glass doors (a mad wet cat will tear right through a shower curtain) and one of those "shower massage" things
http://www.waterpik.com/showerheads/

Throw the cat in to the tub and close the glass door. Stand on the toilet lean over the top of the shower doors and blast the cat with liquid soap. Wash the soap out with the shower massage thing set to "turbo blast" as the cat runs around the tub trying to get away from the water.

P.S. Since I don't have a cat I don't need a shower tub combo and some day want to have a big bathroom with a separate shower and tub separated from the master bedroom by a fireplace that opens in to both the bathroom and the bedroom...

These used to be ex-SGI buildings, so I guess it was their idea of fun.

But they are G????? buildings now, right?

Peter P Says:

> Since women hate urinals, we need his-and-her
> baths or at least his-and-her water closet.

A proper garage/workshop bathroom will always have a urinal...

Aha... knew I saw it before!

Astrid: Wired did an article some time back about how the new tunneling technology from the Big Dig and other projects would make underground development much more affordable. Link: http://wired.com/wired/archive/11.04/suburb.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=

SFWoman:
I've recently gone to Berkeley Ironworks, it's the same company/coop as Mission Rocks. I think it's a much better way to stay in shape than the standard gym machines, but that's just my opinion.

requiem,

Eeeeeexcelllllleeeent!

Well, you guys got a good deal on the lease, no? Did they throw in some Herman Miller chairs too?

this is an opal mining town where 80% (?) of people live underground, by one report. Outside temperatures during the day reach 135, but inside it is naturally 75 without cooling:

Coober Pedy

there is also an abandoned spaceship there, and one guy who struck it rich opal mining has a 17 room excavated house with a swimming pool, lands his light plane on the roof, and has reused a disused mine shaft to mount a spiral staircase...

abandoned spaceship

I saw the pictures. Wow.

the spaceship would really work if it hadn't fall into disrepair. ;)

the spaceship would really work if it hadn’t fall into disrepair

I know. It needs the right crystal to power up though. I suspect opal can be made into some kind of fuel.

alien Says:
Concrete is DEFINITELY bad karma - check the carbon cycle figures out...

bring back wattle and daub!

Not much use for spaceships though.

how did you get here then?

Cabbage patch...

alright... alright... a hobbit house then! they're not making any more hillocks...
Hobbit house

today's tip: how to wash a cat

1. get an old pillow slip, aka pillow case*, and an old pyjama cord drawstring
2. get someone who can sew to stitch the drawstring into the opening of the pillow case so it will tighten
3. run the bath and get it all set up
4. get the cat, and put 'the cat in the bag', with its head outside of the bag, and gently do up the drawstring -- the cat will think it's a game up to this point
5. pick up cat in bag and put it into the bath of warm soapy(?) water -- or maybe some sort of benign shampoo -- the pillow case will get wet and stop the cat from flailing around and scratching. they tend to just sit there and take it, as they aren't being irritated by being directly wetted -- cats don't like being sprayed or rained on as the sensation makes them jumpy
6. i suppose you could rinse the cat in the bag with non-soapy water here
7. take the bound cat out of the bath and release it gingerly with the drawstring
8. try to dry it a bit with a towel if it will let you. they usually act surprised more than anything at this stage

* it could be useful to try some sort of fairly open weave permeable material here as a substitute - teatowels have been used sewn into a bag...

Note 1: i don't know if they learn to fear the bag or the bath tub if you do this a lot -- they usually keep themselves fairly clean by themselves...

Note 2: cats look a lot smaller when they are wet...

On a different note:

Fears of revenge attacks on stingrays over Irwin death

At least ten stingrays have been found dead and mutilated on Australia’s eastern coast in the last week in what conservationists believe could be revenge attacks for the death of Steve Irwin, the popular naturalist and television personality.

Irwin, known by his fans as the "Crocodile Hunter", was killed last Monday when a stingray barb pierced his chest as he filmed a new TV programme off the Great Barrier Reef. His death triggered an outpouring of grief in Australia and among thousands of admirers worldwide.
_____

I think Steve Irwin would not have wanted revenge on the critters. It's not the Croc Hunter way.

Lots of interesting ideas. I'd never actually heard of cordwood masonry. Seems to me it's one of those designs you would never get tired of looking at and would be great for 2nd home or even primary res.

For any of us that's ever been a kid straw bales just looks like fun! However, other than over the internet I've never seen one built and would prefer to get some of HARM's first hand experience before attempting?

While I doubt I would ever live in one I just can't see why more "Ag" buildings aren't built out of junk tires? Dry storage for tractors? Would livestock really mind?

One thing is for sure. As todays unsellable subdivisions become tomorrows ghost towns we will have committed a terrible, wasteful fraud. Quite possibly the biggest misallocation of resources in our history. I mean on the scale of wiping out buffalo herds. With all of the sensible alternatives out there we chose the McMansion route?

newsfreak,

I'm sure the response we'll get from the REIC is that they were only providing what the buying public wanted, namely BIG! Oh and just so I don't strike a raw nerve with Randy H, when I say "ghost towns" I suppose what I really mean is "grossly under utilized". Even in LV and Phoenix I'm sure that from 1/2 to 2/3rds will be occupied by one or more "rotational" people the unused portions of these behemoths and the energy used to keep them livable will constitute a terrible waste.

George,

Well exactly. How could we possibly have had an unprecedented boom marketing......... sensible? Never gonna happen. You mean with all of this cheap money we're gonna build........sensible?

A 1% overnight lending rate means every Joe Schmuckiteli in the country will be able to afford AT LEAST 2,000 sq. ft! (For awhile anyway).

This was a once in a lifetime window for the REIC and there was just no way they weren't going to beat on it for all it was worth!

I wish more apartments put washer/dryer in the bathroom. They always put them in the kitchen, which sucks due to noisy and heat. If they went in the bathroom, the noise would be dramatically reduced and the heat could be vented out.