Sunday, June 20, 2004
New House Checklist
Air conditioning for times when it really is needed, few though that may be so long as we remain in this area and are haunted by never-ending winters.
New House Checklist
Placement far enough from the street that car exhaust doesn’t come in through the open windows.
Saturday, June 12, 2004
New House Checklist
A pool. I have always wanted a pool.
I know, it’s a lot of work and/or expense. It’s doesn’t add its cost to the value of a property. In the matter of having a house or not, it will be entirely secondary and come later. Just thought I’d add it to the list anyway.
Thursday, June 03, 2004
New House Checklist
A robot who will run to the pharmacy and do the grocery shopping for me.
*sigh*
Back in a bit…
New House Checklist
Land. Lots of land. I know, it’s not really a “house” detail, but it’s an ambient property of a house.
I grew up in a lone house in the middle of several hundred acres, only one of which we owned because, at the time, a few hundred dollars an acre in southeastern Massachusetts was too much for my family to afford. Who knew that a few decades later it would be worth in excess of $100,000 per acre. But anyway, it still seems slightly unnatural to me for a house to have “only” an acre, and to hear a sentence like “my grandmother has a whole acre.” It seems really unnatural for there to be multiple houses per acre in massive housing farms, despite the side of me that thinks of it as efficient.
I figure this is the pipe-dreamiest of the things I am likely to list, and if there is ever a “lots of land” feature, it and the house I regularly live in will be in separate locations. Or I will have won Powerball.
New House Checklist
Access to broadband internet in some form or another. Which is funny, because I would be just as happy to have a house in the middle of nowhere on as much land as possible, and that runs counter to getting broadband easily and relatively inexpensively as things currently stand.
New House Checklist
Minimal steps to get up and into the house. Ease of putting in a ramp if needed or wanted.
New House Checklist
Good water pressure. Having our own well might be a bonus, and worth a tradeoff of pressure.
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
New House Checklist
Cabinets. Lots and lots of cabinets. Lots and lots of well-sealed cabinets.
We’ve done that one before, haven’t we?
New House Checklist
Bathroom ventilation fan systems are a Good Thing.
New House Checklist
Ceiling fans are great. They should be included wherever appropriate.
New House Checklist
Wiring. This is one of those that has been queued up in my mind to post as I went along, but I think I will combine all aspects of wiring in one wishlist.
Good electrical wiring. Gadzillions of outlets. Plenty of circuits.
Plenty of phone jacks, like one per room, even if I do avoid talking on the phone since I first did phone support.
About any other wiring that might conceivably be used any time before it becomes obsolete, including ethernet in the walls, even if left for jacks to be installed later if needed. This is how I would do a new house, at any rate.
Of course, when ubiquitous computing develops far enough, the standards will change again. The walls will incorporate computing and display elements usable on demand, and that sort of thing, but retrofitting will be a bitch and, as usual, a discontinuity in any flow toward wide adoption.
But I digress.
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
New House Checklist
No shower doors on a shower/tub combo. Ever. Period. A nice rod to put up a curtain like civilzed folk, instead.
New House Checklist
Living quarters all on one floor for the same reason we got a first floor apartment and would prefer the washer and dryer not to be in the cellar. Deb has an injury unfriendly to stairs, and I am not getting any younger.
New House Checklist
A cellar, not a slab. It’s unnatural otherwise. But if there’s no choice, then something to substitute for the space a cellar implies.
New House Checklist
Washer and dryer on the same floor as the main living space so doing laundry is easier and doesn’t require stair use by anyone.
Monday, May 31, 2004
New House Checklist
A room primarily for books. The house generally, in that room or otherwise, as spacious and well-made as possible for accomodating an expansive collection.
In this apartment, we have 1084 inches, in length, of shelf space currently devoted to books, videos and DVDs - mainly books, and another 180 inches worth using a built-in hutch/china closet.
We are hoping another 367 inches, to be purchased Real Soon Now and devoured from the one remaining book-free shelf in the place (once the plants and wizard are banished from it), will be enough for the remaining unpacked books.
This does not count that all too many of the books currently out are on their sides on top of shelves of standing books. This does count the tops of bookcases that are being used as if they were shelves.
Nor does this count that all my computer-related books are at the office, taking about one entire bookcase worth of space there. That doesn’t count books there that are not mine personally and belong to other people or were purchased by the business.
Doing the math, I get about 136 feet of shelves needed just for starters, at least, right now. Using standard 6’ high bookcases from Wal-Mart, that would line a wall 25’ long. Not that I needed to get to this state to know I wanted a “library” room in a house; I have for as long as I have been thinking of what I would want for a house, which means at least back to the age of 12 or 13.
Heh. I just realized this was a way to estimate replacement value on renter’s insurance. Throw out an average width per book, divided into the inches of shelf, times typical current retail. Or something like that. We were talking about coming up with a coverage figure for the insurance just the other day, and the books were a major consideration. But I digress.
I mentioned some non-book media on some of those shelves, and really the same thing applies. Space for that stuff, not as an afterthought.
New House Checklist
Cats.
I mean, not that we wouldn’t have them, but a gentle reminder never hurt anybody, right? *angelic grin*
Besides, it gives me an excuse to point out that the Carnival of the Cats is up.
So there you go.
New House Checklist
Closets. Lots of closets. Some of them huge. A walk-in or two even.
New House Checklist
Acceptable outflow plumbing. Adequate pitch, pipe width, etc. to avoid chronic patience or plunger usage.
New House Checklist
Hot water heater that includes a storage tank. A big one. Not some kind of “on demand” crap.
New House Checklist
Big kitchen. Lots of storage and counter space, including an island.
Sunday, May 30, 2004
New House Checklist
And now, a post to read now that you are back from seeing the incredibly funny and clever Shrek…
I declared a new feature earlier, and Deb didn’t think it sounded as insane as many of my puns. We are going to start making brief posts from time to time, as things come to mind, on what we will want or decidedly not want in a house when the time comes. Besides naturally not wanting a community or homeowner’s or whatever association; who wants an extra layer of government. Ugh.
We may or may not include an explanation or hint of what inspired any given item. Feel free to comment or not. Mainly I figure we can refer back later when we actually need to compile our accumulated thoughts and opinions. No doubt a burst of them will appear right away, as we have been running into “when we have a house...” things and mmmm...hmmming them at each other regularly these past few months.