Odd Things You Have Noticed

[Rianne]

I find it odd anyone would buy a house where the driveway goes down. Our neighbors across the street have gone through hell and back with that driveway creating floods and water damage in their house. They deal with mold too. They’ve spent 10’s of thousands buying multiple sump pumps and had rerouting ditches dug to have the water move away from the house. The wife practically has a breakdown when severe rain is predicted.

[Amethyst]

Doesn't just look horrible. It can create terrible drainage issues in a TH development - where the lots are already made of compacted dirt - and reflects a lot of heat back onto the buildings. I'm surprised the TH HOA allows it.

Possibly the extra cars belong to long-term "guests," a.k.a. temporarily homeless friends or relatives. Especially when a TH has a finished basement, it's like a magnet to subletters.

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Galt III LOL, related to that, many of my neighbors in our townhome development took to paving over their entire front yards( which I think looks horrible, but that's just my humble opinon) in order to have an extra parking space. And yes, probably more cars than people living in the residence.

a

[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rianne I find it odd anyone would buy a house where the driveway goes down. Our neighbors across the street have gone through hell and back with that driveway creating floods and water damage in their house. They deal with mold too. They’ve spent 10’s of thousands buying multiple sump pumps and had rerouting ditches dug to have the water move away from the house. The wife practically has a breakdown when severe rain is predicted.

My parents rented one when I was a kid.
Sure there was a drain at the bottom, and we always had to clean it out or get flooded.
It was also hard to push the snow uphill when shoveling.
Once winter dad came home and on the snowy driveway when he went to stop, the car slid down the driveway and through the garage door.

I'll NEVER move into a house like that.

[Alectoris]

All this talk about fancy garages....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhbJnlIvfyc

[CardsFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rianne I find it odd anyone would buy a house where the driveway goes down. Our neighbors across the street have gone through hell and back with that driveway creating floods and water damage in their house. They deal with mold too. They’ve spent 10’s of thousands buying multiple sump pumps and had rerouting ditches dug to have the water move away from the house. The wife practically has a breakdown when severe rain is predicted.

I guess it all depends on what you mean that the driveway goes down. Back 20 years ago we built a house on a lake. The house was at least 20 feet below street level. The drive wrapped around some so it was not so steep, and we had a 3 car garage.. The builder sloped the drive properly everything went away from the house, to the side, then down. Never had water in the garage or the basement.

So, a properly placed and built home can have no problems.

On the other side, I once looked at a home back in central MA (1985?). The basement had running water. Literally, running across the floor, on a sunny day.

[jollystomper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rianne I find it odd anyone would buy a house where the driveway goes down. Our neighbors across the street have gone through hell and back with that driveway creating floods and water damage in their house. They deal with mold too. They’ve spent 10’s of thousands buying multiple sump pumps and had rerouting ditches dug to have the water move away from the house. The wife practically has a breakdown when severe rain is predicted.

You reminded me of when we moved to our current area and were looking at houses. One was one we really liked, a two level ranch style house with lots of room. I remember especially the walkout basement was finished with several room areas that one could use for various things. BUT... the house was below street level, and the driveway sloped straight directly down from the street to the garage, no curves. No evidence of a drain in the driveway or in the garage. We saw it on a sunny, dry day and that basement smelled musty. The price was good, but we decided to pass on it.

[MRG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rianne I find it odd anyone would buy a house where the driveway goes down. Our neighbors across the street have gone through hell and back with that driveway creating floods and water damage in their house. They deal with mold too. They’ve spent 10’s of thousands buying multiple sump pumps and had rerouting ditches dug to have the water move away from the house. The wife practically has a breakdown when severe rain is predicted.

Depends. Ours is lower than the road but it's on the edge of a canyon that drops a couple hundred feet just behind our house. YMMV.

[zedd]

Live in a rural area. Local custom is to park vehicles, equipment, furniture, etc. inside the property owner's fence but near the road. If it's parked there, it's for sale.

[Rianne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jollystomper You reminded me of when we moved to our current area and were looking at houses. One was one we really liked, a two level ranch style house with lots of room. I remember especially the walkout basement was finished with several room areas that one could use for various things. BUT... the house was below street level, and the driveway sloped straight directly down from the street to the garage, no curves. No evidence of a drain in the driveway or in the garage. We saw it on a sunny, dry day and that basement smelled musty. The price was good, but we decided to pass on it.

This is like my neighbors. 3000 sq ft house with finished basement and a wall between the garage and the basement, living room, bathroom and I think an extra bedroom. The driveway...straight down into the garage, thus water flow into the finished part. The HVAC system is right there too. And the snow and ice. Why do they even build houses that way? Makes no sense.

[mickeyd]

Sinclair Oil Company has (had?) as a mascot a cute dinosaur. I don't even know if they are still in business. I just associated the fact that "fossil fuel" refers to the remains of dinosaurs. Thus the link.

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mickeyd Sinclair Oil Company has (had?) as a mascot a cute dinosaur. I don't even know if they are still in business. I just associated the fact that "fossil fuel" refers to the remains of dinosaurs. Thus the link.

There's still some out there!

https://www.sinclairoil.com/customers/locations

[Gumby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mickeyd Sinclair Oil Company has (had?) as a mascot a cute dinosaur. I don't even know if they are still in business. I just associated the fact that "fossil fuel" refers to the remains of dinosaurs. Thus the link.

Mickey: Here is a picture of my garage, with a Sinclair sign in it (and two cars)

[Walt34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mickeyd Sinclair Oil Company has (had?) as a mascot a cute dinosaur. I don't even know if they are still in business. I just associated the fact that "fossil fuel" refers to the remains of dinosaurs. Thus the link.

Here are two examples. That's me, circa 1963, riding one of them.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walt34 Here are two examples. That's me, circa 1963, riding one of them.

You were a cute kid, Walt!! Love the smile.

[John Galt III]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amethyst Doesn't just look horrible. It can create terrible drainage issues in a TH development - where the lots are already made of compacted dirt - and reflects a lot of heat back onto the buildings. I'm surprised the TH HOA allows it. Possibly the extra cars belong to long-term "guests," a.k.a. temporarily homeless friends or relatives. Especially when a TH has a finished basement, it's like a magnet to subletters. a

No HOA here, which is OK with me. With the exception of the paving craze, people are maintaining their properties well. Some have planted their front lawns with ferns, artistic rock formations, native grasses, etc, which looks good, imho. But, yes, the paving craze was a real thing. My very own neighbor wanted to do it, and I let her know there were zoning rules that prevent her from paving within 3 feet of my property line. Boy, was she enraged that I pointed that out! Apparently lots of the 'nice' neighbors (not me, I guess, lol) just let their neighbor go ahead and pave away. And as far as I know, no one had to tear it up due to a zoning violation. ie, if no one complains, zoning doesn't care about enforcing its own rules, lol. This issue really bothered me since I am all for people doing whatever they want with their own property, but the paving thing was just way out of line. I hate that it has strained my relationship with my neighbor, but I couldn't have lived with myself had I let her do it.

[Amethyst]

I think I read where they have exhibits like that at the Noah's Ark museum. Kids can pretend to be cave men riding dinosaurs, the way it was 6,000 years ago!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walt34 Here are two examples. That's me, circa 1963, riding one of them.

[Amethyst]

Back in our old neighborhood of 3-5 acre lots, we scratched our heads when every neighbor put up one of those costly wooden swingset/ladder/playhouse/gym sets, and we never saw or heard kids playing on them. One neighbor installed a fabulous pool/fountain/waterfall landscape, plus a sport court with two basketball hoops. They had one son, who never used these wonderful amenities except a couple of times when he had college friends over.

[jollystomper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amethyst Back in our old neighborhood of 3-5 acre lots, we scratched our heads when every neighbor put up one of those costly wooden swingset/ladder/playhouse/gym sets, and we never saw or heard kids playing on them.

At our previous house, when we were in our 20s, we had an older neighbor down the street with one of these. He did it for when his grandkids visited, even though we only saw them a couple of times a year (they may have come more often, we only noticed it that frequently). When he retired and moved he gave it to us for our kids to use (who were then emerging from the toddler stage).

[Amethyst]

Our neighborhood didn't have many grandparents. But they apparently had money to throw away!

Quote:

Originally Posted by jollystomper At our previous house, when we were in our 20s, we had an older neighbor down the street with one of these. He did it for when his grandkids visited, even though we only saw them a couple of times a year (they may have come more often, we only noticed it that frequently). When he retired and moved he gave it to us for our kids to use (who were then emerging from the toddler stage).

[Amethyst]

Thinking of swing sets reminds me of another odd thing about people. An early experience with middle-class snobbery.

My dad was good at building things out of stuff he had around. He built me a swing set out of heavy-duty aluminum pipe set into cast concrete, with swings made of boards hung on extremely heavy rope. One of the swings was a real tire from one of our cars. It was without a doubt the sturdiest swing set in the neighborhood, and I had a lot of fun with it. But I remember some other kids sneering at it because it wasn't painted, hadn't come from the store, and the tire was "dirty." (Being actual rubber, it left black marks).

Kids aren't even supposed to care about such things, so it had to have come from their parents.