Where is your home base?

[70novahound]

Just so everyone knows where the members live, lets all toss in our home towns! Ernie Miller (AKA Court Jester, "CJ", and Z~Man) Beaver Falls, PA

[untabubba]

THAT (Fla) I understood BEFOREI asked!! Can you say "SINK HOLE"!! Mr. B

[knightofsuffolk]

Here on Long Island which is really just a leftover dirtpile from the glaciers, the ground changes radically from the north shore to the south. Along the LI sound (to the north) the island is very hilly, and LOADED with rocks in the ground. As you go south, in most areas you end up with almost beach sand, another bitch to dig in, but for different reasons. I remember digging water services in spots where the outside diameter of the hole ended up at 10 feet, just to get a hole down 4 1/2 feet. Sometimes the water table would be two shovel blades under the street. Pump time. God, I hate shovels! John

[nutz2u22]

So there are other desert rats in this group. Litchfield Park, AZ. Just west of Phoenix. Nutz2u And no basement here either. A spare bedroom.

[trmwf]

Somebody has been reading all the old stuff haven't they? Good girl. Mike

[70novahound]

Even the Fearless Leader was a desert rat, now he is either Gilliginzo, an eskimo, or a moose herder, we haven't figured it out yet. Anyway, he has been everywhere but the electric chair! CJ

[ginzokid]

Wrong CJ, Been there too. They had one at the Crystal Beach Funhouse when I was a kid. You sat down on this bench and ZAP!! :O Had the old air blow up your skirt too for the girls. you always knew where to find the boys..... ;) Gramps

[trmwf]

and I thought we were rated G.

[70novahound]

That's why I love that guy, he has ridden old sparky! But have you seen the wind Dad? CJ ]:)

[ginzokid]

You must tape off the ends of your bus wires to prevent shorts if the ends touch before you store them away in your footlocker for the General Inspection at Boot Camp or under the layout, which ever comes first and his "all girl band". It has been a fun day.......... Who Am I?

[untabubba]

If I tape off the ends of my shorts they will balloon up when I......... NEVERMIND!! Mr. B ]:)

[ginzokid]

Updating this thread for the new guys. Please post a little bit about yourselves so we can get to know you better. At least tell us where you are. B-)

[connrail]

Hi guys, My CSX layout is located in New Milford, CT. I'm on the western edge of Connecticut 20 miles north of Danbury and nearly midway from top to bottom (looking at a map). A 20 minute drive west will put me into New York State on Route 22 near Pawling NY. Tommy

[ole6768]

Pete: I hate to tell you this but they don't build basements here in Arizona because 1) they cost more money and 2) 'it just isn't done' by tradition. As a civil engineer, I can tell you that architect was out of his field. In the midwest, I saw builders blasting bedrock just to build a basement. And I also saw them pumping water night and day just to pour the concrete footings for a basement. Caliche is a cemented earth material that is weak by building standards and can be ripped with moderate equipment (backhoes). Also realize that the sanitary sewers in AZ are shallow so all plumbing would hang fore-head high (at best)in your AZ basement to give you a great headache. We did have a builder put in basements (actually partially exposed) but then included the basement area in the square footage of the house -devious by most standards. But like most things, there is alot of local tradition in home building -- storm shelters in tornado alley, those 'pantry' rooms in Utah, no basements in AZ. Oh yes, my neighbors house has an exposed partial basement but the builder was from Wisconsin. Lee in Tucson

[ginzokid]

Lee, You are preaching to the choir. I was an architect in Phoenix for the last 18 years of my practice. Although I never designed any basement homes there, or in Florida where I worked before AZ, there were several projects in Phoenix that were basement homes. Most of these were a problem with the egress requirements of the UBC so they had very deep window wells in the basement that amounted to basically 5' sliders and a 3' wide well with ladder and swing up top grate. Then it became a problem for water drainage in these wells. The builders of these homes usually did one project and then went out of business. The engineering of the basement walls was too expensive for housing. And as you said about the sewers, I believe the builder also had to spring for a lift station. Here on the rock, every house involves blasting to make a basement. They try to get below the frost line with the basement floor. There is very little top soil here. Just rock. B-)

[dl85vette]

Greenwood,Nova Scotia,Canada home of apple orchards and inbred curbside-shoppers. Get me outta here! Dave ;\