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

[nascarpetlover]

Just outside of St. Louis, Missouri by 5 or so miles. Home of the darn best sports city in the U.S.A.. Know that should start a discussion on it's own not allowed by another group (#1). Although they would allow that is a fairly large rail hub to the west. Lou aka Lou

[spottzz]

To all, My worst steps are getting in and out of the spa. It's HOT here..........but you know.......it's a dry heat. Bill in Phoenix

[trmwf]

My brothers Mother-in-Law say "dry heat my ass - 110 degrees is still 110 degrees" Mike

[janesew]

It ain't the heat... it's the stupidity! oops, I mean humidity. Fred

[70novahound]

When I moved to Oklahoma in August of 1983, the temperature stayed above 100 degrees for thirty days straight! I know where the stupidity was, it was riding shotgun with me from the time I hooked up to the U-Haul! The locals explained to me about the three kinds of Yankees. 1. Yankee - A person from up north 2. Damn Yankee - A yankee on vacation in the south 3. F@#%ing Yankee - he has a U-Haul Sure is good to be back in PA CJ The Z~Man

[ginzokid]

We have four members who have not provided us with the location of their "digs" as of yet. You know who you are. Please respond as I really want to see the demographics of this group. Thanks. Pete

[knightofsuffolk]

OK, OK!! I'm trying to play catch up here!! Yaphank, New York. It's just about dead center on Long Island, around 60 miles East of NYC. John

[crazyd37]

We live in Northern New Jersey, Sussex County in the boro of Ogdensburg. It's one of those "if you sneeze you've passed it" 1 mile long towns. It was pretty rural 20 + years ago when I moved here, but now everything has been built up. Still, it was a great place to raise kids. DZ

[mhadsell2]

What's a basement??? I live just south of Bill (about 90 miles) in Tucson. The only basement I have ever seen is in Colorado at my brother-in-law's and it has the same footprint as the 1st floor(what a layout it would make, his upstairs is about 35 x 50. Marvon in Tucson

[70novahound]

Marvon, A basement is what floods up here in Western Pennsylvania when it rains for forty days and forty nights! CJ

[untabubba]

Funny stuff. Are basements a N.E. U.S. tradition? I can understand not having basements in coastal regions and areas with high water tables, but WHY wouldn't they be digging basements in Arizona? I can't help think that it would be at least a LITTLE cooler down there. I hear you CJ! I just left a house that flooded at the drop of a dime! AND OF COURSE the water beat a DIRECT PATH to the furnace, which would IMMEDIATELY go into emergency shut down! I can't tell you how many hours, days, nights were spent on "Water-Vac" patrol to keep the heat going!! Pulling all-nighters, calling out sick from work! Then we spent $5000 getting a French drain put in so we could SELL the place!! But a GOOD basement is a GREAT place for a "permanent" layout. Marc

[ginzokid]

The old retired architect from Arizona will now answer Marc's question about AZ basements. The soil in AZ first of all is not conducive to digging into very easily. It is full of what is called caliche, or what we called dried cement. You get it wet and it turns to a very sticky mud. When dry, it is as hard as concrete. Now this stuff also has a tremendous expansion factor when wet. So to build a basement calls for heavy reinforced concrete walls to withstand the forces that nature will put upon it. Also there is a lot of sand in other places which caves in a lot while you are trying to dig a hole. Not very economical to build below ground in AZ. Therefore, most homes are built on floating 4" thick slabs of concrete with the edges turned down about 2 feet only and thickened back about 4 feet. The whole thing just sits on top of the ground really. Without trying to get too technical, I hope this is understandable. Pete

[untabubba]

Pete, Thanks for the "edge-a-ma-cation"! Yes it was clear and concise. I figured there WAS some good reason. Those are VERY good reasons! Marc

[trmwf]

Very few basements in the far South also!

[ginzokid]

Used to design houses and other things in south Florida too guys. The big problem there was "sugar sand" which would shift and not hold the foundation of a basement, let alone the extremely low water table and the honey comb of coral under the supposed topsoil. Better a boat than a basement in Florida was the saying. Pete