Ellendra Nauriel

There's one criteria that I have on my house-building list that I've never seen on anyone else's. I call it "Operational Efficiency".

Day to day, year to year, how well does the home actually function?

For example, I'm in Wisconsin. Frozen pipes are yearly risk. That risk could be minimized by positioning plumbing fixtures so that they're on interior walls, yet every floorplan I see has more than half the fixtures on the exterior walls. Even when the person designing it has lived in Wisconsin their whole life and knows full well what happens in winter. I'm sorry to have to point this out, but that seems like a stupid way to build!

I'm told it's customary to wait to plan out the HVAC system until the house is already half-built, then force the HVAC person to work around everything. Those of you in the industry, is that really the norm? Because again, I'm sorry, but it seems like a stupid way to do things. Plan out the utilities, including HVAC, in the early stages so you can adjust things to make them run more efficiently. That also gives you a chance to plan for future safety and maintenance issues. If a water pipe leaks, how quickly will the water reach an electrical outlet? If you need to replace something, how much damage needs to be done to get to it? There are ways to plan stuff out so that the future homeowner has an easier time dealing with stuff.

I'm trying not to rant here, but I've seen some maintenance nightmares over the years. 99% of them could have been avoided in the planning stages, if the designer had been thinking ahead.

And some things could be made more efficient that aren't actually "problems", but they are daily annoyances. Most dirty laundry is produced in the bedrooms and bathrooms, right? So why is the laundry room often so far away from both? If the fridge is near an entrance, groceries won't have to be carried very far. Little details, but they contribute to the overall efficiency of the home. That might not make houses cheaper to buy, but it might make them easier to own.

Judith Browning wrote:

Maybe!  I looked at Tello's  site and like the offers.

Have you used the plan long enough to find any hidden costs or downsides?

I've been with them for over a year. No surprises yet.

"Cheshire Kitten" by SJ Tucker:



It's upbeat, but a little wonky, and describes both the burdens and joys of being "the weird girl".

Now that you've already agreed to it, what you could do is choose a price that makes it worth the trouble, then call her up and say something along the lines of "I know we talked about payment, but we didn't discuss the price. I just crunched the numbers, and each mask will be $__. Is that still something you're interested in?"

This gives her a graceful way to back out, and if she still wants them then you've chosen a price that's worth it. I strongly recommend that you NOT negotiate on the cost. This is a problem all crafters run into, and the best way to handle it is to smile and politely let them know that you're unable to do it for less.

Good luck!

For a while I was on Mint Mobile. One of the phones that works with their network has a keyboard, which was one of my requirements too. I had to switch because they didn't have coverage in any of the areas I needed it, even though their map said they did.

I'm currently using Tello, which is $7 a month. The phone I had from Mint wouldn't work with Tello's network, but they did have a phone with a built-in stylus and an on-screen keyboard. I don't know if that's luddite enough though.

I love growing beans, but don't like the taste of most dry beans. Beefy Resilient Grex is an exception. The flavor is 100% unadulterated umami. When used in a savory dish, it really does taste like beef. When used in a sweet dish, the flavor is a little harder to describe. It falls somewhere between "whey" and "almond milk", but the result is a rich, hearty undertone that doesn't clash with the topnote flavors.

I've known orchardists who used Christmas lights to protect against frost. The older incandescents worked better, but the new LED kinds still put out a little heat.

https://www.food.com/recipe/homemade-bisquick-mix-69051

Heather Sharpe wrote:When you get a UV flashlight, hoping to find the source of a cat pee smell, but then upon using it, realize it causes all sorts of other organic matter to fluoresce in interesting ways. So you end up spending half the night playing with it, looking at herbal salves, collected rainwater, wood, rocks, the composting toilet, spiders and insects, basically everything in your house other than potential locations of the smell you ostensibly got it to find...Then after seeing how neat fungus in your firewood looks with it, you start contemplating taking it out to explore the yard at night once the new moon rolls around and it's dark enough out there for it to work well...

Ok, now I have an excuse to buy a UV flashlight :)

Lauren Ritz wrote:Question for the "reuse everything" experts. I have some pans that have been sitting around for years. The "non-stick" aspect has long since passed on. They are shredded, trashed, have been used extensively with metal utensils (which is the reason we now use cast iron exclusively) so probably not good for the thrift store. That's where most of my "still good enough" junk goes.

-Sand them well to remove every trace of the coating, then season them with oil the way you would cast-iron.

-Use them to melt things that aren't food, like pine sap or soap.